Create a New KNIME Extension

Quickstart Guide

KNIME AG, Zurich, Switzerland

Version 4.3 (last updated on 2020-11-17)
Table of Contents
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
 

Set up a KNIME SDK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2  

Create a New KNIME Extension Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3  

The KNIME Node Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3  

Test the Example Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8  

Project Structure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9  

Number Formatter Node Implementation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12  

Deploy your Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15  

Option 1: Local Update Site (recommended). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15  

Option 2: dropin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
 

Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 

Create a New KNIME Extension

Introduction
This quickstart guide describes how to create a new KNIME Extension, i.e. write a new node
implementation to be used in KNIME Analytics Platform. You’ll learn how to set up a KNIME
SDK, how to create a new KNIME Extension project, how to implement a simple manipulation
node, how to test the node, and how to easily deploy the node in order to make it available for
others.

For this purpose, we created a reference extension you can use as orientation. This KNIME
Extension project can be found in the org.knime.examples.numberformatter folder of the
knime-examples GitHub repository. It contains all required project and configuration files and
an implementation of a simple Number Formatter example node, which performs number
formatting of numeric values of the input table. We will use this example implementation to
guide you through all necessary steps that are involved in the creation of a new KNIME
Extension.

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Create a New KNIME Extension

Set up a KNIME SDK

In order to start developing KNIME source code, you need to set up a KNIME SDK. A KNIME
SDK is a configured Eclipse installation which contains KNIME Analytics Platform
dependencies. This is necessary as Eclipse is the underlying base of KNIME Analytics
Platform i.e. KNIME Analytics Platform is a set of plug-ins that are put on top of Eclipse and
the Eclipse infrastructure. Furthermore, Eclipse is an IDE, which you will use to write the
actual source code of your new node implementation.

To set up your KNIME SDK, we start with an "Eclipse IDE for RCP and RAP Developers"
installation (this version of Eclipse provides tools for plug-in development) and add all KNIME
Analytics Platform dependencies. In order to do that, please follow the SDK Setup
instructions. Apart from giving instructions on how to set up a KNIME SDK, the SDK Setup will
give some background about the Eclipse infrastructure, its plug-in mechanism, and further
useful topics like how to explore KNIME source code.

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Create a New KNIME Extension

Create a New KNIME Extension Project

After Eclipse is set up and configured, create a new KNIME Extension project. A KNIME
Extension project is an Eclipse plug-in project and contains the implementation of one or
more nodes and some KNIME Analytics Platform specific configuration. The easiest way to
create a KNIME Extension project, is by using the KNIME Node Wizard, which will
automatically generate the project structure, the plug in manifest and all required Java
classes. Furthermore, the wizard will take care of embedding the generated files in the
KNIME framework.

The KNIME Node Wizard

1. Install the KNIME Node Wizard

Open the Eclipse installation wizard at Help → Install New Software… , enter the
following update site location: https://update.knime.com/analytics-platform/4.3/ in
the location box labelled Work with:.

Hit the Enter key, and put KNIME Node Wizard in the search box. Tick the KNIME Node
Wizard under the category KNIME Node Development Tools, click the Next button and
follow the instructions. Finally, restart Eclipse.

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Create a New KNIME Extension

Figure 1. The KNIME Node Wizard installation dialog.

2. Start the KNIME Node Wizard

After Eclipse has restarted, start the KNIME Node Wizard at File → New → Other… ,
select Create a new KNIME Node-Extension (can be found in the category Other), and
hit the Next button.

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Create a New KNIME Extension

Figure 2. The KNIME Node Wizard start dialogs.

3. Create a KNIME Extension Project

In the Create new KNIME Node-Extension dialog window enter the following values:

◦ New Project Name: org.knime.examples.numberformatter

◦ Node class name: NumberFormatter

◦ Package name: org.knime.examples.numberformatter

◦ Node vendor: <your_name>

◦ Node type: Select Manipulator in the drop down menu.

Replace <your_name> with the name that you like to be the author of the created
extension. Leave all other options as is and click Finish.

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Create a New KNIME Extension

Figure 3. The KNIME Node Wizard dialog.

