FlowFuse Desktop

[MarianRaphael]

This initiative aims to lower entry barriers, making FlowFuse accessible to a broader audience and ensuring users can immediately perceive its value in conjunction with Node-RED.

User Story

As a person interested in FlowFuse who prefers self-hosting, I want an easy and straightforward onboarding experience during installation, So that I can quickly understand and leverage the value of FlowFuse and Node-RED within my own environment.

Scope

• Development of a FlowFuse Desktop App: Leverage Electron to build a desktop application for FlowFuse, ensuring it offers a comparable feature set to the local version. This app should provide a seamless experience for users looking to self-host FlowFuse
• Cross-Platform Compatibility: Ensure the desktop app is compatible with major operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux), broadening its accessibility and user base.
• User Documentation

[joepavitt]

Bit confused by this - people aren't put off by Node-RED because it's an npm install, and we've had no feedback (that I'm aware of?) that up-take of FF is blocked because it's too difficult to install?

Don't get me wrong, I understand the value of an exe, etc. but I'm not sure us spending a big portion of engineering time on this, vs. other items is the correct prioritisation?

[joepavitt]

How does a user, in a Desktop version, configure MQTT broker, E-Mail, etc? and everything else that's in the flowfuse.yml? This will all be UI/UX that we need to design, build and write test coverage for.

[joepavitt]

Node-RED Electron wrappers are available:

• https://github.com/natcl/electron-node-red
• https://sakazuki.github.io/node-red-desktop/
• https://github.com/dceejay/electron-node-red