Killer Feature: Field tracing

Feedback & Ideas
1

2 main competitors to KNIME offer a killer feature that KNIME should DEFINITELY have as standard: “Field tracing”.
The idea: At the top of the main canvas, there is a text box where the user can select/type a field name.
Immediately, all connected lines in the workflow that contain this field, become bold and are highlighted in a contrasting color.
In that way, the user can extremely easily trace at what exact moment a certain field is first introduced (or has disappeared).
This makes it SOOOOOO much easier to debug more complex workflows!
The only way I found to emulate this in the current (5.4) version is to switch to the Classic User Interface and go to File → Export → Workflow Summary (JSON/XML) and then open the resulting file in a text editor and search for the field. This is way too cumbersome!
Hopefully this idea gets enough votes!
Warm greetings from The (cold) Netherlands!
Bart.

2

Love it - you have my vote.

2 Likes
3

I love this idea too! You are right that debugging this type of thing can be a real pain across complex workflows.

1 Like
4

Great idea. Kudos to you.

2 Likes
5

Hey,

if you don’t mind me asking, what exactly do you mean with “field”? A column, or a flow variable?

Best,
Ben

1 Like
6

Hi Ben,
Thank you, great question! This feature is, in my personal experience, especially handy for tracing the (dis)appearance of columns.
But… if it were to be implemented… I wouldn’t object to the feature being able to trace variables, too, of course :slight_smile:
It could even be a more general “search” feature, where the user marks what she/he wants to search for? Like “column”, “variable”, “documentation”, “any text”, or whatever relevant categories one might think of?
Greetings from Holland!
Bart.

1 Like
7

So the way that I envision this feature:

Let’s say I start in my WF with loading in three columns A, B and C.

At some stage in my transformation I add D and E. Then Filter out B and C.

If I use this feature for column A - everything should be “somehow highlighted”

If I use this feature for column D / E the part of the workflow should be highlighted starting from where they were added until the end.

For B /C highlight from beginning to where they are filtered out…

2 Likes
8

Hi Martin,
exactly!
The part of the Workflow is highlighted where the column (or variable, etc.) is still part of the output. So, as long as the column is shown in the “Node Monitor”, then the flow should be highlighted.
Greetings! Bart.