Changelog

Users of FlowFuse Cloud can now make use of an enhanced navigation tool and visibility selector when using the static file service feature.

By settings the visibility of a folder to 'public', their Node-RED instance will automatically make any files in that folder publicly available - on a path of the user's choosing.

This makes it very simple to serve up additional assets such as images or libraries that can be used in your Node-RED Dashboards.

The visibility settings apply to the folder; you cannot make individual files public. Any changes to the visibility settings will require the instance to be restarted for the changes to take effect.

In the v2.8.0 release we have updated the LDAP SSO feature to allow group membership to be managed by LDAP groups.

#  Configuring

Building on the SAML based SSO configuration there is now a Manage roles using group assertions check box on the LDAP SSO configuration page. This allows a base LDAP DN for groups to be set. This will used to look up which groups a user is a member of when they login to the platform.

Groups can be groupOfNames or groupOfUniqueNames and membership will be checked against memberOf or uniqueMemberOf fields respectively.

#  Group Naming

Group names must follow the this pattern ff-<team slug>-role

The valid roles for a user in a team are:

• owner
• member
• viewer
• dashboard

Note: this uses the team slug property to identify the team. This has been chosen to simplify managing the groups in the LDAP Provider - rather than using the team's id. However, a team's slug can be changed by a team owner. Doing so will break the link between the group and the team membership - so should only be done with care.

More details can be found in the SSO LDAP documentation.

#  Managing FlowFuse Admins

In the previous release we added support for managing FlowFuse Admin users by group membership to SAML SSO, this is now available to LDAP as well.

Note: It is advised to maintain a backup admin user that does not authenticate via SSO so ensure access can be maintained if the SSO provider is unavailable. Also the system will not remove the admin flag from a user if that would leave the platform with no admins even if they removed from the group.

This feature is only available to FlowFuse self-hosted customers.

To keep you focused, we have added a "Hide Read" checkbox that is checked by default so that you only see active notifications.

Not only that, we've added some new notifications so that members and owners get fast feedback for important events in your system.

Screenshot showing unread Notifications Inbox in FlowFuse

Screenshot showing read Notifications Inbox in FlowFuse

Having recently added the ability to delete multiple devices at once, we have now added the ability to move multiple devices at once.

To use this feature, navigate to the devices page, application devices or instance devices and place a check in the box next to the devices you wish to move. Once you have selected the devices you wish to move, click the new menu button above the table & select the new location for the devices.

We are are sure this will make managing your devices a good deal easier.

You can read up on the new feature in our documentation.

Snapshots can now be renamed and their descriptions updated, even after they're created.

Screenshot showing the new Edit Snapshots feature in FlowFuse

This is particularly useful for the snapshots that are automatically generated each time your deploy your flows, making it easier to track back your changes and revert to a previous state if needed.

An update to let you know you can now clear the target snapshot of a device group. This is small but useful feature that can help you manage your device groups more effectively.

For those unfamiliar with FlowFuse device groups, essentially, they permit you to deploy a snapshot to one or many devices via a pipeline in a single action. This is great for managing changes across a fleet of devices.

See the device groups documentation for more information on how to make use of device groups.

Starting with the v2.8.0 release FlowFuse will be taking a slightly stricter approach to License enforcement outside of FlowFuse Cloud. Previously when a license expired the platform would continue to run with the same capabilities as when the license was valid.

If you are currently running with older version with an expired license please contact the Sales team to discuss renewing your license before upgrading. You can check your current license on the Admin Settings -> Overview page.

#  Notifications

Starting 30 days before the license expires:

• Admin users will see a banner showing the number of days left.

  

• A email will be sent to all Admin users.

The email will be sent again every Sunday evening in the 30 days.

#  After Expiry

• All running instances will be suspended.

• Instances will not be started.

• No new Instances or Devices can be created.

• A email will be sent to all Admin users saying the license has expired.

• A banner showing the license as expired will be shown to all users.

  

• All connections to the MQTT broker will be refused (This will impact Project Nodes and Device control).

#  Applying a New License

A new license can be applied in the Admin Settings -> Settings section.

Once applied you will be able to restart all existing Instances and create new Instances and Devices. The MQTT will accept new connections.

In the v2.7.0 release we have included some new SSO features

#  User creation on first log in

Before v2.7.0 users needed to be created before they could use SSO to log in to FlowFuse. Now if enabled in the SSO configuration users will be created when they first sign in. If team membership is controlled by SSO Groups (SAML only) then they will be added to the relevant teams, otherwise if the system is configured to create a Team for a new user it will do so.

FlowFuse Cloud customers should contact support to discuss enabling this feature for their teams.

#  Managing FlowFuse Admins with SSO Groups

It is now possible to configure a group to manage which users are granted administration privileges. The name of the group can be added to the SSO configuration (SAML only).

NOTE: It is advised to maintain a backup admin user that does not authenticate via SSO so ensure access can be maintained if the SSO provider is unavailable. Also the system will not remove the admin flag from a user if that would leave the platform with no admins even if they removed from the group.

This feature is not available to FlowFuse Cloud customers.

We've made some changes to the way notifications are displayed and handled in FlowFuse to make it easier to see what's going on in your system, with a new, dedicated, "Notifications Inbox".

