Upgrade deprecated nodes

Hi Team,

We have in our server already deployed many workflows and many of those contain the SAP reader node from Theobald software XtractUniversal.

Now, we have to upgrade the software but also the version of the SAP reader node in KNIME, as per with the new software from Theobald the old node will have some issues with the new version of the Theobald software.

Because of that, we will have to update all deprecated nodes from each workflow to the new version of the SAP reader node, however this is a lot of work and human mistakes can happen during this task.
Is there a way to upgrade all those nodes (deprecated) to the new version so that we do not have to manually change that on each workflow?

BR,
Marc

Hello,

To the best of my knowledge, there is not a way to update a node or set of nodes across all workflows in an automated fashion. You will have to open, update, save, and redeploy each workflow that needs adjustment.

Regards,
Nickolaus

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I understand how @MarcEM must have felt. A few days ago, I discovered that a beta node I was using had been deprecated, and I found it out only by chance!

@MarcEM @NDekay @badger101

Usually when you open a workflow in Knime AP, and if the workflow contains outdated nodes, Knime will offer to update them for you, and it’s probably the best way to update these nodes.

But I agree that indeed, if the workflows are running off a Knime server, and they’re not necessarily being opened in Knime AP, but rather running via the webportal, you won’t even know that they these nodes are deprecated, until you decide to open the workflow in Knime AP.

@MarcEM it might not help your current case but you could wrap such nodes that would log into a database in a MetaNode or component and publish that on the server (the small green arrow). All Workflows will use that component and when you have to change something all Workflows that use that will ask to update the component.

This is how we handle several hundred Workflows that would access a big data system.

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Hi all,

Thank you for your replies.

However, none of this options helps, actually if I could open, upgrade and save the workflow with the upgraded node, it will be fine, however, KNIME only askes me to upgrade a component but not for regular deprecated nodes that are inside a workflow.

@ mlauber71 Your solution will not work as we havealready a lot of deployed workflows :frowning:

Does someone know a way to do that?

BR,
Marc

Hi @MarcEM , you are correct. Indeed, Knime would not update or ask you to update Deprecated nodes as, generally, they do not need to be updated.

Knime would update workflows created by older version with incompatible nodes to the newer version of the nodes (new version of the nodes for the newer version of Knime).

Deprecated nodes are still usable, that is why Knime would not prompt for updating them. The fact that they are usable, it should not be a problem to keep using them. Of course, the newer version might give you new features that the deprecated ones did not have, but it should not be a problem to keep using the deprecated nodes.

Hi @ bruno29a,

Deprecated nodes are still usable → This will happen only if the nodes were created with no errors.

In my case we are upgrading XtractUniversal (Theobald software) (XU) and the new version of this software is not compatible with the old version of the SAP Reader Node, because KNIME wrongly mapped the header’s naming from the XU software.

Now we have a lot of workflows deployed into our server and I need to upgrades those nodes right after the upgrade of the XU software.

Could someone help me with that?

BR,
Marc

in my case the old version of the node (SAP reader (Theobald software) is not working with the

@MarcEM again: I do not think you will be able to automate that. Only thing to do is encapsulate the new connection into a shared component or meta file so you will have more control next time.

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I see :frowning:

nevertheles, I will try to automate it by creating a workflow that change the xml file inside the nodes

BR,
Marc

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