Share workspace between two PCs

[masgo]

I am new to KNIME and could not find anything on how to share a workspace. If the question has been answered please point me to the answer.

I have two PCs and would like to use KNIME on both. What’s the proper way to share the workspace between two PCs?

• Should I put it on a NAS? Probably bad since temp files are also stored in the workspace and my local NVME is much faster than a NAS drive.

• Can I use a tool like Syncthing to sync the NAS between the PCs? Syncthing allows to exclude different files and folders so I could exclude the temporary data.

Another related question: can I use git for versioning of the workspace?
I found the following topics, but not really solved the issue:

git version control of KNIME workflows

Hey Julian, Thanks for the replies, I apologize for my delayed response. Figured I’d update here in case this is helpful for anyone else. I have been using git and GitHub successfully for version control of my KNIME workflows! The way I have been doing it is to go to my command line and add the workflow folder, because each individual node is stored as a folder within that workflow folder, and git add on the workflow folder adds, deletes, or updates all the nodes that have changes. I have mult…

It's possibile to use a Knime-Workflows version control?

Hi, it’s possibile to use a share workflow with version control (i.e. github) for work in a team on the same project?

Server or git repository integration

Hi, is it posible to dicretly sync ones workspace with a git repository within KNIME or to add an own server repository like the one with the workflow examples? Best regards Jürgen

this one point to another question which is no longer available.

Using git (or another revision control system) for KNIME workflows

  For those interested: I'm currently using a .gitignore file (see below), and commandline git. I tried to re-open workflows that were restored using just the files in the git repository, and KNIME never complained, so this seems to indicate that all the necessary information is backed up to git. here's the contents of my .gitignore ## KNIME files .knimeLock .project .savedWithData workflowset.meta ## KNIME directories containing node data internal/ port_*/ .metadata/ internalTables/ # Pac…

this one seems to have kind of a solution, but the answer is 7 years old.

[ipazin]

Hello @masgo,

and welcome to KNIME Community!

@masgo

I have two PCs and would like to use KNIME on both.

Give KNIME Hub a try. Not exactly what you are looking for but might be good enough.

For collaboration, scheduling, versioning and other “enterprise” features there is KNIME Server.

Br,
Ivan

[masgo]

Thank you for your answer. KNIME Hub is, as I understand it, a public repository. It would not make sense to put everything there.

My main goal is to be able to use KNIME on my PC and on my laptop. Since my laptop is rather weak, I would mainly use it to develop the workflows. Then I would like to sync it to my pc where I could actually run it.

KNIME Server is price-wise way out of my range.

[ipazin]

Hello @masgo,

@masgo

KNIME Hub is, as I understand it, a public repository.

As I understand you haven’t read (properly) Hub link I shared in my previous post

(Spoiler alert: There are private spaces.)

Br,
Ivan

[mlauber71]

@masgo I think you can do these things:

Use something like DropBox and have your knime-workspace there. If you have finished your work on one PC make sure everything is saved, KNIME has been closed and the sync is complete. Then you can use the 2nd PC, wait till DropBox has done the sync and the open KNIME. This does work and has the additional benefit of creating a backup and a version control.

If you store a workflow with its data (green traffic light) everything should be fine as log as you give the sync enough time. Also you have to make sure that your Cloud provider would accept some special characters like # in the file names (there have been issues with some settings of OneDrive for companies in the past).

The next thing you could do is indeed use and external drive. Here it is key that the connection ist stable and you shut down KNIME gently and unplug the drive in a gentle way. The principle would be the same.

I would recommend you try the DropBox solution. I have used this with MacOS and windows for some time. Just make sure only one instance of KNIME is active at the same time.

[iCFO]

I use the Dropbox approach myself. A few tips to avoid trouble.

Always close all workflows before shutting down KNIME.

Always update KNIME and add extensions to both computers at the same time.

Don’t try to work and save the same workflow on both computers simultaneously.

Install Dropbox in the same directory location of both computers. Mine is always out in the open on the C: drive…

I even go as far as ensuring that the windows user folder has the same name as well, but that can be a pretty technical change which requires a few program adjustments afterwards. This one is only necessary for rare advanced automation workflow use cases.