License

Starting with Version 2.1, KNIME is released under the GNU General Public License, Version 3 (including certain additional permissions according to Sec. 7 of the GPL Ver. 3). It is also available - through the dual licensing model - under customized licenses. If you which to receive KNIME under a different license than the GPL, please contact us at contact@knime.org to discuss licensing arrangements.

Versions

Installation

Download one of the above versions, unzip it to any directory. For Windows click the knime.exe file, and for Linux click the knime.sh in order to start KNIME.

Welcome Screen / Additional features

When KNIME is started for the first time a welcome screen appears.

From here you can

1. Open KNIME workbench: opens the KNIME workbench to immediately start exploring KNIME, build own workflows and explore your data.
2. Get additional nodes: in addition to the ready-to-start basic KNIME installation there are additional plug-ins for KNIME e.g. an R and Weka integration, or the integration of the Chemistry Development Kit with additional nodes for the processing of chemical structures, compounds, etc. You can download these features later from within KNIME (File, Update KNIME...) as well

Workbench overview

The KNIME Workbench is organized as follows:

Building a workflow

A workflow is built by dragging nodes from the Node Repository to the Workflow Editor and connecting them. Nodes are the basic processing units of a workflow. Each node has a number of input- and/or output ports. Data (or a model) is transfered via a connection from an out-port to the in-port of another node.

Node Status

When a node is dragged to the workflow editor the status light lights up red, which means that the node has to be configured in order to be able to be executed. A node is configured by right-clicking it, choosing "Configure", and adjusting the necessary settings in the node's dialog.

When the dialog is closed by clicking the "OK" button, the node is configured and the status light changes to yellow: the node is ready to be executed. Right-click the node again shows an enabled "Execute" option; clicking it will execute the node and the result of this node will be available at the out-port. After a successful execution the stauts light of the node is green. The result(s) can be inspected by exploring the out-port view(s): the last entries in the context menu open them.

Ports

Ports on the left are input ports, where the data from the out-port of the predecessor node is provided. Ports on the right are out-ports. The result of the node's operation on the data is provided at the out-port to successor nodes. A tooltip provides information about the output of the node, further information can be found in the node description. Nodes are typed such that only ports of the same type can be connected.

Data Port

The most common type is the data port (a white triangle) which transfers flat data tables from node to node.

Database Port

Nodes executing commands inside a database are recognized by their database ports (brown square):

PMML Ports

Data Mining nodes learn a model which is passed to the referring predictor node via a blue squared PMML port.

Other Ports

Whenever a node provides data that does not fit a flat data table structure, a general purpose port for structured data is used (dark cyan square). All ports not listed above are known as "unknown" types (gray square).

Uninstalling

KNIME is uninstalled from your system by simply deleting the installation directory. By default the workspace is also in this directory. If you have chosen a different location for the workspace be sure to delete this directory as well.

Further Information

For more information on how to build a workflow see also the getting started guide.