Accidentally deleted workflow in local workspace

Hello, I have a question.

I accidentally deleted a workflow group which was stored on my local workspace. Is there any chance that I can get it back? I looked for it in my local recycle bin and I could not find it. Where can I find it?

Unfortunately there isn't (as far as I know).

I have a daily backup of my workflows for just such scenarios. One might not get the most recent version, but at least a very close version back.

Alternative would be to do incremental backups in a time-machine-fashion (that would be Mac; Windows 10 btw has a file-versioning  nowadays, if it is activated, you might find your missing stuff there), so it depends a bit on your system.
 

WOW, there is no recovery option at all? This should be a standard, don’t you think? But is there BTW now a solution implemented? I have the same issue.

Hi @d00m and welcome to the Knime Community.

I agree that it would be a nice feature to have, but how do you determine that “This should be a standard”? When you delete a record, or drop a table, or drop a database, is there any recovery option? You’d have to restore from a backup if you want to recover.

Similarly if you delete a file file, there is no recovery option. Yes there are ways to recover since files are usually not physically deleted, but just marked as deleted, but the point is that there is no recover that comes as an option.

Bottom line is, systems do not provide recovery as a standard. You may have some that do, but it is not a standard. For Knime, there does not seem to be any recovery features. Suggestion would be make backups. Also, when you delete a workflow, Knime prompts for a confirmation.

Now, if you really need to recover that workflow, you could try the following, but do not use this as a permanent solution:
We know that each workflow is stored as a folder inside your Knime workspace, which itself is a folder. So, when you delete a workflow, the workflow’s folder is deleted. There are utilities that can help recover deleted files on your OS (this is possible because of, as I said, files are not physically deleted when deleted), so you could try to recover the folder of the workflow via these utilities.

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Hi @bruno29a ,
thank you for the quick reply. Your remarks make sense. However, in my case, there was even no prompt. The workflow just disappeared, while deleting another workflow. Maybe there was a bug or hidden connection? I do not know?

Nevertheless, I guess for a standard I mean: First, letting users decide via settings, if deletion prompts shall pop up, or not. Second, letting users decide, if files shall be deleted permanent at once, or marked for deletion and disconnecting all links, showing up in a deletion or version folder. Third, letting users decide, when the deletion folder should be cleaned, manually, or automatically, after x period of time (1 day, 30 days, 60 days, …). I think it would be a nice feature, enrich user experience, decrease frustration after mistakes that inevitably happen, and should be easy to implement. What about KNIME just adds a deletion folder at the side of all other folders in the respective directory/workspace/etc.

Do not understand my intentions wrongly. I play around with KNIME since one week and by now I am already impressed by the idea, simplicity and potential. There is always room for improvement, although there are so many nice features :wink:

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Well, yes, deleting a record right away is rather antiquated and just hostile for a GUI application which is designed with an “end user” in mind. In the year 2021 a “trash can” (though anachronistic) should be considered a common sense.

Delegating responsibilities of file recovery to the operating system or suggesting to “make backups” is a good advice (after “the kid has fallen into the well”, as we say in German), but misses the fundamental issue that the KNIME.app does not behave like a good citizen towards my valuable files.

You made good suggestions on how to address it. I’m sure the KNIME will be happy to “open a ticket”!

– Philipp

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+1 for recycle bin, could be useful

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:+1: happy about that

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts about this topic. This is definitely important, since losing your progress is probably on of the worst thing which can happen to your work. Alongside the general way of creating backups (time machine and alike), I created a ticket for our developer team to have a look into the possibilities of backing up/restoring local workspace statuses within KNIME.

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