File handling — node reference
Connector nodes and relative authenticator nodes
Connector nodes provide a file system connection to a file handling node through a dynamic port. Some require an upstream authenticator node to supply credentials.
| Node | Connects to | Authenticator |
|---|---|---|
| Space Connector | The current space, or another space | KNIME Authenticator (optional — for a different user or another Hub) |
| Workflow Data Area Connector | The workflow's embedded data | — |
| Amazon S3 Connector | Amazon S3 | Amazon Authenticator |
| Google Cloud Storage Connector | Google Cloud Storage | Google Authenticator |
| Google Drive Connector | Google Drive | Google Authenticator |
| SharePoint Online Connector | SharePoint Online | Microsoft Authenticator |
| Azure Blob Storage Connector | Azure Blob Storage | Microsoft Authenticator |
| Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 Connector | Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 | Microsoft Authenticator |
| Box Connector | Box | Box Authenticator |
| Databricks File System Connector | A Databricks file system | — |
| HDFS Connector | HDFS | — |
| HDFS Connector (KNOX) | HDFS, via a KNOX gateway | — |
| Create Local Bigdata Environment | A local big data environment for testing | — |
| SSH Connector | An SSH server | — |
| HTTP(S) Connector | An HTTP(S) server | — |
| FTP Connector | An FTP server | — |
| KNIME Server Connector | A Knime Server instance | — |
| SMB Connector | An SMB server or Windows domain | — |
Reader and writer nodes
Reader and writer nodes are format-specific — for example the CSV Reader, Excel Reader, or Parquet Writer. All of them connect to a file system, standard or connected, through the same dynamic port. See Connect to a file system and Read and write files for the general steps.
One writer node is worth calling out specifically: the Image Writer (Table) node. It takes a table as input containing a column with images, and writes each image to a file, instead of a single file.
Utility nodes
Utility nodes browse, list, copy, move, compress, and delete files and folders without reading their contents. Nodes with a table-based variant take a table of paths as input instead of a manual file or folder selection.
| Node | Purpose | Table-based variant |
|---|---|---|
| List Files/Folders | Lists files, folders, or both within a folder, with filter and subfolder options. | — |
| Transfer Files | Copies or moves files between two file systems. | Transfer Files (Table) |
| Compress Files/Folder | Compresses files or a folder into an archive. | Compress Files/Folder (Table) |
| Decompress Files | Decompresses files from an archive. | — |
| Delete Files/Folders | Deletes files or folders. | Delete Files/Folders (Table) |
| Create File/Folder Variables | Creates path flow variable for files and folders in the file system | — |
| Create Folder | Creates a folder and exposes its path as flow variable | — |
| Create Temp Folder | Creates a temporary folder and exposes its path as flow variable. | — |
| Files/Folders Meta Info | Adds meta information about the files and folders referenced by the selected column | — |
| Set Files/Folders Permissions | Sets POSIX permissions for the files and folders referenced by the selected column | — |
Path utility nodes
Convert between a Path data cell or flow variable and a plain string, for nodes that don't accept the Path type directly.
| Node | Purpose | Variable variant |
|---|---|---|
| Path to String | Converts a Path data cell to a string. | Path to String (Variable) |
| String to Path | Converts a string to a Path data cell, for a selected file system. | String to Path (Variable) |
| Path to URI | Converts a Path data cell to a URI, in a format specific to the file system — for example a presigned https:// URL for Amazon S3, or a knime:// URL for a space-relative or workflow-relative path. | — |