Dialog Boxes

KNIME Analytics Platform
1

Hello Knime Dev Team,

Have you considered showing the configuration boxes of a node with a single click as opposed to a double click? I know Alteryx does this.

It is a bit of a hassle to constantly double click a node to change the node; I know hitting F6 does the trick, but a single click to view the config boxes would be tremendously helpful. This is especially true when there are a large number of nodes in a workflow.

Many thanks.

2

And how would you select a node then, if a single click already opens the dialog?

3

Hey @sw1336,
hey @thor,

I’d like to pick-up the idea (which I quite like) and like to adjust it as follows:

  • A user may open a new window / tab (like node comparison, console, node repository) named “node config” (name is subject to discussion).
  • When selecting a node (by single clicking), node config is shown on that new window / tab.
  • Double clicking a node would open the config window as is (no change in behavior).
  • In case there are issues with locking / checking (configure window is model while the new window/tab wouldn’t be), the new window / tab could be a read-only look into the node while double clicking switches into edit-mode.

@thor: What are your thoughts on that?

4

@thor,

When you click it, if there is a context sensitive window like the Console window or the error log, then a user can immediately see what the node is for.

Once you drag the node to the canvas, then the context sensitive window will enable. The user can then configure the node.

When you have hundreds of Nodes in a workflow, double clicking can get very very tedious. I have lost my train of thought many-a-times…

Many thanks.

5

That’s an interesting idea. Are you imagining it to work somewhat like the node description (which also refreshes on selection of a node)?

@sw1336: If you are double-clicking a lot of nodes in the workflow, are you just looking at the settings? Or also editing? Would a read-only view (as suggested by @Patrick1974) be sufficient in that case?

6

@johannes.schweig: Yes, that is correct. Have a separate (major) area for node configs. It is extremely tedious when you have hundreds of nodes in a workflow.

Many thanks.