---
title: Variables used in the modern client
description: |
  Details about the variables used in the uibuilder modern front-end client library. Some variables are available to your own custom code and some are hidden inside the `uibuilder` client object.
created: 2023-01-28 15:56:57
updated: 2024-08-25 15:08:40
---

## Read/write

Always use `uibuilder.set('varname', value)` to change these.

* `logLevel` - Sets the current logging level. The default is `2` ('error' and 'warn'). Increase to see more detailed logging.
  
  NOTE: This is one of the few properties it is safe to change directly `uibuilder.logLevel = 5`. That is because it has a dedicated getter and setter in the Class.

* `originator` - Set to the node ID of a `uib-sender` node if you want any sent messages (back to Node-RED) to only go to that node. Normally, you would not set this manually but rather rely on the library to set it for you when it recieves a msg from a sender node. However, you might want to save and reconstitue it if you need to send general messages before returning a message to the sender node.
  
  NOTE: It is preferable to set this via the specific function `uibuilder.setOriginator(...)`.

* `topic` - Sets a default `msg.topic` that will be added to all outbound messages if nothing takes preference. Set to an empty string to turn it off.

* `ui_md_plugins` - [Optional Markdown-IT plugins](client-docs/markdown?id=extending-markdown-it-with-plugins).

## Read only

Always use `uibuilder.get('varname', value)` to obtain the value of these. You can also use `uibuilder.onChange('varname', (val)=>{})` to watch for changes to them. Or you can also use the custom `document` event `uibuilder:propertyChanged` if you really want to.

* `clientId` - Client ID set by uibuilder on connect.
* `connectedNum` - How many times the page has had to reconnect to Socket.IO.
* `cookies` - The collection of cookies provided by uibuilder.
* `ctrlMsg` - Copy of last control msg object received from sever.
* `ioConnected` - Is Socket.IO client connected to the server?
* `isMinified` - Whether or not the library was loaded from a minified version.
* `isVisible` - Whether or not, the current page is showing to the user.
* `isVue` - Has the VueJS framework library been loaded?
* `lastNavType` - Remember the last page (re)load/navigation type (navigate, reload, back_forward, prerender).
* `maxHttpBufferSize` - The maximum size of message that can be sent back to Node-RED over Socket.IO (in bytes).
* `meta` - module metadata {version, type, displayName}.
* `msg` - Last std msg received from Node-RED.
* `msgsSent` - The number of messages sent to server since page load.
* `msgsReceived` - The number of messages received from server since page load.
* `msgsSentCtrl` - The number of control messages sent to server since page load.
* `msgsCtrlReceived` - The number of control messages received from server since page load.
* `online` - Is the client browser online (true) or offline (false)?
* `pageMeta` - The current page's static file metadata (timestamps & size) requested from the server by the [`getPageMeta()` function](/client-docs/functions#getPageMeta).
* `pageName` - Actual name of the current page.
* `sentCtrlMsg` - The last control msg object sent via uibuilder.send().
* `sentMsg` - The last std msg object sent via uibuilder.send().
* `serverTimeOffset` - Time offset between browser clock and server clock.
* `socketError` - Holds the details of the last socket error.
* `tabId` - Identifier for the current browser tab.
* `url` - The instance URL fragment (name) for this instance of uibuilder.
* `urlHash` Set on load and updated as it changes. URL Hashes are used by front-end routing for Single-Page-Apps (SPA's). They do not reload the page.
* `version` - accessible via `uibuilder.get('version')` or `uibuilder.get('meta')` only - the uibuilder client version in use.
* `vueVersion` - if the VueJS front-end library is loaded, this _may_ tell you the version (does not work for all versions of VueJS).

In addition, `uibuilder.logLevel` will automatically be retrieved via its own getter, use as `console.log(uibuilder.logLevel)`.

## Read only - unlikely to be required

* `httpNodeRoot` - The setting from Node-RED. May be useful if you need to manually create a Node-RED URL and have set this variable in Node-RED.

## Functions that deal with client variables

See [client functions](client-docs/functions#variable-handling) for details.