Hi @Willem,
the new Excel Reader/Writer and the Line Reader are the first nodes for the new file handling concept in KNIME, that we are currently working on It is supposed to simplify bulk reading, the usage of KNIME URLs and remote reading/writing.
The File Connection Port is an dynamic input port to connect to a remote file system.
You can add this optional port to the node if needed, by clicking on the three dots that you can see on the node.
Right now, there is only one connector in the Labs category the Amazon S3 Connector.
You can use the Amazon Authentication node, together with the new S3 Connector and connect it to the Excel Reader/Writer to read and write Excel files from/to Amazon S3.
We are happy to hear feedback to the new file handling, so let us know!
best regards Mareike