How to update to Windmill CE 1.513.1?

[reidellawfirm]

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Steps to reproduce

1. Install NC Flow
2. Windmill Instance Settings indicate a new version of Windmill CE is available with a command to update
3. Running this command has no effect and is not applicable as far as I can tell to the NC Flow app
4. The NC ExApps update command (https://nextcloud.github.io/app_api/ManagingExternalApplications.html) does update NC Flow but not the Windmill CE version.

Expected behaviour

Updating the NC Flow app should also update to latest Windmill CE version

Actual behaviour

See screenshot of Windmill Instance Settings noting an update is available.

Server configuration

Operating System: Linux 5.15.0-144-generic x86_64

CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) E-2276G CPU @ 3.80GHz (2 threads)

Memory: 19.53 GB

PHP 8.3.23

Database: pgsql

Nextcloud version: Nextcloud Hub 10 (31.0.7)

List of activated apps

If you have access to your command line run e.g.:
sudo -u www-data php occ app:list
from within your Nextcloud installation folder

Nextcloud configuration

If you have access to your command line run e.g.:
sudo -u www-data php occ config:list system
from within your Nextcloud installation folder

Browser

Browser name: Firefox/Chrome/Safari/…

Browser version: 124/125/…

Operating system: Windows/Ubuntu/Mac/…

Browser log

Insert your browser log here, this could for example include:
a) The javascript console log
b) The network log
c) ...

[reidellawfirm]

I haven't found documentation on how to update the Windmill CE version within NC Flow yet but please point me in the right direction if there is any yet.

[tareko]

It doesn't look like there's an easy way to do this. With the current version of Flow, it still uses 1.394.4, as you can see here:

https://github.com/nextcloud/flow/blob/main/Makefile#L36

I suspect this is for compatibility reasons, and I'm not sure when a new version might be available. I note from the changelog that 1.394 was released before September, 2024, so it is quite long in the tooth at almost a year old.

[marcelklehr]

We might be able to publish a new release of the exapp with a newer version of windmill, but will have to test first, I guess.

[tareko]

I'm happy to test it as well. I tried to use the dev instructions to create a separate app with the upgraded version, but it unfortunately failed. Looking at the new version, it doesn't seem to have any major incompatibilities that I could find.

[tareko]

Gentle poke about this. I still haven't figured out how to use the instructions to practically create an upgraded addon. The old version of windmill now has many broken things. e.g., no AI coding.

[reidellawfirm]

Is there any update on this? Windmill is now on v1.567.

[tareko]

I must admit I'm really puzzled by the fact this ticket hasn't closed yet. The software version in use is now 14 months old, and key features are broken (e.g., AI coding). Since it's a low/no-code application, it's not a huge surprise that people like me and @reidellawfirm are using it and don't know how to upgrade it. I've tried multiple times using openai codex, but still haven't been able to figure it out.

This is a feature that is touted as one of Nextcloud's key features, which is why I decided to do the absolutely painful work of learning windmill rather than something like N8N which is way more richly supported in the community. If the barrier is that some key feature is broken when upgraded, perhaps the maintainer can just say as much - it's been 3 months since @marcelklehr last commented. I very much don't mind abandoning windmill or NC flow at this point. As it is, it barely does what I want and all my development happens in another up-to-date windmill and then has code copied over. We just need some direction in terms of where to go.

[reidellawfirm]

I think its an underused tool unfortunately. Especially since it is likely the most powerful for business adoption of NC.

I will also add that many of the pre-scripted blocks in the Windmill Hub appear quite dated and required modifications before they were usable in our current install.

[reidellawfirm]

For future reference on those considering NC Flow/Windmill:

The Windmill.dev team seems to be very actively developing and improving the standalone Windmill self hosted server integrations with Nextcloud:

See:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzCvpwuiCjo&t=2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrnmNgQ22jE&t=3

And there also appears to be further work from NC on the OCS API for NC Flow app: https://github.com/nextcloud/integration_windmill

It might be more sustainable solution to self-host and install Windmill separately from NC and setup the NC resources on your own. It looks like setup and integrations for standalone Windmill server will be just as simple with better flexibility and latest updates.

[tareko]

Thank you for this update. Does this mean that first block can work still? Or is there another way to better integrate into Nextcloud? Because at this point, I share the common perspective of others I've talked to that this plugin is effectively dead and it's time to move on.

Tarek

For future reference on those considering NC Flow/Windmill:

The Windmill.dev team seems to be very actively developing and improving the standalone Windmill self hosted server integrations with Nextcloud:

See:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzCvpwuiCjo&t=2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrnmNgQ22jE&t=3

And there also appears to be further work from NC on the OCS API for NC Flow app: https://github.com/nextcloud/integration_windmill

It might be more sustainable solution to self-host and install Windmill separately from NC and setup the NC resources on your own. It looks like setup and integrations for standalone Windmill server will be just as simple with better flexibility and latest updates.

[reidellawfirm]

Thank you for this update. Does this mean that first block can work still? Or is there another way to better integrate into Nextcloud? Because at this point, I share the common perspective of others I've talked to that this plugin is effectively dead and it's time to move on.

Tarek

For future reference on those considering NC Flow/Windmill:
The Windmill.dev team seems to be very actively developing and improving the standalone Windmill self hosted server integrations with Nextcloud:
See:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzCvpwuiCjo&t=2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrnmNgQ22jE&t=3
And there also appears to be further work from NC on the OCS API for NC Flow app: https://github.com/nextcloud/integration_windmill
It might be more sustainable solution to self-host and install Windmill separately from NC and setup the NC resources on your own. It looks like setup and integrations for standalone Windmill server will be just as simple with better flexibility and latest updates.

Using a separate self hosted Windmill instance you can still connect to Nextcloud. This NC app is a specific Windmill instance created as an exApp in NC AIO but it is a very old version of Windmill and has additional limitations that the self hosted Windmill Instance does not have.

My only point for others is that moving from the NC app to a standalone Windmill Instance is likely a more robust option long term.

[tareko]

I mean: What is the replacement for CORE:LISTEN_TO_EVENT? Or do we use that as is somehow? Is there some other resource you used to learn about how to connect them?

Using a separate self hosted Windmill instance you can still connect to Nextcloud. This NC app is a specific Windmill instance created as an exApp in NC AIO but it is a very old version of Windmill and has additional limitations that the self hosted Windmill Instance does not have.

My only point for others is that moving from the NC app to a standalone Windmill Instance is likely a more robust option long term.