Start learning Nodered

General
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Dears
I need your advice for how to stat to learn Nodered especially I have never study any programming language before also I have no idea about the programming languages which one the best to use with raspberry pi to make APIs and IOT.
If you can send me useful links will be highly appreciated

Thank you in advance

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Node-RED is a great place to start. It will let you minimise any programming while allowing you to construct logic by stringing nodes together.

Ultimately though, you are going to want to learn some coding. Node-RED is based on Node.js which is JavaScript. JavaScript is the language of the web, Node.js allows you to use JavaScript as a server (back-end) language. That means you learn 1 language for both utility/server and front-end (browser, client) programming.

That said, while Node-RED hides as much programming from you as possible, JavaScript isn't the easiest beginners language. Python is often used as a starter language. Actually, you can use Python with Node-RED as well if not as integrated. There is also a node for Node-RED that lets you use Blockly for programming. Blockly is another form of visual programming that will help lead you into the world of programming very simply.

There are lots of courses and tutorials for Node-RED, a quick search will turn up several that are worth having a go at to see what suits you - there are so many ways to learn, it is hard to pinpoint a single recommendation.

The main thing is to try and come up with a simple-ish idea that you would like to implement that will tweak your interest and will act as a catalyst for your learning. For example, perhaps you would like to have a sensor to measure temperature and humidity around the house? Or maybe you would like to sense movement in the house, create an automated plant watering system, detect when your washing machine has finished? All of these you will find as examples on the Internet and all can use Node-RED to help orchestrate things.

If not IoT then perhaps a simple web page to gather the latest weather in your area, pull out some key elements and display them. All again very straight-forwards with Node-RED and you will certainly find examples of these right here in the forum or on the flows site that is linked above.

Find an idea, break it down into parts then try to work out how to implement each part.

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Hang out here. Ask questions. Share what you're trying to do and folks will probably help you out. I recommend starting by just browsing around to see what other are doing.

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And this is a good basic introduction to the main features of Node-RED

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As the others mentioned there are a log of good tutorials and examples to follow. See how far you can get with node-red with out coding ... a goal I have is minimize usage of the function node (for adding custom code) and seeing how far I can get using the change and switch nodes.

If you want to start getting your feet wet with Javascript (i.e. enough to copy and customize a function node) ... a potential place to start is the Code Academy course: https://www.codecademy.com/ you can get pretty far in a couple of hours.

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Hi @mustafa
I tutor an after school IoT Computer Club here in the UK for 11-13 year-old students.
My students use WeMos D1 Mini (ESP8266 based microcontroller) mounted on breadboards that 'talk' via MQTT (and WiFi) to a set of Raspberry Pi(es) running Node-RED.

One of the 'neat' things about Node-RED is you can start by linking simple things together 'graphically' and then try writing some JavaScript. Beware - - it's very addictive!!

Let me know what equipment you have, so I can sort out which tutorials I have that might be useful to get you started.

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I find the best way to learn any platform is to have a problem to solve or have project in mind.

I often find it's not enough to "want to learn" - many people want to learn to program but after a few docs or tutorials they feel they're getting nowhere and give up.

So my question is , do you have a specific problem you want to solve?

If so, you're halfway there.

Next step...
Install node-red, read a beginner's guide, try to solve it yourself then when you're stuck, post screenshots and your flow - if you put the effort in, to solve it yourself but get stuck, you'll find this forum to be one of the absolute best.

Top tips...

  • Add debug nodes after EVERYTHING so you can understand what's happening.
  • Search this forum and the Node-red flows
  • Try things. Don't be afraid to make mistakes - a failure is only a failure if you fail to learn from it.
  • Make use of MQTT. Is not difficult and you will soon see the benefits.

Good luck.

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You will learn a lot if you try each one of the flows from here:

https://cookbook.nodered.org/

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