Dashboard 2.0 Release Process

The following steps are taken in order to cut a release for Node-RED Dashboard 2.0:

Code (Version) Updates

  • Update the package.json to the new version number
  • npm install locally to update the package-lock.json
  • Commit the changes to the two files to a new branch named vX.Y.X
  • Push the changes to the branch, and open a Pull Request, titled vX.Y.X
  • Have someone else review the Pull Request, and merge when approved

GitHub Release

  • Navigate to the Dashboard Releases page and click "Draft a new release"
  • In the "Choose a tag" dropdown, type in the new version number, and select the "Create new tag vX.Y.X" option
  • Select "Generate release notes", this will auto-populate with all Pull Requests contained within the release.
  • Manually group the list of PRs in the release notes into the following categories:
    • New Widgets & Variations: For any new widgets/nodes, or types of a widget, e.g. new chart types or gauge types.
    • Fixes & Improvements: Bug fixes and/or smaller improvements to existing code.
    • Documentation: Any PRs dedicated to documentation improvements.
    • Dependencies: PRs linked to changing a version number of a dependency, or adding a new dependency.
    • Administration: PRs that are related to the administration of the repository, e.g. CI/CD changes, etc.
  • Click "Publish Release"
  • Doing so will automatically trigger the publication of the updates to npm via a GitHub Action

Publish to Node-RED Palette Manager

As part of the GitHub Action that published the package to npm it should automatically poke flows.nodered.org to update the catalogue.json. If npm is being a little slow this may not find the very latest version you can manually check the version on the site.

  • Navigate to the "@flowfuse/node-red-dashboard" page.
  • If the version shown is not current then you need to be signed in with an account (it uses GitHub to sign in)
  • Once singed in, you should see the "check for update" link. Click it

Update action

Within the next 25-30 minutes, the entry Node-RED's Palette Manager will live update for all Node-RED's worldwide.