What is the right or best way?

[questrov]

I've done this several ways (different every time) and basically poke till it works but think not 'the right way'. How should it be done?

In this case we have a sensor spitting out the string {"speed":0,"direction":301}

Run it thru a json node and we get
object
speed: 8.1
direction: 180

From there I can split or sort to get a gauge but it feels like that's not the correct solution...

[questrov]

Did the homework, came up with this. Many thanks to previous posts!

Simple (once you figure it out) set the mqtt node output to a parsed JSON object then {{msg.payload.speed}} for the value format in gauge.

[{"id":"bc56177d.74aa18","type":"tab","label":"Flow 1","disabled":false,"info":""},{"id":"130a5646.78895a","type":"mqtt in","z":"bc56177d.74aa18","name":"","topic":"anemometer/five_second_avg","qos":"2","datatype":"json","broker":"59511bc6.baa294","nl":false,"rap":true,"rh":0,"x":410,"y":540,"wires":[["56bc69f9.f74c58","99ee3a89.6ea428","536d3358.6f2a7c"]]},{"id":"56bc69f9.f74c58","type":"debug","z":"bc56177d.74aa18","name":"","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"false","statusVal":"","statusType":"auto","x":710,"y":500,"wires":[]},{"id":"99ee3a89.6ea428","type":"ui_gauge","z":"bc56177d.74aa18","name":"Speed","group":"27899de0.e78e22","order":2,"width":0,"height":0,"gtype":"gage","title":"Windspeed","label":"MPH","format":"{{msg.payload.speed}}","min":0,"max":"100","colors":["#00b500","#e6e600","#ca3838"],"seg1":"","seg2":"","x":690,"y":540,"wires":[]},{"id":"536d3358.6f2a7c","type":"ui_gauge","z":"bc56177d.74aa18","name":"Speed","group":"27899de0.e78e22","order":2,"width":0,"height":0,"gtype":"compass","title":"Windspeed","label":"Degrees","format":"{{msg.payload.direction}}","min":0,"max":"360","colors":["#00b500","#e6e600","#ca3838"],"seg1":"","seg2":"","x":690,"y":580,"wires":[]},{"id":"59511bc6.baa294","type":"mqtt-broker","name":"","broker":"localhost","port":"1883","clientid":"","usetls":false,"protocolVersion":"3","keepalive":"60","cleansession":true,"birthTopic":"","birthQos":"0","birthPayload":"","birthMsg":{},"closeTopic":"","closeQos":"0","closePayload":"","closeMsg":{},"willTopic":"","willQos":"0","willPayload":"","willMsg":{},"sessionExpiry":""},{"id":"27899de0.e78e22","type":"ui_group","name":"Weather","tab":"7d7bbe46.42567","order":3,"disp":true,"width":"6","collapse":false},{"id":"7d7bbe46.42567","type":"ui_tab","name":"Data","icon":"dashboard","disabled":false,"hidden":false}]