Conda Environment Propagation

This node ensures the existence of a specific configurable Conda environment and propagates the environment to Python, R, or other Conda-aware downstream nodes. This is useful to make workflows that contain Conda-aware nodes more portable by allowing to recreate the Conda environment used on the source machine (for example your personal computer) on the target machine (for example a KNIME Server instance). The node is intended to be used as follows:

1. On your local machine, you need to have Conda set up and configured in the Preferences of the KNIME Conda Integration as described in the Python installation guide .
2. Configure this node by selecting the Conda environment to propagate and selecting the packages to include in the environment in case it needs to be recreated.
3. Connect the output port of the node to the variable input port of any Conda-aware node. For more details on this, see the flow control guide .
4. Successively open the configuration dialogues of the Conda-aware node and all subsequent Conda-aware nodes in the flow that you want to make portable.
   Python nodes: On each node's Executable Selection tab, enable Use Conda environment variable and choose the variable propagating the configured Conda environment from the selection box.
   R nodes: In the Advanced tab of each R node, enable Overwrite default path to R home, select Use conda environment to find R home, and choose the variable propagating the configured Conda environment from the selection box.
5. Deploy the workflow by uploading it to the KNIME Server, sharing it via the KNIME Hub, or exporting it. Make sure that this node is reset before or during the deployment process.
6. On the target machine, Conda must also be set up and configured in the Preferences of the KNIME Conda Integration. If the target machine runs a KNIME Server, you may need to contact your server administrator and/or refer to the server administration guides in order to do this.
7. During execution (on either machine), the node will check whether a local Conda environment exists that matches its configured environment. The node will recreate the environment if necessary, ensuring its availability to the connected and properly configured downstream Conda-aware nodes.

Output ports

1. Type: Flow Variable
   Conda environment
   Flow variable of the specified name that points to the configured Conda environment.