KNIME Components Guide

Introduction

In this guide we introduce components and metanodes.

Components and metanodes are both built from wrap workflows.

Components really are KNIME nodes that you create which bundle functionality, have their own configuration dialog and their own composite views. Metanodes on the other hand are containers of a part of your workflow, that help to build cleaner and structured nested workflows.

In this guide, we explain how to create components and metanodes, how to create composite views and configuration dialogs for components, and how to use them.

Components vs metanodes

Components are nodes that contain a sub-workflow, which lets you bundle functionality for sharing and reusing. Components encapsulate and abstract functionality, can have their own configuration dialog, and custom interactive composite views. You can use them to hide some complexity in a workflow and you can also reuse them in other workflows or in different parts of the same workflow, or you can share them with others via KNIME Server or on the KNIME Hub. Additionally, components and their composite views are also used to define pages in a web application workflows, which once deployed via KNIME Server can be accessed through KNIME WebPortal.

In contrast to components, metanodes are purely used to organize your workflows better: you can take parts of a larger workflow and collapse it into a metanode, hiding that part of the workflow’s functionality.

The main differences are:

Custom configuration dialogs: components can have custom configuration dialogs, which are managed through the Configuration nodes
Custom composite views: components can also have composite views, which are acquired from the interactive views of Widget nodes and View nodes inside the component
Sharing: components can be shared via KNIME Hub while metanodes can not
Flow variable scope: the flow variable scope of a component is local which makes them self-containing and less polluting to the parent workflow. A flow variable defined inside a component is by default not available outside it, and a flow variable defined outside the component is by default not available inside it.

Creating components and metanodes

To encapsulate nodes into a component or collapsing a set of nodes into a metanode follow these steps:

Select the nodes by either:
1. Dragging a rectangle with the mouse over the nodes in the workflow editor
2. Press and hold the "Ctrl" button and select the nodes clicking them
Right-click the selection and select either Create Component… or Create Metanode… in the context menu shown in Figure 1

Figure 1. Creating a component or a metanode
Give the component or metanode a name in the dialog that opens shown in Figure 2

Figure 2. Giving a component or metanode a name
Click OK, and you will see the new component or the new metanode in the workflow editor in place of the single nodes, as shown in Figure 3

Figure 3. Newly created component and metanode in a workflow editor

Appropriate input and output ports will appear for the component and the metanode based on the connections coming into and out of it. Notice that collapsing nodes into a component or a metanode resets the nodes.

Setup components and metanodes

You can change different settings for components and metanodes, like name, number of input and output ports and their types. Moreover, you can change metadata, description and customize the icon of a component. In this section we will explain you how to setup and reconfigure components and metanodes.

Setup components

To change the settings of a component, first right-click the component and in the context menu, shown in Figure 4, select Component → Setup….

Now, the dialog shown in Figure 5 opens.

Figure 5. Setup component dialog

Here you can:

Change the component name
Add input and output ports by clicking the Add… button and selecting the port type in the dialog that opens, shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6. Adding a new port to the component
Remove existing input and output ports by clicking the Remove button. Notice that you have to remove from inside the component, all connections coming to and from the port before you can remove it.
Change the order of the input and output ports using the Up and Down buttons. Changing the order of the ports does not affect any functionality of the workflow but is often practical to avoid crossing connections and thus improve the visual appearance of the workflow.

Edit components description

As each component is a real KNIME node you can also change its description, provide a name and a description for output and input ports, and customize the component icon. To do this open the component by either right-clicking it and going to Component → Open in the context menu or "ctrl" + double-clicking it. If the Description panel, shown in Figure 7, is activated, as by default, you can find it on the right side of the KNIME workbench. Otherwise you can activate it going to View → Description in the KNIME toolbar.

Figure 7. The description panel of a component

Click on the pen icon on the right upper corner to change:

Description: you can insert here a description of the component
Component Icon: you can drag and drop a square image file, png format of a minimum size of 16x16 and select the node type from the drop-down menu, shown in Figure 8, to setup background color.
Name and Description of input and output ports: the name of input and output ports will also be visible on the input and output ports hover of the component in the workflow editor.

Figure 8. Changing the description panel of a component

Reconfigure metanodes

To change the settings of a metanode right-click it and select Metanode → Reconfigure… from the context menu. In the dialog that opens, shown in Figure 9 you can change the metanode name, and add or remove input and output ports of any type.

