Node.status in flow functions puts text on node where functions is set

Third party integrations Node-RED
1

Hey all,

I just discovered how to create functions that are available throughout the entire flow, so I’m rebuilding some function-nodes that are using a lot of the same functions. I use node.status() a lot (among other things) to display relevant information. So I thought "wouldn’t it be nice to have setNodeStatus() function in my flow functions. That way i can also use then inside the flow functions.

Partial code from the function-node that “declares” the flow functions. Triggered with an injection-node on start:

var flow_functions = {

    setStatusText: function setStatusText(_color, _shape, _text) {
        var date = new Date().toLocaleDateString('en-US', {
            month: 'short', day: 'numeric',  hour12: false,
            hour: 'numeric', minute: 'numeric'
        }); // snippet grabbed from stackexchange
        node.status({fill: _color, shape: _shape, text: statusText });
        //return {fill: _color, shape: _shape, text: statusText };
    },

    turn_on: function turn_on(entity_id) {
        if ( this.doSomething(entity_id, "on") ) {
            this.setStatusText("green", "dot", `${entity_id} to on`);
        } else {
            this.setStatusText("green", "dot", `${entity_id} to on`);
        }
    },

    doSomething: function doSomething(entity_id, state) {
        if ( /* checks to see if entity_id exists or whatever */ ) {
            /* do more stuff */
            return true;
        } else {
            return false;
        }
    },
}
flow.set("flow_functions",flow_functions);

And then in the actual function-node where I need the functions:

var entity_id = msg.data.entity_id;
var func = flow.get("flow_functions");

if ( func.hasEntityId( entity_id ) ) {
    func.turn_on( entity_id ) ;
}

I find this strange behaviour.

But… the node.status appears on the flow where those functions are defined… Don’t understand that… It only works if I reconstruct it like this (and ofc return the data that is needed my node.status() instead of calling node.status()

var entity_id = msg.data.entity_id;
var func = flow.get("flow_functions");

if ( func.hasEntityId( entity_id ) ) {
    if ( func.turn_on( entity_id ) ) {
        node.status(func.setStatusText("green","dot",`Set ${entity_id} to on`));
    } else {
        node.status(func.setStatusText("red","ring",`Error setting ${entity_id} to on`));
    }
}

Can this be fixed?
And I hope I explained the problem clearly :slight_smile:

Regards,
Sjoerd