Practical Node-RED Programming: Learn powerful visual programming techniques and best practices for the web and IoT

Use a low-code programming approach to create event-driven applications from scratch by wiring together hardware devices, APIs, and online services

Key Features

• Discover how you can automate the Internet of Things (IoT) without writing huge blocks of code
• Learn how to wire together flows using a browser-based visual editor
• Handle IoT data with little to no coding knowledge

Book Description

Node-RED is a free and open source flow-based programming tool used to handle IoT data that allows programmers of any level to interconnect physical I/O, cloud-based systems, databases, and APIs to build web applications without code.

Practical Node-RED Programming is a comprehensive introduction for anyone looking to get up to speed with the Node-RED ecosystem in no time. Complete with hands-on tutorials, projects, and self-assessment questions, this easy-to-follow guide will help you to become well versed in the foundations of Node-RED. You'll learn how to use Node-RED to handle IoT data and build web applications without having to write complex code. Once you've covered the basics, you'll explore various visual programming techniques and find out how to make sample flows as you cover web development, IoT development, and cloud service connections, and finally build useful real-world applications.

By the end of this book, you'll have learned how to use Node-RED to develop a real-world application from scratch, which can then be implemented in your business.

What you will learn

• Understand the history of Node-RED and why you need to learn a flow-based programming tool
• Use Node-RED to build Node.js-based applications
• Handle data for IoT devices using Node-RED flows
• Explore advanced Node-RED features such as connecting repositories and customizing the flow editor
• Find out what the MQTT protocol is and how it relates to Node-RED
• Create and publish your own nodes and flows using the Node-RED library

Who this book is for

This Node-RED book is for web developers and IoT engineers with some background in JavaScript and Node.js. Although not necessary, familiarity with the concepts of electronics will help you to make the most out of this book.

Table of Contents

1. Introducing Node-RED and Flow-based programming
2. Setting up the Development Environment
3. Understanding Node-RED characteristics by creating basic flows
4. Learning the Major Nodes
5. Implementing Node-RED locally
6. Implementing Node-RED in the Cloud
7. Calling a Web API from Node-RED
8. Using the Project Feature with Git
9. Creating a ToDo application with Node-RED
10. Handling sensor data on the Raspberry Pi
11. Visualize data by creating a server-side application in the IBM cloud
12. Developing a Chatbot Application Using Slack and IBM Watson
13. Creating and publishing your own node on the Node-RED library

After becoming a software engineer, Taiji Hagino started Accurate System Ltd. with his various experience. After working as a system integrator of a subsidiary of a general trading company, he now works as a developer advocate in the IBM Global team, developing DevRel (Developer Relations), a marketing approach to engineers. He also works as a lecturer at the Faculty of Informatics, University of Tsukuba. His authors include "Developer Marketing DevRel Q&A" (Impress R&D), "First Node-RED", "Practical Node-RED Application Manual" (Kogakusha), etc. He has also been a Microsoft MVP, and was previously a musician, and a hairdresser.