NodeRED Restart Required When Changing Name or App Icon

[cgjgh]

Current Behavior

NodeRED needs to be restarted for name or app icon changes to take effect, seemingly due to the following:
init function gets executed on every deploy but anything inside if (!uiShared.app) {} only on initial Dashboard start.

function init(node, config) {
    node.uiShared = uiShared

    // ...

    if (!uiShared.app) {
        // ...
        uiShared.app.get('/dashboard/manifest.webmanifest', (req, res) => {
            const hasAppIcon = (config.appIcon && config.appIcon.trim() !== '')
            const manifest = {
                name: config.name,
                short_name: config.name,
                start_url: './',
                display: 'standalone',
                background_color: '#ffffff',
                lang: 'en',
                scope: './',
                description: config.name,
                theme_color: '#ffffff',
                icons: [
                    { src: hasAppIcon ? config.appIcon : 'pwa-64x64.png', sizes: '64x64', type: 'image/png' },
                    { src: hasAppIcon ? config.appIcon : 'pwa-192x192.png', sizes: '192x192', type: 'image/png' },
                    { src: hasAppIcon ? config.appIcon : 'pwa-512x512.png', sizes: '512x512', type: 'image/png' },
                    { src: hasAppIcon ? config.appIcon : 'pwa-512x512.png', sizes: '512x512', type: 'image/png', purpose: 'maskable' }
                ]
            }
            return res.json(manifest)
        })
    }
    // ...
}

Expected Behavior

Name and app icon should be updated after deploying - possible workaround to avoid expensive full reinitializations on every deploy would be to add a manual reload button in ui-base settings.

Steps To Reproduce

1. Deploy flow with D2.
2. Observe app name or icon when pressing Install (PWA).
3. Change app name or icon in ui-config settings and deploy.
4. Reload page (several times for good measure) and observe app name or icon when pressing Install (PWA). Changes do not update.
5. After a NodeRED restart the above procedure will result in correctly updated changes.

Environment

• Dashboard version: 1.19.1
• Node-RED version: 4.0.2
• Node.js version:
• npm version:
• Platform/OS: Any
• Browser: Any

Have you provided an initial effort estimate for this issue?

I am not a FlowFuse team member

[joepavitt]

Goods spot, I'm not sure why that would have been gated in the original commit. @Steve-Mcl can you think of any reasons I'm missing here?

[Steve-Mcl]

I was aware this was required (I mentioned it at the time of implementation) I was told it was the only way currently possible without restructuring. I agree it is not ideal but i don't know without investigation what the refactoring would involve - sorry.