Figure 9. Reconfigure metanode dialog

To return the nodes within a component or a metanode into their original, uncollapsed state, right-click the component or metanode and select Component (or Metanode) → Expand in the context menu. To change a component to a metanode, under Component select Convert to Metanode. Same works in the opposite direction to transform a metanode into a component, selecting Metanode → Convert to Component.

The description of a metanode instead can not be manually changed and it is composed by its name and a list of contained nodes type with the respective description.

Execution state of components and metanodes

Similar to regular KNIME nodes, components can be configured and executed. How to create a component configuration dialog will be explained in Custom components configuration dialogs section. Components use a traffic light to indicate their execution state, same as for the nodes as shown in the Workflow Editor & nodes section of the KNIME Workbench Guide. In components, in order to access data at the output port(s) every node of the enclosed sub-workflow needs to be successfully executed, hence have a "green" traffic light.

Metanodes can also be executed, meaning that the nodes building up the sub-workflow it contains, will be executed. However, since metanodes are only containers of parts of the workflow they can not be configured. The state of the metanode is indicated by different icons: a green tick and a yellow watch, respectively indicating if the metanode is executed or not.

In metanodes, a dot close to the output port will indicate if output from that port is:

Accessible ("green" dot), meaning that all the nodes building the sub-workflow branch connected to that output port are successfully executed
Connected but empty ("yellow" dot), meaning that the sub-workflow branch connected to that output port did not produce an output
Disconnected ("red" dot), meaning that the port is not connected to any sub-workflow’s node.

Table 1. The different execution and output states of components and metanodes
Icon	Sub-workflow	Output
Components
		Successfully executed
		Configured All outputs connected
		Execution failed Contains unconnected output
		Execution failed One branch failed

Metanodes

Successfully executed
All outputs available

All nodes of the sub-workflow are configured
All outputs connected

All nodes of the sub-workflow are executed
Contains unconnected output ("red" dot)

All nodes of the sub-workflow are executed
One branch failed and the corresponding output is empty ("yellow" dot)

Change the flow variables scope in components

Flow variables that are created inside the component have a local scope and are only available inside the component. Flow variables that are not created within the component are only available outside the component.

To change this you need to specifically allow the flow variable to exit or enter the component:

Right-click the component in the executed state and choose Component → Open from the context menu
From inside the component right-click the Component Output node if you want a locally created flow variable to exit the component, or the Component Input node to allow an externally created flow variable to be available within the component
Add the desired flow variable in the Include column on the right pane in the window that opens, shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10. The Component Output node configuration dialog

Custom components configuration dialogs

Components can be designed in a way that the user can configure it from the outside, without having to change the configuration of the nodes inside it, once the component is saved and shared. This is done by using the Configuration Nodes which help to expose the necessary settings to the outside, through the component configuration dialog.

In this section, we explain how to create a custom configuration dialog for a component using Configuration nodes.

Configuration nodes

A Configuration node can provide input parameters for other nodes in the workflow. If you use one or more Configuration nodes inside a component, the configuration dialog of the component will show all these configuration options you created inside it in its custom configuration dialog.

Configuration nodes enable different types of user inputs such as string input, integer input, selecting one value in a list and more. You can find all available Configuration nodes in the node repository under Workflow Abstraction → Configuration category, as shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11. The Configuration nodes in the node repository

They are divided into two categories, which are explained in the Table 2.

Table 2. Configuration nodes
Icon	Widget name	User input	Output
Input Nodes
	Boolean	Boolean values	Checked = true Unchecked = false
	String	Any user input is accepted	String
	Integer	Integer values	Integer
	Double	Floating point numbers	Double
	Date&Time	A date and time (as string) (or a selected date and time from the calendar form).	String
	Credentials	User credentials (user name and password) for later use in authenticated nodes.	Credentials Flow Variable
	Local File Browser	Select one or multiple local files.	Table with paths to selected items (as knime:// protocol). First path is also output as flow variable.
	Repository File Chooser	Select one or multiple local files, workflows or folders.	Table with paths to selected items (as knime:// protocol). First path is also output as flow variable.
	List Box	Separate string inputs	Data table with a column of string values
Selection Nodes
	Single Selection	Choice of the available values. The available selection depends on the node’s configuration.	String
	Multiple Selection	Multiple selections	Data table with a column of selections
	Column Selection	Column name	String
	Value Selection	Value in a column	String
	Column Filter	Select columns from a data table	Data table with selected columns
	Nominal Row Filter	Value in a column	Data table with row filtered according to the selected value