After some processing, a new project will be displayed in the Package Explorer view of
Eclipse with the project name you gave it in the wizard dialog.

Make sure that the checkbox Include sample code in generated

 classes is checked. This will include the code of the aforementioned
Number Formatter node in the generated files.

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Create a New KNIME Extension

Figure 4. A view of Eclipse after the KNIME Node Wizard has run.

In the Package Explorer view of Eclipse (left side) you should now see three projects.
The two projects org.apache.xmlbeans and org.knime.sdk.setup which you imported
in the SDK Setup, and the project org.knime.examples.numberformatter that you just
created using the KNIME Node Wizard.

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Create a New KNIME Extension

Test the Example Extension

At this point, all parts that are required for a new KNIME Extension are contained in your
Eclipse workspace and are ready to run. To test your node, follow the instructions provided in
the Launch KNIME Analytics Platform Section of the SDK Setup. After you started KNIME
Analytics Platform from Eclipse, the Number Formatter node will be available at the root level
of the node repository. Create a new workflow using the node (see Figure below), inspect the
input and output tables, and play around with the node.

Figure 5. KNIME Analytics Platform development version started from Eclipse showing an
example workflow. The Number Formatter node contained in the Eclipse workspace is
displayed at the bottom of the node repository.

The node will perform simple rounding of numbers from the input table. To change the
number of decimal places the node should round to, change the digit contained in the format
String that can be entered in the node configuration (e.g. %.2f will round to two decimal
places,the default value is %.3f). After you are done, close KNIME Analytics Platform.

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Create a New KNIME Extension

Project Structure
Next, let’s review the important parts of the extension project you’ve just created. First, we’ll
have a look at the files located in org.knime.examples.numberformatter.

The files contained in this folder correspond to the actual node implementation. There are
four Java classes implementing what the node should do, how the dialog and the view looks
like, one XML file that contains the node description, and an image which is used as the node
icon (in this case a default icon) displayed in the workflow view of KNIME Analytics Platform.
Generally, a node implementation comprises of the following classes: NodeFactory,
NodeModel, NodeDialog, NodeView. In our case, these classes are prefixed with the name you
gave the node in the KNIME Node Wizard, i.e. NumberFormatter.

• NumberFormatterNodeFactory.java

The NodeFactory bundles all parts that make up a node. Thus, the factory provides
creation methods for the NodeModel, NodeDialog, and NodeView. Furthermore, the factory
will be registered via a KNIME extension point such that the node is discoverable by the
framework and will be displayed in the node repository view of KNIME Analytics
Platform. The registration of this file happens in the plugin.xml (see description of the
plugin.xml file below).

• NumberFormatterNodeModel.java

The NodeModel contains the actual implementation of what the node is supposed to do.
Furthermore, it specifies the number of inputs and outputs of a node. In this case the
node model implements the actual number formatting.

• NumberFormatterNodeDialog.java (optional)

The NodeDialog provides the dialog window that opens when you configure (double
click) a node in KNIME Analytics Platform. It provides the user with a GUI to adjust node
specific configuration settings. In the case of the Number Formatter node this is just a
simple text box where the user can enter a format String. Another example would be
the file path for a file reader node.

• NumberFormatterNodeView.java (optional)

The NodeView provides a view of the output of the node. In the case of the Number
Formatter node there will be no view as the output is a simple table. Generally, an
example for a view could be a tree view of a node creating a decision tree model.

• NumberFormatterNodeFactory.xml

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Create a New KNIME Extension

This XML file contains the node description and some metadata of the node. The root
element must be a <knimeNode> … </knimeNode> tag. The attributes of this tag further
specify the location of the node icon (icon=”…”) and the type of the node (type=”…”).
Note that this is the type you selected in the dialog of the Node Wizard earlier. The
most common types are Source, Manipulator, Predictor, Learner, Sink, Viewer, and
Loop. The description of the node is specified in the children of the root tag. Have a look
at the contents of the file for some examples. The .xml must be located in the same
package as the NodeFactory and it has to have the same name (only the file ending
differs).

• default.png

This is the icon of the node displayed in the workflow editor. The path to the node icon
is specified in the NumberFormatterNodeFactory.xml (icon attribute of the knimeNode
tag). In this case the icon is just a placeholder displaying a question mark. For your own
node, replace it with an appropriate image representative of what the node does. It
should have a resolution of 16x16 pixels.

