Having installed node-red you’ll most likely want to use it with more then the standard nodes. Of course you can use a function with and execute node for all missing parts, but why would you reinvent the wheel?
In node-red there is the option of install new nodes. This makes it possible to install nodes created by other Node-Red users. You can search for new nodes on this website or in the palette window shown below.
The palette can be found in the menu on the upper right corner.

Once in the palette you can search for a packet of node(s) available on the node-red website.
For example the configurable ping node we’ll use in the next episode.
Installing Nodes Configurable Ping package
Installing might take a while installing new nodes, in the meanwhile you can look for other interesting nodes.
NPM & Proxy
When u use Node-red behind a proxy you won’t be able to install new nodes from NPM. This is because NPM has his own proxy settings you’ll need to set. Before we can do this you’ll need to know how to connect to your proxy server. In most cases an url with a port will suffice, but you might have that one proxy server that needs a login (username & password).
you can set your NPM proxy using following commands:
npm config set proxy http://username:[email protected]:port
npm config set https-proxy https://username:[email protected]:port
In the examples above you need to replace (remove) the username and password with the correct information. Don’t forget to change pro link and port.
Conclusion
We’ve seen how to easily install Node-Red and install new nodes created by others.
All that’s left now is to create an actual flow. See you in our next tutorial?