Figure 12 shows, for example, the configuration dialog of the Value Selection Configuration node, where you can define the input label, description, default selection option, and some visual properties. Here, you can also define the name and default value of the output flow variable, along with other settings to control the appearance of the custom dialog, if the Configuration node is used inside a component, as explained in the next section.

Figure 12. Configuration dialog of the Value Selection Configuration node

Another node can access the flow variable output of a Configuration node, if the flow variable output of the Configuration node is connected to it, as shown in Figure 13. The flow variable created in the Configuration node as output, will then be used to overwrite the settings of the connected node. To know how to do this, please refer to the Overwriting settings with flow variables section of the KNIME Flow Control Guide. The value of the output of the Configuration node is either its default value defined in the Configuration node configuration dialog, or corresponds to the value provided by the user in the custom component configuration dialog.

Figure 13. Configuring a node with a value defined by a user

This workflow is also available on the KNIME Hub.

Component configuration dialog

Configuration nodes that are contained in a component, represent a customized configuration dialog.

Once you create a component, like the one shown in Figure 13, right-click the component and select Configure from the context menu to open the configuration dialog, shown in Figure 14, and configure the component’s parameters.

Figure 14. The component configuration dialog

You can also combine different Configuration nodes in one component and have a more complex component configuration dialog, where different parameters can be configured.

Components composite views

Besides custom configuration dialogs, components can have their own custom composite views. Composite views contain the interactive views of Widget nodes, and Interactive Widget nodes and View nodes, that are part of a component.

All composite views on root level also define a web application, accessible through KNIME WebPortal.

To inspect the composite view in KNIME Analytics Platform, as for any KNIME node that outputs a view, right-click the component and select Interactive View: … after execution.

You can also customize the layout of the composite views. For more details about how to do this please refer to the Layout of composite views section.

In the next sections we will explain how to use Widget nodes, Interactive Widget nodes and View nodes to build a customized composite view.

Widget nodes

Widget nodes, similarly to Configuration nodes can provide input parameters for other nodes in the workflow. However, unlike Configuration nodes, Widget nodes are shown as widgets in the composite views. When inspecting the composite view in KNIME Analytics Platform in the window that opens you can adjust the parameters, and on the right bottom corner of the window:

Click Apply to set these parameters for the current execution of the workflow
Choose Apply as new default from the drop-down menu next to Apply button to set these parameters as the new default parameters for the Widget nodes
Click Close and, choose to either discard changes, apply settings temporarily or apply settings as new default
Choose to Close & Discard, Close & Apply or Close & Apply as new default from the drop-down menu next to Close button.

Additionally, when the workflow is deployed to a KNIME Server via KNIME WebPortal they allow you to set parameters for the workflow execution.

You can find all available Widget nodes in the node repository under Workflow Abstraction → Widgets category.

They are divided in to the following four categories:

Input: you can use widgets in this category to input parameters of different type into the workflow. For example you can input integers, strings, booleans, doubles, lists, but also other formats like date&time or credentials. They are shown in Table 3.

Table 3. Widget input nodes
Icon	Widget name	User input	Output
Input Nodes
	Boolean	Boolean values	Checked = true Unchecked = false
	String	Any user input is accepted	String
	Integer	Integer values	Integer
	Double	Floating point numbers	Double
	Date&Time	A date and time (as string) (or a selected date and time from the calendar form).	String
	Credentials	User credentials (user name and password) for later use in authenticated nodes.	Credentials Flow Variable
	File Upload	Upload a file to the server using a temporary folder.	Path to the uploaded file
	File Chooser	Select one or multiple remote files, workflows or folders.	Table with paths to selected items (as knime:// protocol). First path is also output as flow variable.
	List Box	Separate string inputs	Data table with a column of string values
	Slider	Value on a slider	Double

Selection: you can use the widgets in this category to select input values from an available list of values. For example, you can choose a specific column from a data table, multiple columns to include or exclude from a dataset or select a value of a chosen column to filter a data table. You can also enable the choice of single or multiple values from a list, or a single value from a single column of a data set. They are shown in Table 4.

