# Out-of-The-Box CI/CD Automation

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/out-of-the-box-ci-cd-automation/13948>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [2 August 2019 18:23 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/out-of-the-box-ci-cd-automation/13948 "2019-08-02T18:23:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![leftShark2019](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@leftShark2019](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/leftShark2019)\
**Post date:** [2 August 2019 18:23 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/out-of-the-box-ci-cd-automation/13948/1 "2019-08-02T18:23:35Z")

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Hello,

Does anyone know if there are any out-of-the-box tools that can hook into Node-RED's flow import/export function for continuous delivery? It doesn't need to be related to any devOps instances.

If someone could point out some useful resources to reference regarding the Node-RED IDE so I could try building my own, I'd appreciate that as well.

**Edit**

Any suggestions on how to hook node-RED flow deployment into a devops environment where we can run tests against it and potentially deploy, or at least copy the node-red flow into an environment that allows us to do the same thing.

Basically I'm wondering if we can change the direction of the "Deploy" button into both sending flows to devops and displaying them (or something similar).

For a better idea of what continuous deployment entails, see the following:

[https://www.atlassian.com/blog/continuous-delivery/practical-continuous-deployment](https://www.atlassian.com/blog/continuous-delivery/practical-continuous-deployment)

> **[How to get to Continuous Deployment | Atlassian](https://www.atlassian.com/continuous-delivery/continuous-deployment)**
>
> Move from continuous integration to continuous deployment with these six strategies.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![leftShark2019](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@leftShark2019](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/leftShark2019)\
**Post date:** [5 August 2019 14:09 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/out-of-the-box-ci-cd-automation/13948/2 "2019-08-05T14:09:03Z")

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I am aware I should probably be searching on GitHub to start, so I'm doing a dive there presently.

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**Author:** ![cymplecy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/cymplecy/32/2773_2.png) [@cymplecy](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/cymplecy)\
**Post date:** [5 August 2019 14:14 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/out-of-the-box-ci-cd-automation/13948/3 "2019-08-05T14:14:59Z")

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> [@leftShark2019](#):
>
> Does anyone know if there are any out-of-the-box tools that can hook into Node-RED's flow import/export function for continuous delivery?

Could you explain your requirement in simpler language?

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**Author:** ![Colin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/colin/32/17040_2.png) [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)\
**Post date:** [7 August 2019 20:09 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/out-of-the-box-ci-cd-automation/13948/4 "2019-08-07T20:09:38Z")

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Apparently not.

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**Author:** ![knolleary](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/knolleary/32/3_2.png) [@knolleary](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/knolleary)\
**Post date:** [7 August 2019 22:05 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/out-of-the-box-ci-cd-automation/13948/5 "2019-08-07T22:05:28Z")

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Hi @leftShark2019

I wrote a couple blog posts on this topic last year - [https://knolleary.net/2018/06/01/creating-a-node-red-deployment-pipeline-to-ibm-cloud/](https://knolleary.net/2018/06/01/creating-a-node-red-deployment-pipeline-to-ibm-cloud/)

The basic model is to use the [Projects feature in Node-RED](https://nodered.org/docs/user-guide/projects/) within your development environment. This gives you a git-backed project where you can commit changes to the flow files as you would regular source files. You can then push those changes to a remote repo and trigger whatever CI/CD you want on the back of it.

This, in my opinion, is preferable to tying something to the Deploy button, as you still need to develop/test locally without triggering CI everytime you hit Deploy - just as you wouldn't trigger CI every time you saved a file.

I've no doubt there are improvements to be made to this workflow, but the Projects feature gives the basic starting point.

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**Author:** ![IoTPlay](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/iotplay/32/40_2.png) [@IoTPlay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/IoTPlay)\
**Post date:** [8 August 2019 05:27 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/out-of-the-box-ci-cd-automation/13948/6 "2019-08-08T05:27:32Z")

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I strugled to get my head around Projects, and wrote the below for myself to get it. Using Projects a lot. The write-up has been done a yr ago, maybe some stuff to be refreshed...

> <https://github.com/IoTPlay/docker-iotplay-standards/blob/master/README/READ11-nodered_Projects.md>

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![leftShark2019](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@leftShark2019](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/leftShark2019)\
**Post date:** [8 August 2019 20:17 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/out-of-the-box-ci-cd-automation/13948/7 "2019-08-08T20:17:57Z")

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> **[Creating a Node-RED deployment pipeline to IBM Cloud · knolleary](https://knolleary.net/2018/06/01/creating-a-node-red-deployment-pipeline-to-ibm-cloud/)**
>
> Node-RED has been available in the IBM Cloud catalog since the early days of what was then known as IBM Bluemix. Provided as a boilerplate application, it gives a really quick and easy way to get s...

> **[How can we deploy a Node-Red flow automatically from CF CLI?](https://developer.ibm.com/answers/questions/26084/how-can-we-deploy-a-node-red-flow-automatically-from-cf-cli/)**
>
> Hi, I am able to deploy Node-Red app automatically from CF CLI. 
> But I haven't found any doc about how to include existing flows.
>   
> When I download the code from Bluemix with some flows already deployed, I don't find them anywhere in any downloaded...