Apart from the Java classes and the factory .xml, which define the node implementation,
there are two files that specify the project configuration:

• plugin.xml and META-INF/MANIFEST.MF

These files contain important configuration data about the extension project, like
dependencies to other plug-ins and the aforementioned extension points. You can
double click on the plugin.xml to open an Eclipse overview and review some of the
configuration options (e.g. the values we entered in KNIME Node Wizard are shown on
the overview page under General Information on the left). However, you do not have to
change any values at the moment.

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Create a New KNIME Extension

Figure 6. Eclipse overview of the plugin.xml and MANIFEST.MF.

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Create a New KNIME Extension

Number Formatter Node Implementation

Once you have reviewed the project structure, we have a look at some implementation
details. We will cover the most important parts as the example code in the project you
created earlier already contains detailed comments in the code of the implemented methods
(also have a look at the reference implementation in the
org.knime.examples.numberformatter folder of the knime-examples repository).

Generally, the Number Formatter node takes a data table as input and applies a user specified
format String to each Double column of the input table. For simplicity, the output table only
contains the formatted numeric columns as String columns. This basically wraps the
functionality of the Java String.format(…) function applied to a list of Double values into a
node usable in KNIME Analytics Platform.

Let’s work through the most important methods that each node has to implement. The
functionality of the node is implemented in the NumberFormatterNodeModel.java class:

protected NumberFormatterNodeModel() {
  super(1, 1);
}

The super(1, 1) call in the constructor of the node model specifies the number of output
and input tables the node should have. In this case it is one input and one output table.

BufferedDataTable[] execute(final BufferedDataTable[] inData, final ExecutionContext

exec)

The actual algorithm of the node is implemented in the execute method. The method is
invoked only after all preceding nodes have been successfully executed and all data is
therefore available at the input ports. The input table will be available in the given array
inData which contains as many data tables as specified in the constructor. Hence, the index
of the array corresponds to the port index of the node. The type of the input is
BufferedDataTable, which is the standard type of all tabular data in KNIME Analytics
Platform. The persistence of the table (e.g. when the workflow is saved) is automatically
handled by the framework. Furthermore, a BufferedDataTable is able to handle data larger
than the size of the main memory as the data will be automatically flushed to disk if
necessary. A table contains DataRow objects, which in turn contain DataCell objects.
DataCells provide the actual access to the data. There are a lot of DataCell implementation
for all types of data, e.g. a DoubleCell containing a floating point number in double precision
(for a list of implementations have a look at the type hierarchy of the DataCell class).
Additionally, each DataCell implements one or multiple DataValue interfaces. These define

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Create a New KNIME Extension

which access methods the cell has i.e. which types it can be represented as. For example, a
BooleanCell implements IntValue as a Boolean can be easily represented as 0 and 1. Hence,
for each DataValue there could be several compatible DataCell classes.
The second argument exec of the method is the ExecutionContext which provides means to
create/modify BufferedDataTable objects and report the execution status to the user. The
most straightforward way to create a new DataTable is via the createDataContainer(final
DataTableSpec spec) method of the ExecutionContext. This will create an empty container
where you can add rows to. The added rows must comply with the DataTableSpec the data
container was created with. E.g. if the container was created with a table specification
containing two Double columns, each row that is added to the container must contain two
DoubleCells. After you are finished adding rows to the container close it via the close()
method and retrieve the BufferedDataTable with getTable(). This way of creating tables is
also used in the example code (see NumberFormatterNodeModel.java). Apart from creating a
new data container, there are more powerful ways to modify already existing input tables.
However, these are not in the scope of this quickstart guide, but you can have a look at the
methods of the ExecutionContext.
The execute method should return an array of output BufferedDataTable objects with the
length of the number of tables as specified in the constructor. These tables contain the
output of the node.