Table 4. Widget selection nodes
Icon	Widget name	User input	Output
Selection Nodes
	Single Selection	Choice of the available values. The available selection depends on the node’s configuration.	String
	Multiple Selection	Multiple selections	Data table with a column of selections
	Column Selection	Column name	String
	Value Selection	Value in a column	String
	Column Filter	Select columns from a data table	Data table with selected columns
	Nominal Row Filter	Value in a column	Data table with row filtered according to the selected value

Output: you can use these widgets to either produce a link to download files or to display images or dynamic text. They are shown in Table 5.

Table 5. Widget output nodes
Icon	Widget name	User input	Output
Output Nodes
	File Download	A flow variable storing an absolute file path	String
	Image Output	KNIME Image	SVG or PNG image
	Text Output	Any text	String or HTML content

Filter: you can use these widgets to trigger interactive filter events in a layout of views. In the next section these interactive widget nodes are explained in more details.

You can arrange different Widget nodes in a composite view, enclosing them into a component, where ideally you could adjust different parameters to be injected into the workflow.

View nodes

You can use View nodes to visualize your data as charts, plots, tables or visualize your own JavaScript code generated view. They are available in the node repository under Views → JavaScript, shown in Figure 15.

Figure 15. The View nodes in the node repository

These nodes can also be combined together in a component in order to build composite views and dashboards.

One example of a component made of four different View nodes is shown in Figure 16.

Figure 16. A sub-workflow of a component combining different View nodes

When executing such a component and opening the relative Interactive View: … in KNIME Analytics Platform, an interactive dashboard like the one shown in Figure 17 will appear. The layout can be adjusted as explained in the Layout of composite views section and different elements can be added like text or images, with the use of Widget nodes.

Figure 17. The composite view of a component combining different View nodes

Interactive Widget nodes

Interactive Widget nodes are special Widget nodes that can be combined together with View nodes in order to build composite views where you are allowed to interactively filter the data visualized in the View node(s) connected to them, acting on the different elements which are integrated in the composite view.

Interactive Range Slider Filter Widget

This Interactive Widget node shows a slider in a composite view. You can define the column to be filtered according to the slider and the range, together with different configurations and settings, in the node configuration dialog.

An example about how to use this Interactive Widget node is available on the KNIME Hub and is shown in Figure 18.

Figure 18. An example component where the Interactive Range Slider Filter node is used

Two snapshots of the interactive composite view are shown in Figure 19. The range of values that are filtered and plotted is adjusted with the slider.

05 interactive range slider filter widget outputs

Figure 19. Two possible snapshots of the interactive composite view of a component using Interactive Range Slider Filter node

Interactive Value Filter Widget

This Interactive Widget node shows a filter in a composite view. You can define the column to which the values are filtered. You can also have different configurations for this widget like choose a single or multiple values, and other settings, that you can configure in the node configuration dialog.

An example about how to use this Interactive Widget node is available on the KNIME Hub and is shown in Figure 20.

Figure 20. An example component where the Interactive Range Slider Filter node is used

Two snapshots of the interactive composite view are shown in Figure 21. The values of the chosen column that are included or excluded and plotted is adjusted with the include/exclude element on the top.

05 interactive value filter widget outputs

Figure 21. Two possible snapshots of the interactive composite view of a component using Interactive Value Filter node

Plotly nodes

You can also have access to View nodes where plotly views are already implemented and ready to use.

First navigate to File → Install KNIME Extensions… and install the KNIME Plotly extension under KNIME Labs Extensions.

Now you find Plotly nodes in the node repository under KNIME Labs → JavaScript Views (Labs), as shown in Figure 22.

Figure 22. The Plotly nodes available in the node repository

Layout of composite views

Any component that contains at least one Widget or JavaScript view node can have a layout defined. The layout can be edited within the Visual Layout tab of the Node Usage and Layout window, that can be accessed by opening the component and clicking the layout editor button in the top toolbar, as shown in Figure 23.

Visual layout editor

The visual layout editor allows you to create and adjust layouts using a drag & drop grid.

