[HN Gopher] Fair-Code Automation with n8n.io
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Fair-Code Automation with n8n.io
Author : lebaux
Score : 100 points
Date : 2021-01-04 15:54 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (tech.davidfield.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (tech.davidfield.co.uk)
| moritonal wrote:
| When talking about an open-source IFTTT please always consider
| Node-Red. I host four instances of it around my life and it's my
| go-to solution for almost everything.
|
| https://nodered.org/
| spinningarrow wrote:
| Recently started using Node-RED with Home Assistant and I'm
| really digging it so far. Modeling flows is super intuitive and
| quick, and it can do so much (even acting as a web server for a
| custom dashboard).
| theshrike79 wrote:
| Four instances?
|
| What kind of tasks are you using them for?
| moritonal wrote:
| Want a breakdown, ok.
|
| My server, my raspberry pi in my house, my desktop and my
| phone all run an instance, with my server hosting a Mosca
| MQTT which they all use to send messages between.
|
| My server runs anything web-facing, so the web-hooks and
| random API projects. The PI does things like Wake-on-lan the
| Desktop, working with Alexa
| (https://flows.nodered.org/node/node-red-contrib-alexa-home)
| and acting as a pi-hole. The Desktop listens for things like
| shutdown commands (from Alexa) and other commands to do
| things.
|
| All together Node-Red just gives me the flexability to do
| everything at the "right" scope. The project is also cute as
| hell, just look at knolleary's response here:
| https://github.com/node-red/node-red/issues/719
| janober wrote:
| Thanks a lot for creating this tutorial!
|
| I am the creator & CEO of n8n. If anybody has any questions
| simply ask. Happy to answer!
| [deleted]
| lukeramsden wrote:
| I'm currently using Integromat for some personal stuff, but I'd
| like to self-host so I came across n8n. All I need is a Google
| Sheets trigger, which I do see is in the works [0], then I'll
| probably have a go at it.
|
| [0] https://github.com/n8n-io/n8n/pull/1154
| janober wrote:
| Google services are sadly a little bit complicated to create
| Trigger-Nodes for. Much more than ANY other ones. Some of the
| fun things are that they require to verify the domain you use
| as callback URL (which so makes it for example impossible to
| use our tunnel) or that the webhooks expire?!?! Anyway, I
| hope we will have it ready soon and you can so start using
| n8n!
| lukeramsden wrote:
| I see, yes I was surprised Google didn't have any simple to
| use triggers for sheets.
| janober wrote:
| That is actually just the start. Wait till you want to
| integrate Google Services into your app/service and you
| require the wrong scopes. Then suddenly it is not just
| complicated it also gets expensive as they require a
| security audit which costs between $15k and $75k.
| propter_hoc wrote:
| Your license, as I can read it, intends to prohibit profiting
| from your software by either (1) including it in their product,
| or (2) hosting it and selling its functionality. So for
| example, if a user wants to have some kind of Spotify import
| feature built into his online music-management service, he is
| not permitted by this license to build n8n into his paid
| service. (Correct me if I am wrong on this interpretation.)
|
| But I think you will get a lot of demand for including this
| product in various workflows in an integrated way. Are you
| planning on releasing an API license, or some such?
| janober wrote:
| Yes, that is correct. If you use n8n as a backend or part of
| your backend that is totally fine. What is not permitted is
| to use n8n code to offer some kind of automation service.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| Very reasonable and generous to allow someone to generate
| revenue with your tool as a backend component as long as
| they're not offering a verbatim automation SaaS service
| with a clone of your code. Kudos and thank you.
| janober wrote:
| We actually want that people use n8n as a backend and
| want to improve that further in the future and write more
| about it. We do not have to make money with literally
| everybody that uses our code. But if a good way to
| describe the service (or module, ...) is "automate X"
| then a license would be required. That we think is fair
| and makes sure that n8n is long term sustainable. And
| after all, is that also in the interest of the
| people/companies building on top of us.
| napoleond wrote:
| n8n and Node-RED are both really neat! Over the break I built a
| little project that takes a different approach; for me the
| schleppy part of API integration is not usually the code but it's
| the infrastructure (where to host for cheap, with a simple deploy
| pipeline, maybe scheduled execution, etc).