DataTableSpec[] configure(final DataTableSpec[] inSpecs)

The configure method has two responsibilities. First, it has to check if the incoming data
table specification is suitable for the node to execute with respect to the user supplied
settings. For example, a user may disallow a certain column type in the node dialog, then we
need to check if there are still applicable columns in the input table according to this setting.
Second, to calculate the table specification of the output of the node based on the inputs. For
example: imagine the Number Formatter node gets a table containing two Double columns
and one String column as input. Then this method should return a DataTableSpec (do not
forget to wrap it in an array) containing two DataColumnSpec of type String (the Double
columns will be formatted to String, all other columns are ignored). Analogously to the
execute method, the configure method is called with an array of input DataTableSpec objects
and outputs an array of output DataTableSpec objects containing the calculated table
specification. If the incoming table specification is not suitable for the node to execute or
does not fit the user provided configuration, throw an InvalidSettingsException with an
informative message for the user.

saveSettingsTo(final NodeSettingsWO settings)

and

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Create a New KNIME Extension

loadValidatedSettingsFrom(final NodeSettingsRO settings)

These methods handle the loading and saving of settings that control the behaviour of the
node, i.e. the settings entered by the user in the node dialog. This is used for communication
between the node model and the node dialog and to persist the user settings when the
workflow is saved. Both methods are called with a NodeSettings object (in a read only (RO)
and write only (WO) version) that stores the settings and manages writing or reading them to
or from a file. The NodeSettings object is a key-value storage, hence it is easy to write or read
to or from the settings object. Just have a look at the provided methods of the NodeSettings
object in your Eclipse editor. In our example, we do not write settings directly to the
NodeSettings object as we are using a SettingsModel object to store the user defined format
String. SettingsModel objects already know how to write and read settings from the
NodeSettings (via methods that accept NodeSettings) and help to keep settings
synchronization between the model and dialog simple. Furthermore, they can be used to
create simple dialogs where the loading and saving of settings is already taken care of.

You can find the actual algorithm of the Number Formatter node in the execute method in the
NumberFormatterNodeModel.java class. We encourage you to read through the code of the
above mentioned classes to get a deeper understanding of all parts of a node. For a more
thorough explanation about how a node should behave consult the KNIME Noding
Guidelines.

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Create a New KNIME Extension

Deploy your Extension

This section describes how to manually deploy your Extension after you have finished the
implementation using the Number Formatter Extension as example. There are two options:

Option 1: Local Update Site (recommended)

The first option is to create a local Update Site build, which can be installed using the
standard KNIME Analytics Platform update mechanism.

To create a local Update Site build, you need to create a Feature project that includes your
extension. A Feature is used to package a group of plug-ins together into a single installable
and updatable unit. To do so, go to File → New → Other… , open the Plug-in Development
category, select Feature Project and click the Next button.

Figure 7. The Feature Project Wizard start dialogs.

Enter the following values in the Feature Properties dialog window:

• Project ID: org.knime.examples.numberformatter.feature

• Feature Name: Number Formatter

• Feature Version: leave as is

• Feature Vendor: <your_name>

• Install Handler Library: leave empty

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Create a New KNIME Extension

Replace <your_name> with the name that you like to be the author of the created extension.
Additionally, choose a location for the new Feature Project (e.g. next to the Number Formatter
Extension) and click the Next button. On the next dialog choose Initialize from the plug-
ins list: and select the org.knime.examples.numberformatter plug-in (you can use the
search bar to easily find the plug-in). The plug-ins selected here are the ones that will be
bundled into an installable unit by the Feature. Of course, you can edit that list later on.
Finally, hit the Finish button.

Figure 8. The Feature Project Wizard dialogs.

After the wizard has finished, you will see a new project in your Eclipse Package Explorer with
the Project ID you gave it earlier and Eclipse will automatically open an overview of the
feature.xml (you can also open this view by double clicking on the feature.xml file located
in the Feature Project). The Feature overview looks similar to the plugin.xml overview, be
careful not to confuse them. You can view/modify the list of included plug-ins by selecting
the Included Plug-ins tab at the bottom of the overview dialog.

Additionally to the information you entered in the Feature Project Wizard, you
should provide a detailed Feature description, license and copyright information
 in the Feature meta data. This can be done by selecting the Information tab at
the bottom of the overview dialog. This information will be displayed to the user
during installation of the Feature.