A layout consists of one or more rows. Each row can have up to twelve columns.
A column can be resized when there is more than one column in a row
One or more views can be added to a column
By default the position of widgets and views in the custom view follows the position of the corresponding nodes in the component sub-workflow, from top to bottom.

The visual layout editor, shown in Figure 24, consists of a left panel which shows a list of all Widget and View nodes in your component that have not yet been added to the layout and an interactive preview of the layout on the right.

Figure 24. The visual layout editor of a component

To add a view, drag it from the left panel (1) to the desired position in the layout preview.

To add a column, click the '+' button (2) in the layout preview.

To resize a column, click and move the resize handle between columns (3).

To add a row, drag a row template (4) from the left panel to the desired position in the layout preview. You can choose between different templates, e.g. 1-column, 2-column, 3-column or you can add and remove columns later on.

To delete a view, column or row use the trash bin button (5). This is only available for columns and rows when they are empty, i.e. do not contain widgets or views.

To move a view into another column drag it to the layout preview. Complete rows can also be moved by dragging.

Note that nesting is possible. Columns can contain rows as well as views, those nested rows can contain columns, rows, and views, and so on.

You can also adjust the height of the views. Each view has default sizing settings which can be changed via the cog icon (6) in the layout preview. You can choose between automatic height based on the content of the view or aspect ratio sizing (16:9, 4:3 or square). When using automatic height it is possible to define minimal and maximal pixel sizes.

Legacy flag

On the left side of the Visual Layout tab of the Node Usage and Layout window a Use legacy mode button, number (7) in Figure 24, is available.

The Widget nodes user interface has been improved starting from KNIME Analytics Platform version 4.2.

When creating components with KNIME Analytics Platform version 4.2 the legacy mode is deactivated by default. This means that the composite views are visualized with the new improved user interfaces for the Widget nodes.

Instead, for components that have been created using Widget nodes in KNIME Analytics Platform version 4.1 and earlier, the legacy mode is activated by default. The composite views will have the previous user interface as in KNIME Analytics Platform version 4.1 and earlier.

It is always possible to check/uncheck the Use legacy mode checkbox to visualize the composite views with old/new Widget node style. This is found in the Visual Layout tab of the layout editor for the component view, number (7) in Figure 24.

Alternatively, in the Advanced Layout tab of the layout editor, this property can be enabled/disabled on a node-by-node basis (see (8) and (9) in the next section).

Advanced layouting

The layout structure is saved in a JSON format which advanced users can edit directly in the Advanced Layout tab.

An example of JSON format generated by the visual layout editor is shown in Figure 25.

Figure 25. Component advanced layouting in JSON Format

Row (1)

A row is the outer most element that can be defined and is the first element inside the layout container. The JSON structure’s outer layer is an array of rows. A row contains a number of layout-columns.

To further customize a row you can add optional fields. With additionalClasses you can provide an array of class names to append to the created HTML row element, additionalStyles (2) is an option to directly insert CSS style commands on the element. For example, to create a visual separator between one row and the next, you can add a bottom border:

"additionalStyles" : [ "border-bottom: thin solid grey;" ]

The grey line that appears in the custom view output of the component is shown in Figure 26.

Figure 26. Custom view output of a component with additional styling

Column (3)

A column is a layout element inside a row which determines the width of its components. To define a width, use a number between 1 and 12. 12 means taking up 100% of the width, whereas 6 would be 50% of the width. In this way it is possible to define a layout with components side by side by providing their relative widths. For example, if three components are to be laid out horizontally with equal column widths use a row with three columns, each of width 4. If the sum of widths for a particular row is larger than 12, the extra columns are wrapped onto a new line.

Responsive layouts (4)

It is also possible to define multiple widths of the columns so that they can adapt to the screen size. With this option responsive layouts can be achieved.

To define the responsive width of a column, use at least widthXS and one or more of the following fields: widthSM, widthMD, widthLG.

The content of a column can be an array of one of any of the following: . Another set of rows, providing the possibility to create nested layouts . Regular HTML content, to insert plain HTML elements into the layout . A node reference to embed the contents of a JavaScript-enabled KNIME node.

As for rows, it is also possible to further customize the column using the optional fields additionalClasses and additionalStyles.

HTML content

It is possible to include plain HTML into the layout by placing a content element of type html inside a column. To insert the content a single field value is used.

