Node credentials

A node may define a number of properties as credentials. These are properties that are stored separately to the main flow file and do not get included when flows are exported from the editor.

To add credentials to a node, the following steps are taken:

1. Add a new credentials entry to the node’s definition:

    credentials: {
        username: {type:"text"},
        password: {type:"password"}
    },
   

   The entries take a single option - their type which can be either text or password.

2. Add suitable entries to the edit template for the node

    <div class="form-row">
        <label for="node-input-username"><i class="icon-tag"></i> Username</label>
        <input type="text" id="node-input-username">
    </div>
    <div class="form-row">
        <label for="node-input-password"><i class="icon-tag"></i> Password</label>
        <input type="password" id="node-input-password">
    </div>
   

   Note that the template uses the same element id conventions as regular node properties.

3. In the node’s .js file, the call to RED.nodes.registerType must be updated to include the credentials:

    RED.nodes.registerType("my-node",MyNode,{
        credentials: {
            username: {type:"text"},
            password: {type:"password"}
        }
    });
   

Accessing credentials

Runtime use of credentials

Within the runtime, a node can access its credentials using the credentials property:

function MyNode(config) {
    RED.nodes.createNode(this,config);
    var username = this.credentials.username;
    var password = this.credentials.password;
}

Credentials within the Editor

Within the editor, a node has restricted access to its credentials. Any that are of type text are available under the credentials property - just as they are in the runtime. But credentials of type password are not available. Instead, a corresponding boolean property called has_<property-name> is present to indicate whether the credential has a non-blank value assigned to it.

oneditprepare: function() {
    // this.credentials.username is set to the appropriate value
    // this.credentials.password is not set
    // this.credentials.has_password indicates if the property is present in the runtime
    ...
}

Advanced credential use

Whilst the credential system outlined above is sufficient for most cases, in some circumstances it is necessary to store more values in credentials then just those that get provided by the user.

For example, for a node to support an OAuth workflow, it must retain server-assigned tokens that the user never sees. The Twitter node provides a good example of how this can be achieved.