Connecting the Flows to MobiusFlow Engine

Description of how to setup connection between Node-RED Flows and MobiusFlow Engine

The flows are powered by Node-RED. Use the link below to learn more about Node-RED specifically.

Low-code programming for event-driven applications : Node-REDnodered.org

Node-RED can be used independently of MobiusFlow, however if you want move data between the MobiusFlow Engine and the Node-RED flows, you will need to link the two.

MobiusFlow Specific Nodes

A set of MobiusFlow specific nodes have been created to facilitate data transmission between the Flows and the MobiusFlow Engine. The nodes are found in the Node-RED package node-red-contrib-mobius-flow-base. If you're using Node-RED pre-packaged with MobiusFlow, this package will be installed by default however if you're using Node-RED running elsewhere, you will need to add this to your palette using the Node-RED palette manager.

The correct package shown in the Node-RED palette manager search results

Setting up MobiusFlow Connection

A MobiusFlow connection is defined within a Node-RED configuration node. Once defined, all MobiusFlow specific nodes in your flows can use this connection to interface with the MobiusFlow Engine.

To create a new connection, open the config window of any MobiusFlow node. If no connection has yet been defined, the node will prompt you to add a new one.

Prompt to add a new connection shown here within a getResource node configuration window

Clicking the pencil icon will open the new connection's configuration window.

The configuration window of the new connection

Authorisation

All connections require a valid API username and password to ensure this instance of Node-RED is authorised to connect to MobiusFlow.

The default cradentials are:

Username: admin

Password: adm123

We heavily recommend you change the default admin password. If your MobiusFlow instance is not brand new it's very likely this will have been changed already.

Using Node-RED pre-packaged with MobiusFlow

If you're using the instance of Node-RED that has come pre-packaged with MobiusFlow, that means Node-RED and the MobiusFlow Engine and running locally to one another in parallel docker containers . As such, the following settings must be used:

Host

mobius:8443

Use SSL/TLS

This controls if the connection uses HTTP or HTTPS. As Node-RED is running locally relative to the MobiusFlow Engine, this should be left unchecked to ensure the connection uses HTTP.

Using external Node-RED

When running Node-RED remotely relative to the MobiusFlow Engine, we recommend SSL/TLS is enabled so the connection is secure. Also ensure the port is appended to the hostname if required.

Checking the Connection

Once set up, you should check that the flows are successfully connected to the MobiusFlow Engine.

On any MobiusFlow node, select the newly added connection. If this is the only connection you have set up, it will be selected by default.

The configuration window of a getResource node showing the selected connection labelled mobius:8443

Upon clicking done and deploying your flows, all MobiusFlow nodes using this connection should show the status 'Connected' if the connection to the MobiusFlow Engine has been made.

GetResource node showing 'Connected' status

If you the connection has not successfully been made, the status of all nodes using that connection will reflect this.

GetResource node showing 'Disconnected' status