Add design note for standalone Node-RED

README.md

@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ with enough detail to review the intent and direction of the feature.
  - [Node Timeout API](designs/timeout-api.md)
  - [Overwrite Values in settings.js](designs/overwrite-settings.md)
  - [Admin API Authentication](designs/admin-api-authentication.md)
+ - [Standalone Node-RED](designs/standalone-nodered/README.md)
 
 #### In-progress
 

designs/standalone-nodered/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+---
+state: draft
+---
+
+# Standalone Node-RED
+
+## Summary
+
+The standalone Node-RED is a desktop version of Node-RED which includes Node-RED, Node.js, nodes, and browser engine using Chromium.
+
+## Authors
+
+ - @kazuhitoyokoi
+
+## Use Cases
+
+  - Easy installation
+
+    With the Node-RED installer, it will be easy for users to set up the Node-RED environment.
+    Especially, the targets are users who have no CLI skills to install Node-RED using commands like `npm install`.
+
+  - Offline installation
+
+    It is suitable for offline use cases because it contains all necessary components to execute Node-RED.
+
+  - Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
+
+    The standalone Node-RED behaves as IDE application like VS Code or Eclipse.
+    Therefore, users may want to switch multiple projects for various environments on their single computer.
+    Additionally, they need git functionality as default to proceed with team development or backup their flows.
+
+## Details
+
+### Flow editor window
+  The window is used for the Node-RED flow editor. After executing the standalone Node-RED, the window will be opened automatically.
+
+  - Dialog when closing window
+
+    When closing the window without saving the flow, the window show dialog to select "save & exit" or "cancel".
+    It is implemented using electron dialog or Node-RED notify UI.
+
+  - Debug window, event log window
+
+    To check the debug tab and event log in another window, users can open these UIs in a single window.
+    (To realize this functionality, The event log UI in Node-RED core requires ”Open in new window” button which is same as debug tab)
+
+### Runtime
+  The Node-RED runtime will be executed when the standard Node-RED starts.
+  Not to execute the flow until clicking the deploy button (same behavior as run button other IDEs), it runs in the `--safe` mode as default.
+  In case of executing the flow immediately in the start-up process, `--normal` mode should be set as an option to disable `--safe` mode.
+
+  - Admin API
+
+    The URL to connect between window and runtime uses a random path and fixed port number because the flow editor needs to be prohibited from other users and allow access REST API endpoints using http-in nodes which require the fixed port number. The following URL is an example of the admin API which window accesses.
+
+    http://localhost:1880/< random path >
+
+  - settings.js file
+
+    Instead of default `~./node-red/` directory, the standalone Node-RED uses `~./node-red-standalone/` directory to avoid changing the current environment under `~/.node-red/` directory. 
+    The standalone Node-RED has the default `settings.js` file. When there is no `settings.js` file under `~/.node-red-standalone/` directory, the standalone Node-RED saves the default `settings.js` file to load the custom settings in the following table.
+
+    | key                          | value |
+    | ---------------------------- | ----- |
+    | editorTheme.projects.enabled | true  |
+
+    The git command is a prerequisite if users want to use the project feature.
+    Node-RED automatically detects git command and enables the feature if it is installed.
+
+### Logging
+  Users can see log data in real-time on the event log window. On the other hand, users can also see historical log data from log files.
+  If the `electron-log` module is used to implement logging functionality, the following paths are default file paths to store log data.
+
+  - Windows: C:\Users\\< User name >\AppData\Roaming\node-red\logs\file.log
+  - macOS: ~/Library/Logs/node-red/file.log
+  - Linux: /var/log/node-red.log
+
+### Building binaries
+  `npm run build` command builds binaries for the following OS environments.
+
+  - Windows (msi)
+  - macOS (dmg)
+  - Linux (tar.gz)
+
+  The procedures about how to build other binaries like deb and rpm will be available in the documentation.
+
+## History
+
+  - 2019-05-19 - Initial proposal