Using environment variables

Setting a node property

Any node property can be set with an environment variable by setting its value to a string of the form ${ENV_VAR}. When the runtime loads the flows, it will substitute the value of that environment variable before passing it to the node.

This only works if it replaces the entire property - it cannot be used to substitute just part of the value. For example, it is not possible to use CLIENT-${HOST}.

As nodes provide their own edit dialog, not all properties will provide a text input that can be used to enter the env-var string. In that case, you may consider hand-editing the flow file to set the property.

Using the TypedInput widget

TypedInput Environment Variable type

Within the editor, the TypedInput widget can offer ‘environment variable’ as a type. When this type is selected, its value will be evaluated as follows:

• if there is no ${} present, uses the whole value as the name of the environment variable. For example, "FOO" will be replaced with the value of process.env.FOO

• if ${} is present, it will substitute the corresponding environment variable into the result: For example, given the value "Hello ${FOO}" and the env var FOO is set to World, this results in the value "Hello World"

JSONata Expressions

Environment variables can be accessed in JSONata expressions, such as in the Change node, using the $env function:

$env('ENV_VAR')

Function node

Within a Function node, environment variables get be accessed using the env.get function:

let foo = env.get("FOO");

Subflow Instance properties

Since 0.20, Subflows can be configured with instance properties. These appear as environment variables within the Subflow and can be customised for individual instances of the subflow.

For example, given a REST API that provides access to different types of record, a subflow could be created to access the API and handle the response, using an environment variable to identify which type of record should be accessed. Individual instances of the Subflow can then be customised for those particular types.