Hi,
If you don't mind I have some Feature Request regarding file reading.
Importing files in Knime it is not always simple; there are too many limitation even if we compare Knime with other basic softwares. I think the following features could be very useful:
1) File Reader node doesn't have the possibility to read custom column delimiter (e.g. pipe, etc.). I know we can use Csv Reader but in this way we can't define fields types (eg. String, Double, etc). It could be very useful to improve File Reader Node with customized column delimiters.
2) File Reader node (even using the feature "Preserve user settings for new location") is not always able to retain the structure of fields type (eg. String, Double, etc) and if the source file data structure is a bit modified (for example adding only a column) it will loose all settings. This means we have to redefine dozens of fields type and if we have many source tables in a workflow, this means we can spend hours in this activity (the feature that guess column type is not reliable). I think another way of defining the fields type could be very usefull (maybe allowing written text or pointing out what are the fields that have been changed). Then a feature that allow the user to define all fileds at the same time as String could be very useful.
3) Xls Reader node doesn't allow the user to read all excel files (there are a lot of bugs especially with big files). Then you cannon define columns type. And finally text fields interpreted as numeric fields are modified adding ".0". So I believe that this node is not at all reliable, converting excel file to CSV is not always possible while companies still use a lot excel files.
Thank you very much in advance!