For example:

[...]
"content":[{
    "type":"html",
    "value":"<h2 >Title defined in layout</h2>"
  }]
[...]

View content (5)

To embed the contents of a KNIME node inside the layout, you can use a content element with type view. The element has quite a few ways to customize the sizing and behavior of the content, which are explained in Table 6.

Referencing the node is done by the field nodeID (6), which takes the ID-suffix of the node as a string argument. If nodes exist inside the component which are not referenced by the layout, a warning message appears underneath the editor. Errors will also be issued for referencing nodes twice or referencing non-existing nodes.

The content of each is wrapped in its own iframe element, allowing to encapsulate the implementation and avoid reference and cross-scripting issues. As iframe elements do not adapt to the size of their content automatically, you need to resize them to achieve the desired behavior. To achieve this result you have the following options:

Size-based methods: This method uses an iframe-resizer library to resize the iframe according to the size of its contents. You will need to explicitly or implicitly set a concrete size for the content. You can determine the size using different approaches, as explained on the iframe-resizer GitHub page. Size-based resize methods all start with the prefix View in the JSON structure.
Aspect-ratio based methods: If a node view is set to adapt to its parent size, rather then implicitly providing a size, the size-based methods will either not work properly. To allow these views to take up an appropriate amount of space in the layout an aspect ratio setting can be used. Here the width is taken as 100% of the horizontal space available at that position in the layout and the height is calculated according to the given ratio. Aspect-ratio based resize methods start with the prefix aspectRatio in the JSON structure.
Manual method: You can also trigger manually resize events at appropriate times. This requires the implementation of the node to make the appropriate resize calls itself.

In the table below a list of available fields to personalize the view content (7) is shown.

Table 6. Available fields to personalize the `view` content
Field name	Explanation / Possible Values
`nodeID`	ID-suffix of referenced node
`minWidth`	Constrain the size of the `iframe` by setting a minimum width in pixels.
`minHeight`	Constrain the size of the `iframe` by setting a minimum height in pixels.
`maxWidth`	Constrain the size of the `iframe` by setting a maximum width in pixels.
`maxHeight`	Constrain the size of the `iframe` by setting a maximum height in pixels.
`resizeMethod`	The resize method used to correctly determine the size of the `iframe` at runtime. Can be any of the following values: `viewBodyOffset`, `viewBodyScroll`, `viewDocumentElementOffset`, `viewDocumentelementScroll`, `viewMax`, `viewMin`, `viewGrow`, `viewLowestElement`, `viewTaggedElement`, `viewLowestElementIEMax`, `aspectRatio4by3`, `aspectRatio16by9`, `aspectRatio1by1`, `manual`
`autoResize`	Boolean only working with size based resize methods. Use this to enable or disable automatic resizing upon window size or DOM changes. Note that the initial resize is always done.
`resizeInterval`	Number only working with size based resize methods. Sets the interval to check if resizing needs to occur. The default is `32` (ms).
`scrolling`	Boolean only working with size based resize methods. Enables or disables scroll bars inside `iframe`. The default is `false`.
`sizeHeight`	Boolean only working with size based resize methods. Enables or disables size adaption according to content height. The default is `true`.
`sizeWidth`	Boolean only working with size based resize methods. Enables or disables size adaption according to content width. The default is `false`.
`resizeTolerance`	Number only working with size based resize methods. Sets the number of pixels that the content size needs to change, before a resize of the `iframe` is triggered. The default is `0`.
`additionalClasses`	Array of additional classes added to the HTML container element.
`additionalStyles`	Array of additional CSS style declaration added to the HTML container element.

Parent legacy mode (8) (9)

The parentLayoutLegacyMode (8) is activated (true) to allow all Widget nodes contained in the component to use the legacy mode. Each individual Widget node can also be unset from the legacy mode setting the option (9) useLegacyMode to false.

Node Usage tab

The first tab of the layout editor is the Node Usage tab. Here you can choose which Widget nodes to show in the composite view checking/unchecking them in the WebPortal/Component View column.

It is best practice to avoid the usage of Quickform nodes and use instead Configuration nodes and Widget nodes. However, in case you are using Quickform nodes in your components and you want to hide them you can do it in the Node Usage tab.

