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New Node-types

This page describes the necessary steps for adding a new node-type to VILLASnode. VILLASnode already comes with a lot of existing implementations of node-types which should provide a good starting point.

  1. Choose a short and descriptive name for you node-type. E.g mqtt, websocket, iec61850-9-2.

    • The name must only contain lower-case letters and dashes.
    • In this guide we use my-proto as an example.

  2. Identify required external dependencies & libraries

  3. Check for availability of external libraries in main CMakeLists.txt.

    • Do not forget to introduce a new calls to cmake_dependent_option() as well as a add_feature_info() for your new node-type further down in the CMake file.

  4. Copy the example C++ code:

    • Name the files according to the name of your node-type.
    • Replace dashes with underscores.
    cp lib/nodes/example.cpp lib/nodes/my_proto.cpp
    cp include/villas/example.hpp include/villas/my_proto.hpp

  5. Add the new C++ file to the lib/nodes/CMakeLists.txt file

    • Make sure it is guarded by the new CMake option introduce in step 2)

  6. Implement the new node-type by editing my_proto.cpp and my_proto.cpp

    • Make sure to register the new node-type in the last lines of my_proto.cpp.
    • Adjust the node-type name as well as add a short description.
    • Remove the NodeFactory::Flags::HIDDEN flag from the node-type registration.

  7. Implement an integration test for your node-type which test its functionality in an end-to-end test:

    cp tests/integration/node-example.sh tests/integration/node-my-proto.sh

  8. Copy the example configuration and adapt it to your node-type

    cp etc/example/nodes/example.conf etc/example/nodes/my_proto.conf

  9. Copy the configuration schema (OpenAPI spec) and adapt it to your node-type:

    cp doc/openapi/components/schemas/config/nodes/example.yaml doc/openapi/components/schemas/config/nodes/my_proto.yaml
    cp doc/openapi/components/schemas/config/nodes/_example.yaml doc/openapi/components/schemas/config/nodes/_my_proto.yaml

  10. Add the configuration schema of your node-type to the list of available nodes in: doc/openapi/components/schemas/config/node_obj.yaml

  11. Submit a new pull-request with your changes.

    • Check if build finishes successfully