We have just enabled the alpha version of our new Canvas for both Cloud and self-hosted instances. The Canvas is the ‘drawing board’ of the n8n editor, and we’re working on a full rewrite. Your feedback and testing will help us improve it.
Note: As this is still in alpha, we do not recommend using it on production workflows.
Why are we updating the canvas?
Developer Experience: The rewrite improves code readability and maintainability.
Performance and Memory Optimization: The new codebase helps us identify and address pain points related to performance and memory consumption.
Future Flexibility: This rewrite sets the stage for adding new features and potentially rethinking how the canvas operates.
Changes you can already experience
Improved performance: Editing workflows with hundreds of nodes is now smoother. However, workflows with large amounts of in-memory data when running in the editor may still see slowdowns.
Mini map: For large workflows, the new mini map feature will make it easier to navigate while dragging the canvas.
Hi, @bartv. From which version is the new canvas available? I have version 1.64.3 installed (I believe it’s the latest at the moment), and I don’t see it.
Super excited to try this out, canvas performance has been one of my biggest gripes (together with not being able to pin binary files). Upgrading now and will report back.
You mention that “workflows with large amounts of in-memory data when running in the editor may still see slowdowns.” is this planned in future improvement as well?
Updates:
I’m seeing the zoom behaviour has changed whereby pinch-to-zoom now only works when holding CTRL. Not logging as a bug as I’m unclear on whether this was intentional?
The animations while a flow is running are a nice touch and performance while running seems improved. Previously the canvas was way behind the actual execution, sometimes >30s for one of my workflows.
Just tried it on a big workflow that took me ages to open previously (its a legacy one) and instead of waiting for 20 seconds it loads in 3. absolutely amazing!
Also opening nodes feels way quicker and just very smooth in general. Minimap is also a nice touch but thankfully my workflows aren’t that big that I need it yet haha Great job to everyone who made this happen
I’m on Chrome but with a very unusual setup (ChromeOS + a Magic Trackpad). So if it works on the usual platforms I suspect I’m stuck Worth the trade off for the performance improvement I think
When a node is selected, click space to edit the name instead of F2
Also, When a sticky note is selected, clicking on 1 in the keyboard would fit it in the view instead of fitting the entire workflow… (Or if possible with Shift + 1, to keep 1 as is )
Once of the main pain points with the canvas, when a node is copied, always paste in the location where the mouse is hovering, I noticed that it sometimes woks when I click before I go CMD+V, but just mouse position would make much more sense
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When I select this for a node, it’d be great to have that node have a red outline + checkmark when it has and error and skips it, so I know that the node had an error that was skipped when looking at the execution history, or when running it manually too…
Having an indicator for that executions in the execution history list would help too!
like this maybe with yellow/orange color instead of red
This might be a little out of the scope of this thread
I’ve been using it for a few days now. One thing that I would love is when we duplicate or paste a module, default the location to the center of the viewer’s screen. It seems to randomly putting the new modules all over the place.
Hey everyone! I’m the lead dev on the new canvas project. Thanks a lot for trying it out! Brings me joy to see so many of you helping us identify issues and improvements we can bring to the new canvas.
I’ll be tracking all of the issues reported here internally, and will get most of them out in the following releases.
Rename nodes with space instead of F2. F2 on many keyboard is a multi-key press, super annoying. In fact, if it also be easier via mouse (e.g. double right click) that’s be a productivity booster. @brahimh
Other issues I am facing are:
Canvas execution state animations stuck. The animated lines and rotating indicators often get stuck for executions that are long, complicated, errored, have loops, or are stopped manually.
Anything with large data like flows that deal with binaries can sometimes make the the canvas never display the completed status. The executions view shows it quickly, it’s specific to the editor canvas.
Worth the trade off for the performance improvement I think
