Tag: node.js

Posted on

Can I create a syllabus with Node-RED?

Node-RED is a programming tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services in new and interesting ways. It provides a browser-based editor that makes it easy to wire together flows using the wide range of nodes in the palette that can be deployed to its runtime in a single-click.
Node-RED

Here’s an idea: use the low code browser based flow design tools of Node-RED to create a syllabus of online resources. Since Node-RED can work with APIs and I have an API for CALI resources, I should be able to use Node-RED tools to design a syllabus as a flowchart through a series of resources.

I suspect there are a few missing pieces here like a program or routine to step through the flow created by Node-RED and a system from tracking results that talks to Node-RED. The pieces are likely buildable one identified. The result would be a programmed learning environment using Node-RED as a primary component.

Posted on

Use npm shrinkwrap to manage dependencies in your node app

The reason to use npm’s shrinkwrap feature is that, while you can fix the versions of your direct dependencies in your package.json, you can’t fix the versions of their dependencies, which may be quite loosely specified. This means that if you or someone else rebuilds the image at some future time, you can’t guarantee (without using shrinkwrap) that it won’t pull down a different version of some indirect dependency, breaking your app. This seems to happen to me much more often than one might expect, so I advocate using shrinkwrap. If you are familiar with ruby’s excellent bundler dependency manager, npm-shrinkwrap.json is much like Gemfile.lock.

Source: Lessons from Building a Node App in Docker

Dependencies in the node ecosystem can be a real pain in the ass. Some relief can be had by using npm shrinkwrap to manage the dependencies of your dependencies.