Check Node?

[Awiener]

Hi,

I am wondering if there is something similar to a “Check Node”. I’d like to put it at the end of a flow, in order to visible check (fast!) if the workflow part has run correctly. In combination with other nodes like Empty table switch etc.

That would help to fast check for errors or successful nodes.

[takbb]

Hi @Awiener , there isn’t a node that can change it’s appearance but you could install the Node Annotator (part of the Nodepit Power Nodes extension, and have that output a message as it’s label.

In Modern UI, if you can find the right emoji characters (not all are available), you can output something like this:

In Classic UI, unfortunately it displays differently and you don’t get the benefit of the colour, but it is at least still more “obvious-at-a-glance” than a simple green traffic light:

The above was achieved by simply configuring the output of the Node Annotator as follows:

passing it the following text (which of course you could include as a flow variable)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩 OK 🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

btw the “emoji popup keyboard” can be activated on Windows by using Win+. (i.e press and hold Win key and then press “.”). On Linux and iOS, there are similar equivalent keystrokes. It is trial-and-error to find suitable emoji characters to display, as not every character produces good output.

edit: example of emoji keyboard activation in Windows 10/11…

[Awiener]

Thank you @takbb

Looks great! Wasn’t aware of this extension.

As it is connected through a variable port, how would it be possible to use with an Empty Table Switch node?

I check for mathematical calculations (with Row Filter), so if a certain filter criterion results in an empty table, the flow is correct. Otherwise I have to look for the “wrong” rows. So the result for the check would be an empty table here.

Thanks for any hints.

[takbb]

Ah yes… the old connecting flow variable ports on a switch conundrum

What you do is include some data table nodes that don’t do anything so that you can join the flow variable ports to those. Sometimes I use an Add Rows node which is configured to add an additional zero rows, but since you are adding the Nodepit Power Nodes, they have kindly included as part of that extension a set of No Operation (NoOp) nodes for just this scenario…

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You may also be interested in this component, which utilises the Node Annotator. I built it for the situation where I wanted to switch flow, but make it very obvious which path had been taken. You can include it just like any other switch/if statement, and set the path using a flow variable that sets the “Flow Diverted to Lower branch” configuration

This is what it looks like in KNIME 5.5 MUI

Diversion – takbb