Error installing community nodes on n8n

[BrutalBirdie]

@UweG when writing about an error please include the error message otherwise all I can say is what error?

[UweG]

@BrutalBirdie

How do i get the log?

[BrutalBirdie]

@UweG did you check the doc?
https://docs.cloudron.io/apps/n8n/

There is a section about installing custom node modules.

[UweG]

@BrutalBirdie Thank's for your answer.
I'm not so familiar with Cloudron installation.

I have read the linked documentation.

'If you require a custom module that is not installed in /app/code/node_modules, please make a post in our forum.'

I would like to have following custom module installed in /app/code/node_modules:

n8n-nodes-ninox

Ninox Node

And how i have to write the added line like for /app/data/env:

export NODE_FUNCTION_ALLOW_EXTERNAL=???

[robi]

@BrutalBirdie does the community nodes install attempt to use the RO FS?

[BrutalBirdie]

@robi I am not sure but it looks like it.
I just tried adding this to the ..EXTERNAL but i seems did not have the desired effect.

@girish maybe you can chime in and give some insight.
I guess this module as to be added via us devs?

[UweG]

@BrutalBirdie said in Error installing community nodes on n8n:

I am not sure but it looks like it.
I just tried adding this to the ..EXTERNAL but i seems did not have the desired effect.
@girish maybe you can chime in and give some insight.
I guess this module as to be added via us devs?

As I understand it, there is no possibility to add community nodes in Cloudron-n8n.
Unfortunately, I am also not skilled enough to perform such actions directly at the server level.

[UweG]

Has anyone ever installed a n8n-community-node on their cloudron-n8n and can tell me how?

I am trying to install the following node 'n8n-nodes-ninox' via settings and failing miserably.

[girish]

@UweG If the modules are deployed dynamically, this won't work (yet). We are yet to figure how to handle such dynamic node module installations. I think @ajtatum had similar issues as well. Have to look into this when we find some more time.

[JOduMonT]

@girish said in Error installing community nodes on n8n:

If the modules are deployed dynamically

Let's make n8n great again

I believe it's a relatively new function in n8n; it's under setup

while on the cloudron log side it's look like:

Sep 23 02:05:19 npm command failed
Sep 23 02:05:19 ERROR RESPONSE
Sep 23 02:05:19 ResponseError: Error loading package "n8n-nodes-g4whatsapp":Package could not be installed - check logs for details
Sep 23 02:05:19 at /app/code/node_modules/n8n/dist/src/api/nodes.api.js:79:15
Sep 23 02:05:19 at runMicrotasks (<anonymous>)
Sep 23 02:05:19 at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:96:5)
Sep 23 02:05:19 at async /app/code/node_modules/n8n/dist/src/ResponseHelper.js:90:26 {
Sep 23 02:05:19 httpStatusCode: 500
Sep 23 02:05:19 }
Sep 23 02:05:38 npm command failed
Sep 23 02:05:38 ERROR RESPONSE
Sep 23 02:05:38 ResponseError: Error loading package "n8n-nodes-g4whatsapp":Package could not be installed - check logs for details
Sep 23 02:05:38 at /app/code/node_modules/n8n/dist/src/api/nodes.api.js:79:15
Sep 23 02:05:38 at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:96:5)
Sep 23 02:05:38 at async /app/code/node_modules/n8n/dist/src/ResponseHelper.js:90:26 {
Sep 23 02:05:38 httpStatusCode: 500
Sep 23 02:05:38 }
Sep 23 02:09:43 npm command failed
Sep 23 02:09:43 ERROR RESPONSE
Sep 23 02:09:43 ResponseError: Error loading package "n8n-nodes-finnhub":Package could not be installed - check logs for details
Sep 23 02:09:43 at /app/code/node_modules/n8n/dist/src/api/nodes.api.js:79:15
Sep 23 02:09:43 at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:96:5)
Sep 23 02:09:43 at async /app/code/node_modules/n8n/dist/src/ResponseHelper.js:90:26 {
Sep 23 02:09:43 httpStatusCode: 500
Sep 23 02:09:43 }
Sep 23 02:09:59 npm command failed
Sep 23 02:09:59 ERROR RESPONSE
Sep 23 02:09:59 ResponseError: Error loading package "n8n-nodes-telegram-polling":Package could not be installed - check logs for details
Sep 23 02:09:59 at /app/code/node_modules/n8n/dist/src/api/nodes.api.js:79:15
Sep 23 02:09:59 at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:96:5)
Sep 23 02:09:59 at async /app/code/node_modules/n8n/dist/src/ResponseHelper.js:90:26 {
Sep 23 02:09:59 httpStatusCode: 500
Sep 23 02:09:59 }

[robi]

@JOduMonT Seems like linking that over to /app/data should do the trick.

