Node-RED benefits

Let's think a little here. Why do you use cars? I think the answer is very simple and clear. First of all, we can come up with the answer that they are used as a means of transportation in a broad sense. There are other options for transportation, such as walking, bicycle, train, and bus. Then, we have the reasons for choosing a car from among these other options, as follows:

• You do not get exhausted.
• You can reach your destination quickly.
• You can move at your own pace.
• You can keep your personal space.

Of course, there are some disadvantages, but I think these are the main reasons for using a car. Although other means of transportation can also serve the same purpose, the important thing is to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each, and use the car as a transportation tool for the reason that you feel is the most suitable to you.

We can see the same situation in software. As an example, why do you use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint? You'll probably use Word because it's the most efficient way to write a document. However, you could use a word processor separately or handwrite anything. Similarly, instead of Excel, you can use any other means to make spreadsheets. There are also other means if you want to make presentation materials and make them look effective, besides PowerPoint. However, you are likely to choose the optimum tool for your situation.

Let's recall what Node-RED is for. It is a FBP tool, suitable for making data control applications for web applications and IoT. Its development environment and execution environment are browser-based applications made with Node.js, which makes their development as easy as possible.

So, what is the reason for using Node-RED, which provides these kinds of features? Do you want to avoid heavy coding? Do you not have coding skills? Yes, of course, these are also reasons to use the program.

Let's recall the example of a car. In a broad sense, our dilemma (transportation) is replaced here by developing (creating) a Node.js application for describing software tools. The transport options, such as cars, bicycles, trains, buses, ships, planes, and so on, are options, and with software development, we also have numerous options, such as using Node.js scratch, or using various frameworks of Node.js and using Node-RED. As for reasons to choose Node-RED, let's take a look at some essential points.

Simplification

When programming with Node-RED, you'll notice its simplicity. As the name no-code/low-code indicates, coding is eliminated and programming is intuitively completed with a minimal number of operations needing to be used.

Efficiency

The FBP typified by Node-RED can be completed with almost only GUI operations. Node-RED flow editor takes care of building the application execution environment, library synchronization, the integrated development environment (IDE), and editor preparation so that you can concentrate on development.

Common

As represented by object-oriented development, making the source code a common component is one of the most important ideas in development. In normal coding-based development, each common component exists in functions and classes, but in Node-RED, they exist as an easy-to-understand node (just a box). If you don't have a node as a common component you want to use, anyone can create one immediately and publish it to the world.

High quality

High quality is the true value of flow-based and visual programming. Each node provided as a component is a complete module that has been unit tested. As a result, app authors can focus on checking the operation at the join level without worrying about the contents of node. This is a big factor that eliminates human error at the single level and ensures high quality.

Open source

Node-RED is an open source piece of software. Therefore, it can be used flexibly under the Apache2 license. Some are developing their own services based on Node-RED, while others are changing to their own UI and deploying it as built-in. As we mentioned previously, we have also established a platform where we can publish our own developed node so that anyone can use it.

Node-RED library

The library indexes all Node-RED modules published to the public npm repository (https://www.npmjs.com/), assuming they follow the proper packaging guidelines.

This is the area in which we've seen the most community contribution, with well over 2,000 nodes available – which means there's something for everyone:

Figure 1.5 – Node-RED library

Various platforms

Node-RED can be used on various platforms. That's because Node-RED itself is a Node.js application, as we mentioned previously. If you have a runtime environment for Node.js, you can run it. It is mostly used on Edge devices, cloud services, and in embedded formats.

You can get a sense of this by understanding the relationship between Node-RED and IoT and the architecture of IoT, which will be explained in the next section.