| layout | toc | title |
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docs |
getting-started-toc.html |
Creating your first flow |
Once Node-RED is running, point a local browser at http://localhost:1880. You can always use a browser from another machine if you know the ip address or name of the Node-RED instance - http://{Node-RED-machine-ip-address}:1880
The Inject node allows you to inject messages into a flow, either by clicking the button on the node, or setting a time interval between injects.
Drag one onto the workspace from the palette.
Open the sidebar (Ctrl-Space, or via the dropdown menu) and select the Info tab.
Select the newly added Inject node to see information about its properties and a description of what it does.
The Debug node causes any message to be displayed in the Debug sidebar. By default, it just displays the payload of the message, but it is possible to display the entire message object.
Connect the Inject and Debug nodes together by dragging between the output port of one to the input port of the other.
At this point, the nodes only exist in the editor and must be deployed to the server.
Click the Deploy button. Simple as that.
With the Debug sidebar tab selected, click the Inject button to the left of the inject node. You should see numbers appear in the sidebar. By default, the Inject node uses the number of milliseconds since January 1st, 1970 as its payload. Let's do something more useful with that.
The Function node allows you to pass each message though a JavaScript function.
Wire the Function node in between the Inject and Debug nodes. You may need to delete the existing wire (select it and hit delete on the keyboard).
Double-click on the Function node to bring up the edit dialog. Copy the follow code into the function field:
{% highlight javascript %} // Create a Date object from the payload var date = new Date(msg.payload); // Change the payload to be a formatted Date string msg.payload = date.toString(); // Return the message so it can be sent on return msg; {% endhighlight %}
Click Ok to close the edit dialog and then click the deploy button.
Now when you click the Inject button, the messages in the sidebar will be more readable time stamps.
The flow created in this example is represented by the following json. It can be imported straight into the editor by pasting the json into the Import dialog (Ctrl-I or via the dropdown menu).
[{"id":"58ffae9d.a7005","type":"debug","name":"","active":true,"complete":false,"x":640,"y":200,"wires":[]},{"id":"17626462.e89d9c","type":"inject","name":"","topic":"","payload":"","repeat":"","once":false,"x":240,"y":200,"wires":[["2921667d.d6de9a"]]},{"id":"2921667d.d6de9a","type":"function","name":"Format timestamp","func":"// Create a Date object from the payload\nvar date = new Date(msg.payload);\n// Change the payload to be a formatted Date string\nmsg.payload = date.toString();\n// Return the message so it can be sent on\nreturn msg;","outputs":1,"x":440,"y":200,"wires":[["58ffae9d.a7005"]]}]