Build an Extractor robot

To build an Extractor robot, follow the steps below:

1. In the preview area, point to and select the element, e.g., an image.
2. In the action pane, select the action you want to perform with the element, e.g., extract the value of the element.

You can add a step before or after an existing step by selecting the Add Step icon that display when hovering over a step. The a step adds can add a new step as a branch. See What should I know about the extractor editor? for information about branches.

Step types

If the action you want to perform is not available in the action pane, select Add step for element to open the step selection screen. You will find all available step types in this screen, including examples of how to use them.

Input & output

An Extractor takes input values when it needs to search for something, fill in a form, enter a date or do something else requiring external input.

On the Inputs tab in the editor, you define the fields that make up the input as well as the test values that should be used while building the robot.

Input fields can be added individually or via a data type.

Outputs work exactly the same way as inputs, except, of course, that they represent what comes out of the robot.

Execute the robot and get results

When you build your Extractor robot in the editor you are providing test values that allow you to see an example of what the web page looks like.

For example, on a web page that allows you to search for a product, you provide an example product name and you build the robot around what that page looks like. The underlying assumption is that the other product pages are structured the same way, i.e., presenting the information with the same types of elements.

When the Extractor is working as intended in the editor, to get actual results of your robot, you must configure it by creating what is called a configuration, or run, in parts of the platform. Most importantly, you can add input values to a configuration, e.g., multiple search values from the example above.

Read about how to create a configuration and execute it in Getting Started, section Getting Results.

Read on below to learn how to execute a configuration with multiple input values.

Inputs & Results

To add inputs to a configuration, select the Inputs tab:

Input rows can be added to a configuration/run in three ways:

• Manually adding them in the UI by selecting Click here to add one now
• Importing a CSV file
• Via the API

When you have added the inputs, you can start the execution the usual way: select Execute now. Then, on the Executions tab, select View.

The Results tab of the execution will now hold one result per input:

To view the result rows of an input, select anything on the row. This opens a new tab named after the input value, e.g.:

An execution of a configuration without inputs, or with just one input, has just one result and the result row is shown directly on the Results tab.

In case the execution fails, please see How can I debug a failed execution?