| https://www.tabbydata.com/glue is a little thing I built so that
| I don't need to think about those things again.
| keithwhor wrote:
| Have you tried Autocode [0] for these use cases? I think you'll
| find it provides exactly what you need and more. Disclaimer: am
| founder.
|
| [0] https://autocode.com/
| h4waii wrote:
| Huginn [0] is also very powerful, free, and open source. You can
| run it locally, in a VPS, or on Heroku for free.
|
| I pay for IFTTT Pro, but I still use Huginn for things that IFTTT
| can't do, and I highly recommend it.
|
| I've tried Node-Red and while it can definitely do the job, I
| couldn't get along with it.
|
| 0. https://github.com/huginn/huginn
| matthewfelgate wrote:
| Is this like Node-Red?
| robjan wrote:
| N8n.io is not open source. It even says so on the landing page.
|
| Edit: the article has since been updated
| [deleted]
| berkay wrote:
| "Apache 2.0 with Commons Clause"
|
| They are free to choose whatever license works for them but
| this reference to Apache 2.0 is problematic.
| [deleted]
| janober wrote:
| Yes that is correct. It is not "OSI approved open-source" it is
| rather https://faircode.io/ licensed instead which is similar
| but not the same.
| OJFord wrote:
| The article doesn't claim it is, submission has just changed
| the title from:
|
| > Fair-Code Automation with n8n.io
| dang wrote:
| We've updated the title above to match.
| kevindong wrote:
| For me personally, the value of IFTTT is not the
| automation/rules. It's the API integrations. Some of the
| inputs/outputs have horrifically complex APIs that I do not want
| to deal with. For that reason alone, I pay IFTTT their minimum
| $2/month.
| JadoJodo wrote:
| What does everyone use IFTTT-style services for? Up until about a
| month ago I had had an account since the beta, but never really
| found a use for it beyond something like:
|
| "Hey, Honey! Watch the lights change when it rains!"
| -\\_([?][?])_/-
| danpalmer wrote:
| Personally, the only IFTTT I have is the Django releases RSS
| feed tied into my personal todo list.
|
| However professionally, things like Zapier are very popular.
| Our marketing and operations teams love them because they can
| build semi automated processes without time from engineers.
| Often it's connecting spreadsheets, ticketing systems, customer
| support systems, etc.
|
| It feels nice to have these things under the control of
| engineering teams, but really it's unlikely they'll add value,
| and I think these services are pretty handy in so many cases.
| ben509 wrote:
| The Fair Code site doesn't really explain how it works, but the
| Commons Clause site[1] has an FAQ.
|
| I agree about the problem: it's hard to run a business supporting
| a project if a competitor can come along and resell their code
| without any compensation.
|
| The commons clause says a company can't sell "a product or
| service whose value derives, entirely or substantially, from the
| functionality of the Software."
|
| I like the idea that a company could create a plugin that works
| with existing open source software and then sell that. I like the
| idea of creating a framework that lots of people can add plugins
| for, because I could make my living offering a few handy plugins
| for it and I don't have a problem if others are also making a
| living selling their own plugins. In principle, it makes a lot of
| sense.
|
| I'm not clear if it's kosher for me to write product X that's
| using a lot of Apache licensed software, but to which I've added
| the Commons Clause.
|
| And it generally seems problematic... Suppose a company sinks a
| decent amount of effort into some widgets they add to a commons
| clause licensed software, but only 10% of customers really use
| the widgets. Are they in violation of the license?
|
| [1]: https://commonsclause.com/
|
| [2]: https://fosspost.org/fair-code-open-source/
| jlelse wrote:
| This project looks nice! Instantly shared it on my blog:
| https://jlelse.blog/links/2021/01/n8n. Thanks for this tutorial!
| todsacerdoti wrote:
| I hadn't heard of rocket.chat before but it looks very cool. I
| integrated it into Pipedream.com based on your post as it sounds
| like there are many compelling integration use cases.
|
| Example - https://pipedream.com/@/p_G6C6akB/
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