NoFlo graph file format specification

[trustmaster]

There's a page in NoFlo documentation describing NoFlo JSON graph format: http://noflojs.org/documentation/json/

While GoFlow is slowly progressing towards support of loading graphs at run-time, the documentation provided for NoFlo JSON is not enough for a 3rd-party implementation. It contains just a minimal example without an explanation, while a more formal and detailed specification is required for the format to be supported by 3rd-party FBP runtimes.

Example questions left after reading the current docs:

• what is "metadata"?
• is "metadata" related to "initial IP" concept?
• how are initial IPs represented on the graph if it isn't?
• what is "data" and which component is responsible for reading it?
• etc.

[openera-techadmin]

+1

[forresto]

:+1: to fleshing out http://noflojs.org/documentation/json/

• Metadata is mostly used for UI representation. Things that don't affect how the graph runs: node x y label, edge route (color), group description, etc.
• IIPs are not related to metadata.
• IIPs are defined as edges in the graph json. Instead of src there is data.
• The tgt process/port will get that IIP