Feature request: ui-text: label set via msg.ui_update persists and cannot be restored to configured label

[PLUN2601]

Current Behavior

Description

I found a reproducible issue with the ui-text widget in Dashboard 2.0.

If the widget label is changed dynamically using msg.ui_update.label, the new label is displayed correctly.

However, after removing the msg.ui_update code again, the widget does not return to the label configured in the editor.

Even the following actions do not restore the configured label:

Partly deploy changed flow or changed nodes
Full Deploy
Browser refresh (Ctrl+F5)

The only way to reset is to restart Node_RED.
This makes iterative development in huge projects unnecessarily cumbersome.

The only workaround I found is:

Copy the ui-text node.
Delete the original node.
Deploy.

The copied node (with a new node ID) again displays the configured label correctly.

This suggests that the runtime label is stored internally and is not reset when the widget configuration changes.

Steps to reproduce

Create a ui-text widget with a configured label (e.g. "Original Label").
Send:
msg.ui_update = {
label: "Dynamic Label"
};
return msg;
Verify that the widget now shows "Dynamic Label".
Remove the code that sends msg.ui_update.label.
Deploy the flow (Full Deploy).
Expected behaviour

The widget should display the label configured in the editor again.

Actual behaviour

The last dynamically assigned label remains visible permanently.

Workaround

Creating a new ui-text node (copy/delete original) restores the expected behaviour.

[colinl]

Can you try again restarting node-red? The behaviour is as you describe, and applies to all nodes where ui_update is used, except that a node red restart should reset it.

[PLUN2601]

Thanks, I can confirm that restarting Node-RED restores the configured label.

However, during dashboard development this is not a practical workaround. After testing a dynamic msg.ui_update.label and then removing it again, I would expect a Full Deploy to restore the configured label. Requiring a complete Node-RED restart just to reset the runtime state makes iterative development unnecessarily cumbersome.

Would it be possible for a Full Deploy (or at least redeploying the widget) to clear the runtime ui_update state?

[colinl]

Would it be possible for a Full Deploy (or at least redeploying the widget) to clear the runtime ui_update state?

Probably, yes. However, there is a severe shortage of manpower available to work on the dashboard at the moment. More volunteers would be helpful.

Requiring a complete Node-RED restart just to reset the runtime state makes iterative development unnecessarily cumbersome.

Unfortunately this is how it is at the moment.
Could you edit your description to make it clear that a node red restart does reset it?
Also you could edit it and the title to make it a Feature Request for a change to the way msg.ui_update is handled when a full deploy or restart flows is performed. It is probably not the most urgent issue that needs work at the moment though, and is probably not a trivial piece of work.

[PLUN2601]

I did edit my the description and the title as you wished.
Hopefully the described behavior will be improved in some time. :-)

[colinl]

The issue is not specific to the ui-text node, it applies to all core dashboard nodes.