protected function getVal($key, $show=TRUE)
    {
      if (!($this->credentials instanceof CredentialsUser)) {
        $content = json_decode(file_get_contents(self::$credentials_opts['path']));
      } else {
        $content = $this->credentials;
      }

      if (!array_key_exists($key, get_object_vars($content))) {
        return false;
      }

      if (is_array($content->{$key})) {
        return implode(",", $content->{$key});
      }
            
      return $content->{$key};
    }