Check or uncheck the node in the WebPortal/Component View column to show it or hide it from the composite view. Check or uncheck the node in the Component Dialog column to show it or hide it from the configuration dialog.

Streaming execution of components

You can define the mode of execution of components, e.g. in which order and how the data are passed from one node to another in the sub-workflow. After installing the KNIME Streaming Execution (Beta) extension, in each component configuration dialog you can find a Job Manager Selection tab. Not all nodes support streaming execution. However, streaming execution can be applied to entire sub-workflows inside a component. Notice that the non-streamable nodes can still be part of a sub-workflow inside a component, which is executed in the streaming mode. They will simply be executed in the default execution mode.

To show which nodes support streaming execution:

Click the arrow in the top right corner of the node repository
In the menu that opens, select Show Additional Info. Now, the information on ability for streaming execution appears next to the node names, as shown in Figure 27.
If you select Show Streamable Nodes Only in the menu, only streamable nodes will appear in the node repository.

Figure 27. Some nodes with additional info in the node repository

The KNIME Streaming Execution (Beta) is an extension available under KNIME Labs Extensions. Install it by navigating to File - > Install KNIME Extensions….

The execution can be performed in default or streaming mode which are described in the next sections.

Default execution

In the default execution mode, the operations in a workflow are executed node by node. Data are passed from one node to another after the entire input data of a node has been processed. The dataset passed to the next node is the intermediate output table, which you can inspect by opening the output table of a node in the middle of a workflow.
If you open the Job Manager Selection tab in any configuration dialog, and see the job manager selection <<default>>, then the node operation is executed according to the default execution mode.

Streaming execution

In the streaming execution mode, data is passed from one node to another as soon as it is available. That is, all data do not have to be processed at once, but they can be divided into a number of batches which are streamed one by one. Therefore, the streaming execution mode leads to a faster in-memory execution because only the rows in transit are concerned and intermediate tables are not stored.

To switch from default to streaming execution select Simple Streaming under the Job Manager Selection tab in the component or node configuration dialog. If the streaming execution option is not available for the node you will only see the <<default>> option in the menu.

Here, for streaming execution mode, you can also choose the size of the batch to be streamed, as shown in Figure 28.

Larger values will reduce synchronization, with better runtime, while small values will assure that less data is in transit.

Figure 28. Streaming execution mode and chunk size selection

Streaming execution of a component

If you use the streaming mode to execute a component, the sub-workflow inside it is always executed entirely. The intermediate output tables of the nodes inside the component are not available, because they are not stored. Each batch of data is streamed one by one through the streamable nodes of the sub-workflow. If they reach a non-streamable node they will be stored there until all the batches have been streamed. Then they are again divided into batches and passed to the next streamable node(s).

The component icon shows a dashed black arrow on the right bottom corner while the nodes in the component sub-workflow show either three green right-pointing angle brackets >>>, if they are streamable, or a red X, if they are not, as shown in Figure 29. The numbers that appear above the connection between nodes refer to the number of records that have passed that particular connection.

Figure 29. Streaming execution inside a component

Sharing components

Components encapsulate functionalities that can be reused as your personal customized KNIME nodes, to perform tasks that you often repeat, or you can simply store them for further reuse for yourself. They can also be shared with others via KNIME Hub and KNIME Server.

After you create a component in a workflow, if you would like to reuse it in some other workflow you could copy paste it in to the new workflow. However, in this way, changes to the component in one workflow are not triggered to the others. You can obtain changes to the component to be applied to the others by sharing and linking components.

To share a component, right-click it, select Component → Share… from the context menu, and choose the destination for the shared component in the window that opens, shown in Figure 30.

Here you can choose:

The mountpoint where to share the component
To include or exclude the input data eventually present with the component.

Please be aware that if input data are included they will be accessible to everyone who has access to the component itself.

Share components in local workspace

If you choose to save a component in your local workspace you can have access to that component from your local KNIME Analytics Platform installation.

Share components on KNIME Server

If you save a component into a KNIME Server you will have access to it from the KNIME Server client. For more detailed information please refer to the KNIME Explorer User Guide.

Share components on the KNIME Hub

You can also save and share components in the KNIME Hub. Here you can share into a private space, having therefore access to them logging in to your KNIME Hub profile, or into a public space, sharing your components with the KNIME Community.

