UIBUILDER FOR Node-RED

UIBUILDER for Node-RED allows the easy creation of data-driven front-end web applications.

It includes many helper features that can reduce or eliminate the need to write code for building data-driven web applications and user interfaces integrated with Node-RED.

Installation

UIBUILDER is best installed using Node-RED's Palette Manager.

Compatibility of current release

• Servers:
  • Node-RED: v4+
  • Node.js: v18+ LTS (matches Node-RED v4+ requirements)
  • Platforms: Linux, Windows, MacOS, Raspberry Pi, Docker, FlowFuse, etc.
• Browsers:
  • CSS - 0.12% or above of global usage but not Internet Explorer (ref.). The uncompiled CSS should work in all current mainstream browsers. The compiled CSS (uib-brand.min.css) should work in browsers back to early 2019, possibly before. Enforced by LightningCSS.
  • JavaScript - ES6+ so should work in all current mainstream browsers. The compiled JS (uibuilder.min.{iife|esm}.js) should work in browsers back to early 2019, possibly before. Enforced by ESBuild. Script (IIFE) and Module (ESM) versions are provided.

Updates

The current CHANGELOG contains all of the changes and requirement details for each version.

Older changes can be found in the previous change documents: CHANGELOG-V5, CHANGELOG-V5, CHANGELOG-V3/V4, CHANGELOG-v2, and CHANGELOG-v2.

Getting started

Once installed, The following is a typical simple flow to get going.

1. Add a uibuilder node. Open its settings and give it a "URL" which is used as the identifying name. Close the settings and click on the Deploy button.
2. Re-open the uibuilder node's settings and click the "Open" button to see the resulting web page.

You are now ready to edit the front-end html/javascript/css if you wish and to add logic in Node-RED to provide inputs and handle outputs. You can also use UIBUILDER's no-code features to create your UI as well or instead.

Please see the First-timers walkthrough in the documentation and the Introduction Video for more help to get started. Also try out the built-in example flows.

Examples

Within Node-RED, use the hamburger menu. Click Import. Click Examples. Select the node-red-contrib-uibuilder folder and choose an example.

The templates feature in UIBUILDER provides working front-end code of various configurations.

Other examples can be found on the Node-RED Flows site and the UIBUILDER WIKI. Also see the UIBUILDER tag on the Node-RED Forum.

Documentation and other links

Please refer to the Documentation web site. This can also be accessed from within UIBUILDER nodes even without an Internet connection.

There is a library of "official" video tutorials on YouTube. Other folk have also produced UIBUILDER-related content.

Questions, issues and suggestions

The best place to ask questions or discuss possible enhancements is the Node-RED Forum.

Alternatively, use the GitHub issues log for raising issues or contributing suggestions and enhancements and the GitHub Discussions page for general questions, suggestions, etc.

Other links

• UIBUILDER for Node-RED

  • ❓ Ideas, questions & general help - Ask your question on the Node-RED forum using the node-red-contrib-uibuilder tag.
  • 📁 Documentation - Go to the latest documentation.
  • 🧑‍💻 Flows - Example flows, nodes and collections related to UIBUILDER.
  • ℹ️ WIKI - More documentation and examples.
  • 📂 Example Svelte External Template - In case you want to build your own svelte app.
  • 📂 Example Simple External Template - In case you want to build your own external template.
  • 📊 uPlot UIBUILDER extension - Useful charts but also demonstrates how to build your own extension.

• 🧪 Web Components Library - A growing library of useful HTML Web Components. Useable with or without Node-RED & UIBUILDER. Some having specific enhancements for Node-RED but will still work well stand-alone. These now have their own dedicated documentation, demo and test website at https://wc.totallyinformation.net. Please check them out there.

• 🔨 ui library module used by UIBUILDER - Can be used stand-alone for turning UI standard config JSON into HTML.

• 🕜 node-red-contrib-moment - Nodes to make use of the MomentJS date/time handling library in Node-RED.

• 🧙 Alternate Node-RED installer - Some scripts and example configs for running Node-RED locally instead of globally and having the userDir as a child folder so that everything can be easily backed up and restored from a single project folder.

• 🧪 Testbed for Node-RED custom nodes - Embodying more up-to-date thinking than the test nodes, a blank playground.

• 🧪 Test Nodes for Node-RED - Some test nodes for Node-RED that help you understand how everything works.

• 🚤 HotNipi Gauge Web Component - A really nice looking gauge component. Works with Node-RED, UIBUILDER, or stand-alone.

• 🧪 Array Grouper - Stand-alone function to reshape an array of objects.

