<!-- Source: https://docs.squirro.com/en/latest/technical/data-loading/plugins/configuration.html -->
# Data Loader Plugin Configuration

Data loader plugins usually require configuration to provide different ways to access the source.

This may include credentials (but see [How To Write a Custom 1-Click Connector](../how-to/custom-connector.md#data-loader-custom-connector) for a way to avoid this) or specific data selection properties.

Such configuration is handled by implementing the [`getArguments()`](datasource.md#squirro.dataloader.data_source.DataSource.getArguments) method on the data loader plugin.
This method returns a list of dictionaries which describe each argument.

**name**

The name with which the argument is referenced, using `self.args.<name>`.
For manual passing in of arguments (in the command line or [Known Entity Extraction](../../kee/index.md#kee)) this is also the name with which the option can be passed in.
For command line arguments, underscores are replaced with hyphens.

**help**

The help string.
If display_label is not provided, help takes its place as a main label.
Otherwise, it serves as a secondary help text in the user interface.

**display_label**

The short label for this argument shown in the UI.

Set explicitly to [`None`](https://docs.python.org/3.11/library/constants.html#None) to hide this argument from the UI, in which
case this is an option that can only be used from the command line.

**required**

True if this argument is mandatory.
For such arguments, the [Project Creator](../../../profiles/project-creator.md#project-creator) won’t be able to proceed with creation of the load job in the UI if this is not provided.
Also in the command line version, an error will be thrown if such arguments are omitted.

**type**

Type to try to convert the value of the argument into.

Basic types are: `str`, `int`, `float`, `bool`

Special:

- `"password"` - which will be used as a string in the load script, but
  will be interpreted as a password field in the UI (hidden characters).
- `"file"` - allows passing in files.
  This is passed into the plugin as a filename, which can be passed to the [`open()`](https://docs.python.org/3.11/library/functions.html#open) builtin.
  In user interface the user will see a file selector to upload a file.
- `"code"` - multi-line text, e.g., SQL statements.
  A code-editor-like box will show when creating the loader from UI.

**default**

The default value of the argument.

**action**

Action to perform when this flag is given.

`"store"` is the default and simply allows the usage of the value of the
argument within the script.

`"store_true"` will turn the value of the argument to [`True`](https://docs.python.org/3.11/library/constants.html#True) if provided, [`False`](https://docs.python.org/3.11/library/constants.html#False) if not provided.
This is shown as a checkbox in the user interface.

`"store_false"` will turn the value of the argument to [`False`](https://docs.python.org/3.11/library/constants.html#False) if provided, [`True`](https://docs.python.org/3.11/library/constants.html#True) otherwise.
This is shown as a checkbox in the user interface.

**nargs**

Can be set to `"*"` if multiple values can be provided for this value.
`"+"` can be used if more than one value must be provided.

This is used if you want the user to provide a list of arguments, such as
list of IDs, URLs etc.

The resulting value is made available as a list to the data loader plugin.

Example:

```
def getArguments(self):
    return [
        {
            "name": "feeds",
            "nargs": "+"
        }
    ]
```

**advanced**

If this is set to [`True`](https://docs.python.org/3.11/library/constants.html#True) the setting is moved to the “Advanced Options” section which is collapsed by default.