node-red-contrib-gearman

A Node-RED node for submitting jobs to a Gearman job server and receiving results or progress updates.

Overview

This custom node lets you integrate Node-RED flows with a Gearman job server.
You can:

• Submit jobs to Gearman workers
• Receive results when jobs complete
• Receive progress updates from workers
• Monitor job status directly in Node-RED

Installation

From within your Node-RED user directory (usually ~/.node-red):

npm install node-red-contrib-gearman

Or add it to your package.json dependencies and restart Node-RED.

If you’re using Docker:

# Build a Node-RED image with this node included
docker build -t my-nodered-gearman . docker run -it -p 1880:1880 my-nodered-gearman

Node Configuration

Connection

| Field | Description | Default | | -------- | ------------------------------------ | ----------- | | Host | Hostname or IP of the Gearman server | localhost | | Port | Port number | 4730 |

Job

| Field | Description | | ----------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Job Function Name | Name of the Gearman job to execute | | Wait for Result | If checked, the node waits for the worker to return a result; otherwise submits in background | | Payload | Whatever is in msg.payload will be sent as job data (JSON serialized automatically) |

Usage Examples

1. Send a simple object

Inject Node Payload:

{
    "task": "resize",
    "width": 400,
    "height": 300
}

Gearman Node:

• Job = resize_image
• Wait for Result = checked

Worker receives:

{"task":"resize","width":400,"height":300}

2. Send only part of msg.payload

Use a Function node upstream:

// Only send the 'user' object from payload
msg.job = "generate_report";
msg.payload = msg.payload.user;
return msg;

Gearman receives just:

{"id":123,"name":"Adze"}

3. Dynamic Job & Host

You can override per message:

msg.job = "resize_image";
msg.payload = { url: "https://example.com/a.jpg", width: 400 };
msg.host = "gearmand"; // optional if different host
msg.port = 4730;
return msg;

Outputs

• Output 0 – Job result (when waitForResult is true)
• Output 1 – Progress updates from the worker

Status colors:

| Status | Color | Meaning | | ------------------------ | --------- | ------------------------------ | | Connecting / In progress | 🟡 Yellow | Job is being processed | | Connected / Complete | 🟢 Green | Job completed successfully | | Error / Failed | 🔴 Red | Job failed or connection error | | Disconnected | ⚫ Grey | Node disconnected from Gearman |

Local Development with Docker

A sample docker-compose.yml for local testing:

nodered:
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
    container_name: nodered
    ports:
      - "1880:1880"
    environment:
      - TZ=UTC
    depends_on:
      - gearmand
    restart: unless-stopped

Run it:

docker compose up --build

Then open http://localhost:1880 and use your new Gearman node.

Testing

You can test by running a simple Gearman worker:

gearman -w -f echo -- cat

Then send a job with Node-RED using the Gearman node and observe the echo output.

License

MIT © 2025 adri

See LICENSE for details.