See if you can do that in recovery mode.

[benborges]

Having the same issue, I think cloudron package need to be modified to allow community nodes to be installed.

n8n-nodes-rss-feed-trigger

Oct 25 10:41:44 2022-10-25T08:41:43.938Z | warn | npm command failed "{\n errorMessage: 'Command failed: npm install n8n-nodes-rss-feed-trigger\\n' +\n 'npm ERR! code EROFS\\n' +\n 'npm ERR! syscall mkdir\\n' +\n 'npm ERR! path /home/cloudron/.npm\\n' +\n 'npm ERR! errno EROFS\\n' +\n \"npm ERR! rofs Invalid response body while trying to fetch https://registry.npmjs.org/n8n-nodes-rss-feed-trigger: EROFS: read-only file system, mkdir '/home/cloudron/.npm'\\n\" +\n 'npm ERR! rofs Often virtualized file systems, or other file systems\\n' +\n \"npm ERR! rofs that don't support symlinks, give this error.\\n\" +\n '\\n' +\n 'npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:\\n',\n file: 'helpers.js',\n function: 'executeCommand'\n}"
Oct 25 10:41:44 ERROR RESPONSE
Oct 25 10:41:44 ResponseError: Error loading package "n8n-nodes-rss-feed-trigger":Package could not be installed - check logs for details
Oct 25 10:41:44 at /app/code/node_modules/n8n/dist/src/api/nodes.api.js:79:15

The old way of packaging custom npm modules could be ditched in favor of the ability to install community nodes https://www.npmjs.com/search?ranking=popularity&q=keywords%3An8n-community-node-package

is there any plan to do so ?

[girish]

@benborges how does this work from a deployment perspective. Let's say you deploy 5 custom node modules. What happens after an update? How is the installation of these modules tracked ?

I checked their SaaS offering and they don't allow installing community modules.

Any suggestions welcome.

[nebulon]

I just tried the upstream offering and found that n8n cloud does not support community modules, not even in the latest version. I am questioning now if it makes even sense for us to bend around making that possible, which will surely result in breakage if community modules are not updated and tested against new n8n versions. If upstream can't even support this, while they have per-customer instances (probably also some kind of containerization) I don't think we can support that.

[jdaviescoates]

@nebulon said in Error installing community nodes on n8n:

If upstream can't even support this, while they have per-customer instances (probably also some kind of containerization) I don't think we can support that.

I know next to nothing about this, but perhaps it's just like hosted WordPress.com (where basically no plugin are allowed, unless you upgrade and then a few become available), and self-hosting WordPress where you can install as many plugins you like.

[benborges]

@girish I'm not sure what to say, the community nodes UI is there, live on the cloudron package, but without being able to test an install and subsequent N8N upgrade I'm not sure how I can provide more information

[girish]

@benborges yeah, I was only checking if you know how this works deployment wise. Atleast, upstream I cannot find information about this.

[benborges]

@girish i will try to check with tom on the n8n forum, thanks for looking!

[dev-cb]

@UweG said in Error installing community nodes on n8n:

Is it generally not possible to install community nodes on Cloudron-n8n?

It is possible, I am using io.n8n.cloudronapp@2.14.0 (n8n v0.201.0):

1. open the app terminal
2. go to custom extensions folder cd /app/data/custom-extensions/
3. install your desired community packages, e.g. npm i n8n-nodes-directus
4. start editing the file /app/data/env with the File Manager and add these line:

export N8N_CUSTOM_EXTENSIONS=/app/data/custom-extensions/

5. Last but not least: restart the app and find the node in the Add Node panel

[benborges]

@dev-cb Ohhh this is exciting, wondering what happens if N8N gets an upgrade that breaks a community node..what would be the upgrade path? wait for community node upgrade, then upgrade existing installed custom packages and restart N8N ?