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FlowFuse Application Guide

Node-RED Guide

Worked example

The shape rules and patterns applied end to end.

Worked example — start here

The shape rules and patterns applied end to end. One app reached three ways over shared services, and the same requirement built with and without seams — so you can see what the seams buy you.

One app, three surfaces

An HTTP API, a dashboard and MQTT over one shared Tables pool; each surface ends at its own sink.

Node-RED · Data-Driven App — three surfaces, one shared pool

Surfaces · each beginning its own path

MQTT in

devices

http in

services

dashboard

people · reuses HTTP

link call

Shared services

Tables pool

one pool · link call

results return

Sinks · one per surface

MQTT out

publish

http res

respond

  • call / return

One app reached three ways over shared services.

The pieces

  • Surfaces — a dashboard for people, an HTTP API for services, an MQTT feed for devices and events. Each beginning is its own path, so a device path never runs through a browser path.
  • Shared services — one Tables pool and one external service call, both invoked with link call. One pool serves all three surfaces without mixing them.
  • Single sink — each surface converges on one sink through a labeled link, an http response or an MQTT publish. It only sends; the HTTP path responds exactly once, the MQTT path just publishes.
  • People reuse HTTP — the dashboard is a ui-template that fetches the HTTP API, so it adds no new backend paths of its own.

The architecture, in one sentence

A Software: Data-Driven App backed by a Relational DB, reached three ways over one shared Tables pool and one external service call, each surface ending at its own sink. Draw the boundary on purpose and define the contract across it, and there is nowhere for spaghetti to accumulate.