Choose your node building approach

n8n has two node-building styles, declarative and programmatic.

You should use the declarative style for most nodes. This style:

• Uses a JSON-based syntax, making it simpler to write, with less risk of introducing bugs.
• Is more future-proof.
• Supports integration with REST APIs.

The programmatic style is more verbose. You must use the programmatic style for:

• Trigger nodes
• Any node that isn't REST-based. This includes nodes that need to call a GraphQL API and nodes that use external dependencies.
• Any node that needs to transform incoming data.
• Full versioning. Refer to Node versioning for more information on types of versioning.

Data handling differences

The main difference between the declarative and programmatic styles is how they handle incoming data and build API requests. The programmatic style requires an execute() method, which reads incoming data and parameters, then builds a request. The declarative style handles this using the routing key in the operations object. Refer to Node base file for more information on node parameters and the execute() method.

Syntax differences

To understand the difference between the declarative and programmatic styles, compare the two code snippets below. This example creates a simplified version of the SendGrid integration, called "FriendGrid." The following code snippets aren't complete: they emphasize the differences in the node building styles.

In programmatic style:

import { IExecuteFunctions } from 'n8n-core';
import { INodeExecutionData, INodeType, INodeTypeDescription } from 'n8n-workflow';

// Create the FriendGrid class
export class FriendGrid implements INodeType {
  description: INodeTypeDescription = {
    displayName: 'FriendGrid',
    name: 'friendGrid',
    . . .
    properties: [
      {
        displayName: 'Resource',
        . . .
      },
      {
      displayName: 'Operation',
      name: 'operation',
      type: 'options',
      displayOptions: {
        show: {
            resource: [
            'contact',
            ],
        },
      },
      options: [
        {
          name: 'Create',
          value: 'create',
          description: 'Create a contact',
        },
      ],
      default: 'create',
      description: 'The operation to perform.',
    },
    {
      displayName: 'Email',
      name: 'email',
      . . .
    },
    {
      displayName: 'Additional Fields',
      // Sets up optional fields
    },
  ],
};

  async execute(this: IExecuteFunctions): Promise<INodeExecutionData[][]> {
    let responseData;
    const resource = this.getNodeParameter('resource', 0) as string;
    const operation = this.getNodeParameter('operation', 0) as string;
    //Get credentials the user provided for this node
    const credentials = await this.getCredentials('friendGridApi') as IDataObject;

    if (resource === 'contact') {
      if (operation === 'create') {
      // Get email input
      const email = this.getNodeParameter('email', 0) as string;
      // Get additional fields input
      const additionalFields = this.getNodeParameter('additionalFields', 0) as IDataObject;
      const data: IDataObject = {
          email,
      };

      Object.assign(data, additionalFields);

      // Make HTTP request as defined in https://sendgrid.com/docs/api-reference/
      const options: OptionsWithUri = {
        headers: {
            'Accept': 'application/json',
            'Authorization': `Bearer ${credentials.apiKey}`,
        },
        method: 'PUT',
        body: {
            contacts: [
            data,
            ],
        },
        url: `https://api.sendgrid.com/v3/marketing/contacts`,
        json: true,
      };
      responseData = await this.helpers.httpRequest(options);
      }
    }
    // Map data to n8n data
    return [this.helpers.returnJsonArray(responseData)];
  }
}

In declarative style:

import { INodeType, INodeTypeDescription } from 'n8n-workflow';

// Create the FriendGrid class
export class FriendGrid implements INodeType {
  description: INodeTypeDescription = {
    displayName: 'FriendGrid',
    name: 'friendGrid',
    . . .
    // Set up the basic request configuration
    requestDefaults: {
        baseURL: 'https://api.sendgrid.com/v3/marketing'
    },
    properties: [
        {
        displayName: 'Resource',
        . . .
        },
        {
        displayName: 'Operation',
        name: 'operation',
        type: 'options',
        displayOptions: {
          show: {
            resource: [
                'contact',
            ],
          },
        },
        options: [
          {
            name: 'Create',
            value: 'create',
            description: 'Create a contact',
            // Add the routing object
            routing: { 
                request: {
                method: 'POST',
                url: '=/contacts',
                send: {
                    type: 'body',
                    properties: {
                    email: {{$parameter["email"]}}
                    }
                }
                }
            },
            // Handle the response to contact creation
            output: {
                postReceive: [
                {
                    type: 'set',
                    properties: {
                    value: '={{ { "success": $response } }}'
                    }
                }
                ]
            }
            },
        ],
        default: 'create',
        description: 'The operation to perform.',
        },
        {
        displayName: 'Email',
        . . .
        },
        {
        displayName: 'Additional Fields',
        // Sets up optional fields
        },
    ],
  }
  // No execute method needed
}