Installing Node-RED¶
Node-RED is published as a node.js module available on npm, as well as a container available on Docker Hub.
The full guide for installing and running Node-RED is available here.
Linux
The following steps assume you are running on Windows or OSX. If you are running on a Linux OS, or a device like a Raspberry Pi, the project provides a set of install scripts that will get node, npm and Node-RED all installed at the latest stable versions. Refer to the docs linked above.
You must have a supported version of Node.js installed. Node-RED supports the Active and LTS releases, 12.x and 14.x.
You can then install Node-RED as a global module with the command:
npm install -g --unsafe-perm node-red
Depending on your Node.js installation, you may need to run this command using sudo
.
The install log output may contain some warnings - these can be ignored as long as the output ends with something like:
+ [email protected]
added 332 packages from 341 contributors in 18.494s
Running Node-RED¶
Once installed, you should now have the node-red
command available to run.
Command not found
If you do not have the node-red
command available it may be a problem
with your PATH
configuration.
Find where your global node modules are installed by running:
npm get prefix
Then ensure the bin
subdirectory of that location is on your PATH
.
When you run node-red
, the log output will appear
23 Oct 00:12:01 - [info]
Welcome to Node-RED
===================
23 Oct 00:12:01 - [info] Node-RED version: v1.2.2
23 Oct 00:12:01 - [info] Node.js version: v12.19.0
23 Oct 00:12:01 - [info] Darwin 18.7.0 x64 LE
23 Oct 00:12:01 - [info] Loading palette nodes
23 Oct 00:12:03 - [info] Settings file : /Users/nol/.node-red/settings.js
23 Oct 00:12:03 - [info] User directory : /Users/nol/.node-red
23 Oct 00:12:03 - [info] Server now running at http://127.0.0.1:1880/
23 Oct 00:12:03 - [info] Flows file : /Users/nol/.node-red/flows.json
23 Oct 00:12:03 - [info] Starting flows
23 Oct 00:12:03 - [info] Started flows
This output contains an important piece of information you will need -
the location of your User directory
.
Accessing the Node-RED editor¶
Assuming you are running Node-RED on your local computer, open a browser and access the url http://127.0.0.1:1880/. This will load the Node-RED editor - the tool used to build your applications.
Next Steps¶
The next task is to enable the Projects feature.