Why is node red not recognized as Low Code Platform?

Industrial
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I have done market research on Low Code / No Code Platforms. If have seen different list with providers like Mendix, Betty Blocks and OutSystems. Why is Node Red not considered as being a no code/low code platform? As far as I can see does it have all components to be THE OPEN SOURCE platform for Low Code / No Code. Do I miss something?

I would appreciate your feedback.

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I think the question is, who made those lists? :wink: If you do a quick google search like "low code programming open source", Node-RED is on the first page (at least for me).

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The low code platforms that you describe there all have a database option and multi user development and applications as option. Where node is still more a low code integration platform. I am not following all the dashboard developments. But they are growing closer to each other.

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As well as the other excellent answers, maybe "follow the money" applies here as well? Who made the lists and what did they have to gain - or at least, what was their angle.

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I think in part it's the origins, from my view it started out as IoT enablement platform and as such it's brilliant for integration and business logic/process development. Mendix etal come from trad app/enterprise perspective aimed at your biz analyst, savvy end user for those with a long memory it's like visual basic M$ access.

What I think limits in that comparison is NR isn't as rich in the Front-End/Native mobile app arena/ multi user roles/ACLs etc. It will be interesting to see if this is an area where FlowForge head.

BTW I've just started to explore appsmith.com low-code Front-End with NR to do Backoffice type stuff. I think appsmith & retool.com are examples of what enterprises etc are looking for user facing App dev.

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Well, if someone could connect something like appsmith to Node-RED via uibuilder, we would have the best of every world! Node-RED as the data manager, appsmith as the ui creator and uibuilder as the glue :grinning:

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Even the RaspberryPi Org is reluctant to give much press to node-red. several us were asking for a bit of representation within the coding forums there for javascript and node-red. we were met with reluctance from the forum admins. However, upon searching, i did find that there was a node-red tutorial mentioned in their blog some time ago.

I would think NodeRED has got to be the most capable low code solution available for the pi... especially in terms of being a good IoT glue.... much better than the scratch and blocky stuff they use for low code training.

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Yes. Sadly they are mainly following the python path so hard to get traction for anything else. Also Debian not managing nodejs well really doesn’t help.

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In fairness to the RPi Foundation folks, I would suggest that they are in a bit of a bind here. There is no question that NR is far superior to the low-code stuff being pushed on the Pi. On the other hand, for all its flaws, python is acceptable as a first language for beginning programmers, while (IMHO) JavaScript is a complete disaster as a teaching tool. </rant>

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I would have to agree that JavaScript isn't a good first written language. And it appears to me that it is getting worse not better on that front. With new language constructs coming out in each new annual "release" it is getting to the point where some of the concepts are only suitable for full-time experts.

Not that Python hasn't had its fair share of that problem. But in terms of basic concepts, Python is much easier to learn in my view. Operationally, I'd say that Node.js is far better than Python to run and manage.

Unfortunately, Node.js/JavaScript falls woefully behind Python when it comes to data manipulation and analysis.

I would never use Debians packages for anything that has a rapid update cycle and I don't think anyone would. Debian is great for stability not updates. Much better to use the dedicated NodeSource packages.

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Valid point. I was surprised that during conferences people have been asked if there was an open source alternative that they all see NO. I have been involved in Asterisk Open Source PBX and have seen the same over there. No one officially was using it but the whole industry did. I have to admit that I have not been using the search you suggest. I took more the approach "open source alternative for ...." I tried your suggestion and I am pleased with the result.

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You are right. Thanks for your reply. I started using node red as a handy tool to create Proof of Concepts. I like the graphical part to be able to explain the PoC to customers. I normally use a backend to create the deep integration and amqp to create the connection between the backend and node red. For some I used the dashboard as a GUI.

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Thanks for pointing to appsmith en retool. I will have a look at what they offer.

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Thanks for your comment. I personally need to have voice integration and started creating a kind of integration to Asterisk. Believe that the way forward would be to combine as much as possible existing open source projects to create an environment that fulfills they requirement.

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I started using Node Red before it was included in the standard PI software. My first thought was that this would give a boost to the popularity of Node Red. Unfortunately it did not happen as far I can see.

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I have been playing with the python function to overcome this issue. I am not sure if I will continue doing.

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I would like to add something ...

I truly believe that Node-RED is one of those "products" which don't really need marketing. Of course, you could speed things up with active marketing but it's just a matter of time until more people in other industries (and education) will notice. So maybe Node-RED is not on those lists (yet) because nobody is trying hard enough to get it there, which is okay.

And if you read Nick’s blog post about the future of Node-RED, you will notice that the core team is very well aware of what needs to be done / implemented. After all, it's an open-source project, yet I am stunned by the quality and the pace it's evolving.

Until then, Node-RED will be that hidden gem.

On a side node note: Javascript may not be the best invention, but it will not go away so quickly, same as for example SQL. Isn't Node-RED a low code tool? One day javascript might be replaced by Rust and you won’t even notice it (buahhaha).

Happy Weekend everybody!

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Appsmith and FlowForge sounds like a match made in hell heaven :laughing: (sorry, lack of sleep)

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If your going OS appsmith might be more your choice but it's has range of dependences, redis & postgres etc. I'm using the free cloud tier for experimenting and surfacing Node-RED data via REST & Json.

When pointing a table widget at my JSON it auto populates cols names from keys and you as you expect set paging sizes for big data set's & use JS for user UI events.

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Julian I did wonder about that.