Hello Everyone,
I am currently working on a KNIME project and now the client wants a comprehensive doc(something like Source to target mapping) of the whole logic going on so that this can be implemented on other analytics platforms (maybe hadoop, databricks etc).
Is there any way to do it in only one file(excel, word , xml etc) ? I was asking since the workflow has too much depth and many metanodes and I am unable to include all of them in one file.
I saw a documentation workflow but it tells which node connects to which but it doesn’t exactly tell you the logic.
I would be very happy if anyone can share any template or any other way to do this.
PS: The doc that will be created needs verification from architects. If they don’t understand or like anything, need to do it again.
Perhaps the Workflow Summary feature would be of some use here? This blog post describes how to use it and includes several examples from the KNIME Hub:
Thanks@ScottF That’s a interesting feature that I didn’t notice before.
However, it gives me node names, node settings, node states etc and not actually the logic.
Also I think I was being very greedy and ambitious while asking this . After all logic/ business logic can be interpreted but not really generated by the software. Probably using some AI model can do this but I am not sure if this exists.
I always do a step by step interactive screenshare meeting anytime I deliver a business automation project. It is a great way to explain the process flow, business logic, possibilities for future enhancements, possible user error points and improve basic KNIME platform understanding and literacy across the wider organization.
I also create a summary chart in a software called X-mind for bigger projects. I don’t go into full detail with it, but it creates a nice flow chart of the general sources and process with an accompanying bullet point text presentation that can include more detail.
Obviously not automated magic bullet solutions, but I have gotten great feedback on this communication approach.
In the end what we decided to do is ‘just manual work’ . Since the workflows are big and contain many transformations we used 2 detail levels for the workflow.
The first level of detail is just constructing a data flow diagram with processes/logic used in workflow. This may or may not contain exact logic as it just gives an initial understanding of what is going on in the workflow.
The second level of detail is done by using excel workbook. Yes in the end it is excel .
We are using a standard source to target mapping method (generally used for databases) for each node or for a group of nodes to capture complete exact logic of the workflow.
The Source To Target Mappings are given numbers and names to link the processes in a sequential order like how it goes in the workflow. All these Source To Target Mappings are kept in a single sheet , each coming horizontally one after the other.
This made the excel big horizontal way (Like it took till RR column to complete the logic) but short in the vertical way (Rows depend on the number of columns in the data you are inputting and adding)
I will not make this as a solution hoping that there might be a even better solution.
@iCFOThanks! . Now this is something that we will definitely consider in future. Thanks for sharing your approach.
Right now for the first level of detail, we are using Draw.io (free xml editor, flowchart maker) to construct the data flow diagram.
I also have it on my long-term radar to see if I can create a component that will write a draft project summary directly to X-Mind software files within a KNIME workflow. Maybe you could try that with Draw.io if you are feeling ambitious!
. After all logic/ business logic can be interpreted but not really generated by the software. Probably using some AI model can do this but I am not sure if this exists.
.
