# Node vs Subflow Node implementation research

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/node-vs-subflow-node-implementation-research/98012>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [7 July 2025 18:49 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/node-vs-subflow-node-implementation-research/98012 "2025-07-07T18:49:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 13

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gregorius](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/gregorius/32/73816_2.png) [@gregorius](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/gregorius)\
**Post date:** [10 July 2025 10:16 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/node-vs-subflow-node-implementation-research/98012/13 "2025-07-10T10:16:55Z")

</div>

> [@ThingsTinkerer](#):
>
> unit test interface for that thing!

Yes and a collection of [flows](https://github.com/gorenje/erlang-red-flow-testsuite) (a bit scrolling on that page) that test or better said verify the basis functionality of the core nodes. So that when I implement Erlang-Red I can verify that its behaviour matches that of Node-RED. For regression testing these tests aren't too bad either 😉

Of course, it would be great if these test flows became an "official" Node-RED thing so that development both on Erlang-Red and Node-RED is testable and regression safe. Plus it would be a good way to "standardise" the set of core nodes that make up Node-RED. A kind of visual RFC/IEEE collection 😉

Btw the unit test nodes are also available for [Node-RED](https://flows.nodered.org/node/@gregoriusrippenstein/erlang-red-unittest) and should pretty much work as they do in Erlang-Red.

EDIT: for those that know my [software license](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/star-rating-flows-nodered-org-how-useful-is-it/93010/17) and dislike it, I did change the license of Erlang-Red to be [gpl-3](https://github.com/gorenje/erlang-red/commit/b4c4dd49a611a0b445eef4f06cdaed7af75b133f) so it's now "safe" for large corporation to use.

---

_[View the full topic](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/node-vs-subflow-node-implementation-research/98012)._