Link type

The link type defines how a workflow looks for the shared component when checking for updates.

After choosing the destination of your component, a dialog opens asking you to choose for the link type you want to use.

You have the following possibilities:

Create absolute link: the workflow connects to the absolute location of the shared component
Create mountpoint-relative link: the workflow connects to the shared component based on the folder structure under which mountpoint the workflow lives. If you deploy a workflow to a KNIME Server you have to deploy the shared component as well, and keep the path from the mountpoint to the component the same.
Create workflow-relative link: the connection between the shared component and a workflow where an instance of it is used is based on the folder structure between the workflow and the shared component
Don’t create link with shared instance: creates a shared component but does not link the current instance to it.

After selecting the proper link type click OK and the shared component appears in KNIME Explorer, as shown in Figure 31.

Figure 31. A shared component saved in the local workspace

Use a shared component

To use a shared component in a workflow, you can drag and drop it to the workflow editor. A green arrow on the bottom left corner, shown in Figure 32 indicates that the component is linked to a shared component. You can use the component as a KNIME node, using the functionalities that have been enveloped into it, like configure it or visualize its output(s) or interactive views.

Figure 32. The instance of a shared component in a workflow

Edit the instance of a shared component

To check the link type of a certain instance or to customize it for a specific instance, right-click the instance and choose Component → Change Link Type… from the context menu. The dialog shown in Figure 33 will open where you can choose the new type of link.

Figure 33. Change the link type of an instance of a shared component

When you open an instance of a shared component the background is grey and you can not make any change.

To be able to edit the instance you need to first unlink it from the shared component. Right-click the instance and select Component → Disconnect Link.

You can also trigger back the changes to the shared component, overwriting the changed instance to it. Right-click the changed instance, select Component → Share, select the shared component location and overwrite it. To find the location of the first instance of the component right-click the current instance and select Component → Select in Explorer from the context menu. This highlights the shared component in the KNIME Explorer panel.

To check if the instance of the component in use is the latest version of the linked shared component, right-click the current instance and select Component → Update Link. If updates are available a dialog opens asking if the current component should be updated.

Edit a shared component

You can edit a shared component opening it directly from the KNIME Explorer, by double-clicking it and pressing "ctrl" or right-click it and choose Open from the context menu. You can now change the sub-workflow contained in the component, adding or deleting nodes, changing parameters of the single nodes, or change the layout of composite visualizations. Save the changes pressing "ctrl + "s" or choosing File → Save from the toolbar.

Update linked components

You can choose to automatically update the linked components eventually reused in a workflow. The first time you open a workflow where an instance of a shared component is used, a dialog is prompted where you can choose whether you want to check for updates for those components or not. You can also decide not to show the message anymore for future cases and choose KNIME Analytics Platform to remember your choice. It is always possible to change the choice going to File → Preferences. In the left pane of the window that opens go to KNIME → KNIME GUI and choose the preferred setting from the drop-down menu of the option Update linked component when workflow loads, as shown in Figure 34.

Figure 34. Preferences window to set up the update of linked components

Components for web applications

When you save a workflow containing components to KNIME Server and execute it via KNIME WebPortal you are guided through the process in one or more pages. Each page corresponds to a component in the workflow.

When deploying a workflow to KNIME Server via KNIME WebPortal, the components on workflow root level containing Widget nodes and View nodes are visualized as web applications.

Widget nodes

You can use Widget nodes inside a component to build a composite view that will be visualized as a web page on KNIME WebPortal. The use of Widget nodes is meant to set specific configurations, e.g. select a value from a specific column of a data table to filter by. In the web page you will be then able to enter values for specific parameters before proceeding with the workflow execution. These values are injected into the workflow, and used to parameterize its execution.

Interactive Widget nodes and View nodes

You can use Interactive Widget nodes and View nodes inside a component to build a composite view that will be visualized as a web page on KNIME WebPortal. The use of View nodes is meant to build specific visualizations, like tables, charts and plots, which are shown as a web page. Interactive Widget nodes can be also arranged together with the View nodes in order to interact with the visualizations directly on the web page.

You can find additional explanation on how to use KNIME WebPortal and how to build specific workflows in the Creating workflows for KNIME WebPortal section of the KNIME WebPortal User Guide.