Screenshot showing the new Notifications Inbox in FlowFuse

Whilst the only notifications we're supporting right now are team invites, this groundwork will allow us to expand the types of notifications we can send in the future to give better visibility of what's happening in your FlowFuse environment.

We have added bulk operations for managing devices.

In this first iteration we have added the ability to delete multiple devices at once.

To use this feature, navigate to the devices page, application devices or instance devices and place a check in the box next to the devices you wish to delete. Once you have selected the devices you wish to delete, click the trash can button above the table & confirm the deletion.

We will be adding more bulk operations in the future, so keep an eye out for more updates.

The FlowFuse Assistant can now assist you by generating JSON.

Wherever you edit JSON in the Rich Monaco Editor you will see the "Ask the FlowFuse Assistant 🪄" code lens. That includes the Inject Node, the Template Node and any contrib node that uses the built-in editor for writing JSON.

We think you will find this to be a great time saver and a good helper when you are unsure of the syntax.

Just ask for what you want and it does a decent job of figuring it out.

Here are some examples:

#  Asking the Assistant to generate JSON from within the template node

#  Asking the Assistant to generate JSON from within the inject node for the payload value

This is just the beginning of the FlowFuse Assistant's capabilities. Stay tuned!

#  Updating the Assistant to get these new features

If you are running Node-RED v4.x, head over to the Palette Manager, update the plugin and restart your instance.

If you are still running Node-RED v3.x, you can update the plugin by adding @flowfuse/nr-assistant to the instance settings then restart it.

With hundreds of devices and instances running in FlowFuse, it can be very difficult to find the resource you're looking for. That's why we've introduced a new search feature that allows you to search across all of your FlowFuse instances, devices and applications from a single place.

Screenshot showing the new Notifications Inbox in FlowFuse

The view will automatically filter as you type making it easy to find the resource you're looking for, it will keep reference to any applications and or child instances/devices where appropriate.

Users of FlowFuse Cloud and self-hosted users on Kubernetes can now make use of a new persistent storage solution.

Starting with the v2.6.0 release the Pods running the Node-RED Instances will have a Persistent Volume mounted on /data/storage in which files can be written. These files will persist for the lifetime of the Instance including across Susspend/Resume and Stack upgrades.

This update means nodes like node-red-node-sqlite can be used to store data safely.

This capability replaces the current FlowFuse FileServer which made use of custom versions of the Node-RED code File nodes to store and read files from a remote network store. However this didn't allow 3rd party nodes to also benefit from the storage provided.

New instances created will default to use the new Persistent Storage volumes. If you want to upgrade an existing instance that uses the FileServer storage, get in touch with Support and we can help migrate your data over.

Similar support for Docker will be available in later releases.

We are excited to announce the first release of The FlowFuse Assistant, a new plugin for your Node-RED instances designed to enhance your development experience.

In this initial release, The FlowFuse Assistant can help you create function nodes for those times when a no-code solution is either not feasible or not possible. Additionally, it works directly inside the Function Node editor right where you need it.

This is just the beginning. The FlowFuse Assistant will continue to evolve, with future updates bringing even more powerful features and enhancements.

Starting from today, FlowFuse Assistant is available on FlowFuse Cloud. Users will need to update their instances to the latest stack to enable it.

We found out that many users have to frequently switch between the Node-RED Editor and FlowFuse UI. This back-and-forth movement was often necessary to view logs, save snapshots, restart the Editor after updates, and perform other tasks.

We're always seeking to reduce friction in the FlowFuse user experience, and as such, we've introduced a large overhaul of the developer experience for Node-RED when running in FlowFuse, in what we're calling the "Immersive Editor".

Now, the instances tabs are all available in the same view as the Editor, and you can manage your instance, watch logs, capture snapshots and event restart it, all without leaving the Node-RED Editor.

The new Immersive Editor is available for instances running Node-RED 4.0.2 or later - older versions of Node-RED will still use the separate views.

FlowFuse now supports the input of multi-line environment variables for your Node-RED instances running on FlowFuse.

This unlocks the ability to store certs or multi-line values like JSON as environment variables.

We've also improved the .env file import to support the use of multi-line values too.

The FlowFuse Device Agent allows you to manage your Node-RED instances wherever you want them to run. It connects back to the platform over a secure https connection.

For some enterprise customers, that has posed a challenge as they protect their network with an HTTP proxy that all traffic has to be directed to.

With the 2.5.0 release of the Device Agent, we now support running the Device Agent behind a proxy - letting it run in even more locations.

Support comes using the industry standard set of http_proxy environment variables - familiar to anyone running services behind a proxy.

Full details are available in our http proxy documentation.

We have now added the ability to select a snapshot and compare it to other snapshots making it easier to understand what is in the current snapshot and what has changed in relation to the 2nd snapshot.

Both snapshots are overlayed and you can step through the differences or use the new slider to visualise the differences.

Enterprise teams on FlowFuse Cloud can now configure their own subdomain to point at their Node-RED application.

Within FlowFuse Cloud, Node-RED instances are reached by their provided url: <name>.flowfuse.cloud.

With this new option, it is possible to add a custom hostname for the instance that works alongside the provided url.

For example, if you have built a dashboard you can now configure your instance to make that available via dashboard.example.com or any other subdomain you own.

We only support subdomains at this time, but adding support for top-level domains is on the roadmap.

Read more on how to setup custom hostnames.