Definitions for Customer Node, Pack, Suite, and Plugins

[liusida]

I've watched the recent summit, there was a discussion on the granularity of custom nodes that sparked some thoughts. Here is a proposed structured hierarchy to improve clarity and management:

Customer Node: Represents a single, user-interactable entity on the screen.

Node Pack: Handles one specific functionality, for example "load a model" and "apply it", and sometimes "apply (advanced)".

Node Suite: Consists of multiple Node Packs.

This structure will allow ComfyUI-Manager to enable/disable individual nodes/packs after installing a suite, or to install only certain packs instead of the entire suite. Different nodes or packs should be contained in separate files and be easily disabled by renaming.

Additionally, we need to add the concept of "plugins":

Many projects currently categorized as custom nodes should instead be classified as plugins. For instance, ComfyUI-Manager is more accurately described as a plugin. A useful distinction is that a node should operate primarily on the Python backend, allowing the core system to handle rendering. This can help differentiate between plugins and custom node suites.

Given this, creating templates for both custom nodes and plugins would be beneficial.

To investigate the usage of JavaScript, I've reviewed some popular repositories:

Repositories using JavaScript:

pythongosssss/ComfyUI-Custom-Scripts:
JavaScript: 80.6%
Python: 17.5%

AlekPet/ComfyUI_Custom_Nodes_AlekPet:
JavaScript: 79.1%
Python: 20.9%

shadowcz007/comfyui-mixlab-nodes:
Python: 45.1%
JavaScript: 38.5%

rgthree/rgthree-comfy:
TypeScript: 46.1%
JavaScript: 38.0%
Python: 9.8%

Kosinkadink/ComfyUI-VideoHelperSuite:
Python: 62.4%
JavaScript: 37.6%

TinyTerra/ComfyUI_tinyterraNodes:
Python: 65.6%
JavaScript: 33.9%

melMass/comfy_mtb:
Python: 66.7%
JavaScript: 32.4%

LucianoCirino/efficiency-nodes-comfyui:
Python: 74.6%
JavaScript: 25.0%

jags111/efficiency-nodes-comfyui:
Python: 76.0%
JavaScript: 23.6%

pythongosssss/ComfyUI-WD14-Tagger:
Python: 79.7%
JavaScript: 20.3%

kijai/ComfyUI-KJNodes:
Python: 81.0%
JavaScript: 19.0%

yolain/ComfyUI-Easy-Use:
Python: 80.2%
JavaScript: 18.4%

if-ai/ComfyUI-IF_AI_tools:
Python: 86.9%
JavaScript: 12.9%

ArtVentureX/comfyui-animatediff:
Python: 87.6%
JavaScript: 12.4%

These repositories utilize JavaScript extensively for tasks like visualizing outputs (animations/3D objects) and enhancing UI experiences. The former should be implemented as both a custom node suite and a visualization plugin, while the latter should be classified as plugins.

Repositories without JavaScript:

ssitu/ComfyUI_UltimateSDUpscale
twri/sdxl_prompt_styler
ZHO-ZHO-ZHO/ComfyUI-BRIA_AI-RMBG
ZHO-ZHO-ZHO/comfyui-portrait-master-zh-cn
storyicon/comfyui_segment_anything
Suzie1/ComfyUI_Comfyroll_CustomNodes
MrForExample/ComfyUI-AnimateAnyone-Evolved
ZHO-ZHO-ZHO/ComfyUI-YoloWorld-EfficientSAM
Kosinkadink/ComfyUI-Advanced-ControlNet
frankchieng/ComfyUI_MagicClothing
Acly/comfyui-inpaint-nodes
cubiq/PuLID_ComfyUI
kijai/ComfyUI-Marigold
chaojie/ComfyUI-DragNUWA
huchenlei/ComfyUI-IC-Light-Native
BlenderNeko/ComfyUI_Cutoff
AuroBit/ComfyUI-OOTDiffusion
Fannovel16/ComfyUI-Frame-Interpolation
xXAdonesXx/NodeGPT
ZHO-ZHO-ZHO/ComfyUI-ArtGallery
kijai/ComfyUI-IC-Light-Wrapper
kijai/ComfyUI-IC-Light
ZHO-ZHO-ZHO/ComfyUI-APISR
FizzleDorf/ComfyUI_FizzNodes
BadCafeCode/masquerade-nodes-comfyui
nullquant/ComfyUI-BrushNet
lks-ai/anynode
kijai/ComfyUI-DynamiCrafterWrapper

These examples demonstrate that custom nodes can effectively handle tasks without needing JavaScript, providing an example of what pure Python backend nodes look like.