Declarative-style parameters

These are the parameters available for node base file of declarative-style nodes.

This document gives short code snippets to help understand the code structure and concepts. For a full walk-through of building a node, including real-world code examples, refer to Build a declarative-style node.

Refer to Standard parameters for parameters available to all nodes.

methods and loadOptions

Object | Optional

methods contains the loadOptions object. You can use loadOptions to query the service to get user-specific settings, then return them and render them in the GUI so the user can include them in subsequent queries. The object must include routing information for how to query the service, and output settings that define how to handle the returned options. For example:

methods : {
	loadOptions: {
		routing: {
			request: {
				url: '/webhook/example-option-parameters',
				method: 'GET',
			},
			output: {
				postReceive: [
					{
						// When the returned data is nested under another property
						// Specify that property key
						type: 'rootProperty',
						properties: {
							property: 'responseData',
						},
					},
					{
						type: 'setKeyValue',
						properties: {
							name: '={{$responseItem.key}} ({{$responseItem.value}})',
							value: '={{$responseItem.value}}',
						},
					},
					{
						// If incoming data is an array of objects, sort alphabetically by key
						type: 'sort',
						properties: {
							key: 'name',
						},
					},
				],
			},
		},
	}
},

routing

Object | Required

routing is an object used within an options array in operations and input field objects. It contains the details of an API call.

The code example below comes from the Declarative-style tutorial. It sets up an integration with a NASA API. It shows how to use requestDefaults to set up the basic API call details, and routing to add information for each operation.

description: INodeTypeDescription = {
  // Other node info here
  requestDefaults: {
			baseURL: 'https://api.nasa.gov',
			url: '',
			headers: {
				Accept: 'application/json',
				'Content-Type': 'application/json',
			},
		},
    properties: [
      // Resources here
      {
        displayName: 'Operation'
        // Other operation details
        options: [
          {
            name: 'Get'
            value: 'get',
            description: '',
            routing: {
              request: {
                method: 'GET',
                url: '/planetary/apod'
              }
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
}

version

Number or Array | Optional

If you have one version of your node, this can be a number. If you want to support more than one version, turn this into an array, containing numbers for each node version.

n8n supports two methods of node versioning, but declarative-style nodes must use the light versioning approach. Refer to Node versioning for more information.

features

Object | Optional

Define named feature flags evaluated against the node version. Use features to control parameter visibility with @feature in displayOptions.

Refer to Feature-based versioning for more information.