Add project update post

Author: knolleary

_posts/2018-03-13-project-updates.md

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+---
+layout: blog
+title: Project updates
+author: nick
+---
+
+One of the things we've not done so well on is keeping the community up to date
+with the general goings on of the project. The mailing list and slack team are a
+constant stream of discussion and debate, but it's easy to forget that not everyone
+follows all the various threads.
+
+So we're going to try to do some more frequent posts here to share what's been
+going on across the project.
+
+### 🎉 1 Million Installs 🎉
+
+The first thing to highlight is we recently hit 1 million all-time npm installs
+of Node-RED. That's an incredible milestone for what still feels like our little
+project.
+
+![](/blog/content/images/2018/03/node-red-npm-installs.png)
+
+It's hard to dig much into that number to understand more about where and how
+Node-RED is being used. One thing we can say is roughly 45% of those installs are
+happening within the IBM Cloud - a fact we can infer from the install statistics
+of the `node-red-bluemix-nodes` module. It also doesn't include people using the
+version that comes pre-installed on the Raspberry Pi, unless they have used our
+[update script](https://nodered.org/docs/hardware/raspberrypi) to get to the latest
+version.
+
+We track a variety of other statistics about the project to get a sense of how
+the community is growing, for example the number of people signed up to the
+mailing list and slack team. Whilst none is a definitive indicator by itself,
+they all show a nice steady growth.
+
+
+### 0.18 updates
+
+We've had lots of great feedback on the projects feature we released in 0.18, but
+there's lots still to do.
+
+The most common problems relate to authenticating with remote git repositories.
+There are some outstanding issues to work through - the stickiest relating to
+HTTPS authentication on Windows. On the whole, if you use SSH keys, things should
+just work.
+
+We're also thinking about next steps for the Projects feature. The two hot topics
+are:
+
+1. how to make a Project a deployable artefact. The goal is to be able to clone
+   a project, `npm install` to get its dependencies and then simply `npm start`
+   to run it - without ever touching the editor.
+
+2. how to have environment-specific settings for your nodes. For example, you may
+   want to use a local MQTT broker when developing and testing locally, but when
+   you deploy to a 'production' environment, you want to use your production
+   broker. We already support using environment variables to allow dynamic configuration
+   of nodes (a fact we really need to document), and we want to see how to better
+   expose this via Projects.
+
+### Updating the roadmap
+
+The roadmap for 1.0 is still the overarching plan for what we are doing and it
+will continue to evolve as things progress. The way we lined-up some of the
+technical content hasn't quite panned out - for example, the Library redesign
+didn't make it into 0.18 and we don't currently have an outlook for that particular
+piece.
+
+We need to put together a more concrete plan for 0.19 so we don't end up going
+another 6 months before another milestone release. Ultimately the content of the
+releases is shaped by feedback from the community and what contributions are made.
+
+### Editor/Runtime Split
+
+One of the most important features on the roadmap is splitting the editor and runtime
+in to their own packages. This enables many different use cases for Node-RED.
+
+It's also quite a hard problem to get right; to ensure the API we expose between
+the editor and runtime is right. This is the item we've been focussed on over
+the last couple of weeks. As with all major functional items, there's a [wiki page](https://github.com/node-red/node-red/wiki/Design%3A-Runtime-Editor-Split)
+where we're working on the design. Right now there's more scribbled on paper
+than there is on the wiki, but that will change over the coming days.
+
+
+### Testing nodes
+
+Mike Blackstock has taken a lead in helping standardise how 3rd parties can write
+test cases for their nodes. The core nodes already had a test helper module which
+Mike has extracted out into its own repository, [node-red-node-test-helper](https://github.com/node-red/node-red-node-test-helper).
+
+It's a work in progress, but the hope is this will become an invaluable tool in
+creating high-quality nodes.
+
+If you want to find out more, come chat in the #testing channel on [slack](https://nodered.org/slack/).
+
+### Flow Library updates
+
+Mike has also been busy giving the [Flow Library](https://flows.nodered.org)
+some much needed updates.
+
+The page used to retrieve the complete list of all nodes and
+flows every time someone loaded it. In the early days that wasn't a problem, but
+as we now have well over 2000 things listed, it was about time we made that
+initial page load much more efficient.
+
+Thanks to Mike's work, it now loads the items a page at a time and makes for a much
+quicker load. There's still some more tweaks to make on this, but it's a solid
+starting point.
+
+As if that wasn't enough, Mike also added the ability to give any node a rating
+out of 5 - if you're logged in via the GitHub button. Over time this will let users
+get a better sense of the quality of any particular node. We'll also look at how
+we can expose the ratings in the editor's palette manage at some point.
+
+We've added a 'Report this module' link to each node's page. If you have any concerns
+about the content of a node, such as inappropriate or unsuitable material, this lets
+you notify the admins to take a look. This is *not* about reporting bugs and seeking
+help in using the node - those sorts of reports should be directed at the node authors.
+
+
+### Cookbook
+
+Finally, an appeal. We started the Cookbook a year ago as an effort to get lots of
+simple recipes together that cover the basics of what you can do with Node-RED.
+
+Over time, the hope is to expand it to cover more complicated recipes, but we're
+keen to ensure we have the basics covered first.
+
+Sadly we've not made as much progress as we'd hoped in filling up the cookbook.
+
+If you're a keen user of Node-RED and wanted to give something back to community,
+this would be a great way to get involved. Come over to the #docs channel on [slack](https://nodered.org/slack/)
+and find out more.
+
+
+### Learning more about Node-RED
+
+We often get asked about how to get started with Node-RED and what material is
+out there to help learn.
+
+A couple of pointers to help get you started:
+
+1. [Coursera : A Developer's guide to Node-RED](https://www.coursera.org/learn/developer-nodered) - from IBM.
+   Part of a series of courses on IoT. *Disclaimer: I helped create this course*.
+
+2. [Node-RED Programming Guide](http://noderedguide.com/) - from Mike and team
+   at SenseTecnic. A series of lectures covering a wide range of topics.
+
+
+If you know of other useful resources, please do share them with us. We want to
+create a collection of links on [nodered.org](https://nodered.org) to help users
+find this sort of thing.