node-red-contrib-display-property 1.1.0

A Node-RED node that displays the value of a message property as node status, optionally including the date and time.

npm install node-red-contrib-display-property

node-red-contrib-display-property

A simple Node-RED node that displays the value of a message property as the node status.

The node is intended to make flows easier to observe and debug without adding a separate Debug node for every value you want to watch. It can optionally prepend the current date and/or time to the displayed value.

Features

• Displays a configurable msg property as the node status
• Supports nested properties such as msg.payload.temperature
• Optional date display in YYYY-MM-DD format
• Optional time display in HH:MM:SS format
• Supports per-message property override using msg.property
• Passes the incoming message through unchanged
• Backward compatible with existing configurations that store properties with a leading msg.

Installation

Install from the Node-RED Manage palette dialog, or from your Node-RED user directory with:

npm install node-red-contrib-display-property

Restart Node-RED after installation if required.

Configuration

Name

Optional name for the node.

Property

Select the message property to display.

The default property is:

msg.payload

Nested properties are supported, for example:

msg.payload.temperature
msg.payload.room.temperature
msg.topic

If the configured property does not exist in the incoming message, the status displays:

property does not exist

Show date

When enabled, the current local date is prepended to the status in:

YYYY-MM-DD

Show time

When enabled, the current local time is prepended to the status in:

HH:MM:SS

When both options are enabled, the status begins for example with:

2026-08-24 14:35:12:

Per-message property override

An incoming message may contain msg.property.

If it contains a non-empty property name, that value overrides the property configured in the editor for that message only.

Example:

msg.property = "msg.topic";
msg.topic = "Heating";
return msg;

The node will display the value of msg.topic for this message. The configured property remains unchanged for subsequent messages.

Both of these forms are accepted:

msg.payload.temperature
payload.temperature

Message handling

The node only reads the incoming message. It does not add, remove, or modify message properties.

The same message is passed to the output.

Example

Incoming message:

{
  "payload": {
    "temperature": 21.7
  }
}

Configured property:

msg.payload.temperature

Displayed node status:

21.7

Version 1.1.0

Version 1.1.0 modernizes and hardens the node while preserving compatibility with existing flows and Node-RED 1.0 or later.

Changes include:

• fixed msg.property handling so it affects only the current message
• fixed handling of empty or invalid msg.property values
• added reliable support for nested message properties
• removed unintended modification of incoming messages
• modernized the Node-RED input handler with send and done
• changed date/time settings to Boolean values
• added a Node-RED TypedInput for message properties
• improved the editor help text
• retained compatibility with old property strings such as msg.payload

License

MIT