We are using column rename extensively in KNIME. The lack of an automatic update/upgrade from the deprecated column rename node to the new column renamer node creates hours of tedious and error prone manual work. It seems strange and not very user friendly that such a simple node is not automatically upgradeable from versions prior to 5.
I second this. It has bitten me countless times, and actually I leave some of my longer workflows in 4.7.6 because of the effort to upgrade.
Sam
4 Likes
I would like to be able to vote for this one more than once! 
This node is such a heavily used piece of the equation for creating dynamic solutions such as shareable components that it deserves special treatment. I know that there was a complete redesign on this node (and you probably want to keep the depreciated node version because of use in prior KNIME versions), but it seems like there would be a way to transfer the rename settings from the prior node to the new one to reduce the hassle.
A few of the forum helpers look to have built up 100+ dynamic shared components from forum solutions. That would be quite a manual update task if they want to update them for future community use. Many user’s workflows contain customized versions of these dynamic approaches as well. I tend to build using this dynamic approach to avoid repetitive tasks, so this node is also everywhere in my workflows. Sometimes a single node will temporarily rename 10 or more columns using flow variables…
4 Likes
I’ve just realized this problem while transitioning from KNIME 4.7 to 5.x. The old Column Rename node is one that is ubiquitous in my workflows, and it would take me a significant amount of time to change all the workflows manually.
Is the situation still the same? In other words, is there still no automatic way to update the old Column Rename node to the new Column Renamer node?