Purpose

The purpose of UIBUILDER is to:

• Support easy methods for creating and delivering data-driven web apps and web pages (also known as web User-Interfaces).
• Be a conduit between Node-RED and front-end (browser) UI web apps.
• Be UI framework agnostic. No framework is needed to use UIBUILDER but it will work with them where desired. UIBUILDER aims to reduce the requirement for a framework by making it easier to work with vanilla HTML/CSS.
• Provide interface/data standards for exchanging data and controls between Node-RED and the web pages.
• Enable the creation and management of multiple web apps from a single Node-RED instance.
• Reduce the amount of front-end code (HTML/JavaScript) needed to create and manage a web app.
• Reduce the knowledge required for creating reliable, accessible web apps by providing low-code and no-code features. But still ensure that any learning is applicable to general web development.
• Make it easy to install and serve front-end libraries to support the development of more complex web apps.

Features

The core features of UIBUILDER:

• As far as possible, uses only vanilla, native HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Other than the Socket.IO client for communications (which is baked into the front-end library), no other front-end libraries are needed. UIBUILDER stays as close as possible to native HTML to avoid future compatibility issues. However, it does aim to make interaction with native HTML easier.
• Nodes to enable zero-code translation of input data to usable and accessible web elements.
• Capability for low-code, configuration-driven, data-driven UI's.
• Creating a capability for describing a UI and translating to actual code without having to write code.
• 2-way communications channel between the Node-RED server (back-end) and front-end UI.
• A Node-RED node to act as the focus for communications with other nodes for additional ease of use.
• Front-end library to: do the complex parts of the communications in the client browser; make manipulation of the UI easier and more consistent; make it easy to get data back to Node-RED as needed (both automatically and manually).
• Easy to use templates and examples for front-end code to enable people to get a quick start on creating web apps.
• Management and serving of npm packages that provide front-end libraries consumable easily by front-end code.
• Editing of front-end code from the Node-RED Editor (designed for small changes, use web development tools generally).
• Various server middleware and API options for additional custom capabilities.
• A caching capability allowing newly joining clients to receive the latest data and configurations. Joining/leaving clients create notifications in Node-RED.
• A front-end lightweight router for creating Single-Page Apps.
• Have as many uibuilder node instances as you like. Each instance allows the creation of many web pages and sub-folders for easy management.
• Each uibuilder node instance provides a private 2-way communications channel between the Node-RED server (back-end) and browser (front-end) UI code.
• Supports the use of standard web development workflows.
• Allows the creation of a dedicated web service to facilitate independent security.
• Allows any custom Node-RED node to communicate easily with a uibuilder enabled client via the Node-RED events system.
• Provides server-side hydration of no-/low-code definitions into full HTML & easy saving to uibuilder folders.
• Make it easy to develop event-driven UI's.

Contributing

If you would like to contribute to this node, you can contact Totally Information via GitHub or raise a request in the GitHub issues log.

Pull Requests both for code and documentation are welcomed and the WIKI is open to new entries and corrections (but please let me know if you make a change).

Please refer to the contributing guidelines for more information.

You can also support the development of UIBUILDER by sponsoring the development.

GitHub Sponsorship, PayPal Sponsorship

Sponsors

• @MagicJF

Developers/Contributors

• Julian Knight - the designer and main author.
• Colin Law - many thanks for testing, corrections and pull requests.
• Steve Rickus - many thanks for testing, corrections, contributed code and design ideas.
• Ellie Lee - many thanks for the PR fixing duplicate msgs.
• Thomas Wagner - thanks for the steer and PR on using projects folder if active.
• Arlena Derksen - thanks for suggestions, bug checks and Issue #59/PR #60.
• cflurin - thanks for the cache example.
• Scott Page - IndySoft - thanks for Issue #73/PR #74.
• Stephen McLaughlin - Steve-Mcl - thanks for the fix for Issue #71 and for the enhancement idea Issue #102.
• Sergio Rius - thanks for reporting Issue #121 and providing PR #122 as a fix.
• Thorsten von Eicken - thanks for providing PR #131 to improve CORS handling for Socket.IO.
• meeki007 - thanks for supplying various documentation improvements and code fixes.
• Scott - talltechdude - thanks for supplying PR #170.
• Calum Knott - Thanks for the tidied up node-blue logo.
• Harold Peters Inskipp - Thanks for the logging examples.
• dczysz - Thanks for reporting Issue #186 and helping work through the complex async bug.
• Colin J (mudwalkercj) - Thanks for helping with the documentation.
• Marcus Davies - Many thanks for the encouragement and for the 3d logo.
• Fabio Marzocca (fmarzocca)) - Many thanks for help with the design and testing of the uibrouter front-end router library.
• MysteryCode (mutec)) - Thanks for the PR to fix up the standardised use of fast-glob for returning lists of files.

Many other people have contributed ideas and suggestions, thanks to everyone who does, they are most welcome.

Please also check out my blogs:

• Totally Information's Web Log, "Ramblings by Julian Knight on all things Digital, Technology and Life". This is my new blog. It will have articles on Node-RED, web development, hardware reviews and more.
• Much Ado About IT, it has information about all sorts of topics, mainly IT related, including Node-RED. This is no longer being updated but it will be retained for reference.