I am a newbie in Node-RED, but I find it really useful and working in the enviroment seems to be simple. I want to automate a system using Node-Red, ESP32, and React native.
My current approach is that Esp32 would communicate with Node-Red and React Native would communicate with Node-Red red and the system would as soo.
I need suggestions and what could be improved in the following approach. Thanks!
There are various options, either websockets or http-in/out handling.
This is simplified and does not take security into account, which is a different can of worms. Do not open ports towards the internet, unless you know what you are doing.
Hi, maybe look at UIBUILDER. While it is not specific to REACT Native, you might find that you don't even need that since you can create pretty good, offline capable mobile apps using pure web tooling. Paul-Reed started a thread on using UIBUILDER as a progressive web app recently and that is what you need.
UIBUILDER works with any - or no - framework. It provides all the links and comms you need between the clients and Node-RED.
You can also create dedicated REST API's using UIBUILDER if you want to go down the REACT Native route.
I would certainly recommend starting with just a web page if you haven't done anything like this before. It will take out all the additional complexities of the "Native" parts and focus on the UI and comms.
The question here i really trying to ask is that the approch i am following , Is the approch correct or do i need to add another stack as well?
Well, personally, I wouldn't use REACT Native. But then I don't use REACT and I don't do mobile dev so I don't have the toolchains available.
As I say, my view would be to start a bit simpler and see if a native PWA web app wouldn't meet your requirements.
I would do MCP interfacing using MQTT throughout. Node-RED can still be the orchestrator but MQTT would be the glue. This ensures ongoing flexibility around connectivity and device choice.
I certainly would not use websockets for device interfaces, it isn't reliable enough. You would also be reinventing protocols that MQTT already takes care of.