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Create a New KNIME Extension

Figure 9. Eclipse overview of the feature.xml. The link to create an Update Site Project is
marked in red.

Next, you need to publish the Feature on a local Update Site. For this, first create an Update
Site Project by clicking on the Update Site Project link on bottom right corner of the
Eclipse overview dialog of the feature.xml (see figure above). This will start the Update Site
Project Wizard.

Figure 10. The Update Site Project Wizard dialog.

On the shown dialog, enter the following:

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Create a New KNIME Extension

• Project name: org.knime.examples.numberformatter.update

Again, choose a location for the new Update Site Project and click the Finish button. Similar
to the Feature Project Wizard, you will see a new project in your Eclipse Package Explorer
with the Project name you gave it in the wizard dialog and Eclipse will automatically open an
overview of the site.xml called Update Site Map. Again similar to a Feature, an Update Site
bundles one or several Features that can be installed by the Eclipse update mechanism.

Figure 11. Eclipse overview of the site.xml. The Update Site in this image already contains one
category called number_formatting where the org.knime.examples.numberformatter.feature
was added to. This way the Number Formatter Extension will be listed under this category
during installation.

On the Eclipse overview of the site.xml, first create a new category by clicking on the New
Category button. This will create a new default category shown in the tree view on the left. On
the right, enter an ID like number_formatting and a Name like Number Formatting. This name
will be displayed as a category and used for searching when the Feature is installed. Also,
provide a short description of the category.

Second, select the newly created category from the tree view and click the Add Feature…
button. On the shown dialog, search for org.knime.examples.numberformatter.feature and
click the Add button.

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Create a New KNIME Extension

Figure 12. The Feature Selection dialog.

At last, click the Build All button. This will build all Features added to the update site and
create an installable unit that can be used to install the Number Formatter Extension into an
KNIME Analytics Platform instance.

The building of the Update Site might take some time. You can review the
 progress in the bottom right corner of Eclipse.

After building has finished, you can now point KNIME Analytics Platform to this folder (which
now contains a local Update Site) to install the Extension. To do so, in KNIME Analytics
Platform open the Install New Software… dialog, click on the Add button next to the update
site location, on the opening dialog click on Local…, and choose the folder containing the
Update Site. At last, give the local Update Site a name and click OK. Now, you can install the
Number Formatter Extension like any other plug-in.

The above description shows how to manually deploy a new Extension using the Eclipse
update site mechanism. However, in a real world scenario this process should be done
automatically. If you think your new node or extension could be valuable for others, KNIME
provides the infrastructure to host and automatically deploy your Extension by becoming a
Community Contributor and providing a Community Extension. This way, your extension will
be installable via the Community Extension update site. For more information about
Community Extensions and how to become a contributor please see the Community section
on our website or contact us.

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Create a New KNIME Extension

Option 2: dropin
The second option is to create a dropin using the Deployable plug-ins and fragments
Wizard from within Eclipse. A dropin is just a .jar file containing your Extension that is
simply put into the Eclipse dropins folder to install it.

To create a dropin containing your Extension, go to File → Export → Plug-in

Development → Deployable plug-ins and fragments and click Next. The dialog that opens
will show a list of deployable plug-ins from your workspace. Check the checkbox next to
org.knime.examples.numberformatter. At the bottom of the dialog you are able to select the
export method. Choose Directory and supply a path to a folder where you want to export
your plugin to. At last click Finish.

Figure 13. The dialog of the deploy wizard.

After the export has finished, the selected folder will contain a .jar file containing your
plugin. To install it into any Eclipse or KNIME Analytics Platform installation, place the .jar

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Create a New KNIME Extension

file in the dropins folder of the KNIME/Eclipse installation folder. Note that you have to
restart KNIME/Eclipse for the new plugin to be discovered. In this example, the node is then
displayed at the top level of the node repository in KNIME Analytics Platform.

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Create a New KNIME Extension

Further Reading
• For more information on development see the Developers Section of the KNIME
website.
• KNIME source code
• If you have questions regarding development, reach out to us in the KNIME
Development category of our forum.

© 2020 KNIME AG. All rights reserved. 22

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www.knime.com
[email protected]

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