Extractors

Extractor robots are designed to extract data from web pages. They can also automate other interactions with the page such as select buttons, input values, select and hover over elements, and more.

Extractor robot screen elements

When you create an Extractor robot the Extractor robot editor displays in the browser. The editor window is divided into two halves: the preview area (top) and the toolbox (bottom).

The preview area displays the page like your browser and when you hover the mouse over individual elements on the page, an overlay is shown. Once selected, the action pane displays with the most-used actions for elements of that type:

Toolbox

The toolbox provides tools for building and working with the Extractor robot. Within the toolbox window you can view nine different tabs:

• Steps: The steps or actions of the robot.
• Elements: The HTML structure of the page.
• Network: The network requests made when loading the page.
• Inputs: The input fields, if any, used by the robot.
• Outputs: The output fields extracted by the robot.
• Results Preview: The extracted values (based on the test input values).
• Settings: Various settings of the robot, e.g., its name.
• Versions: A list of the most recent versions of the robot and the ability to restore them.
• Console: Any console output from the page.

Toolbar

The toolbar is located within the toolbox.

— Write a message to support.
— Open help files about Extractor robots.
— Open the step-by-step guide.
— Upload a robot saved as file.
— Save the current robot as a file.
— Play the robot steps from the beginning.
— Skip to the previous or next step.
— Play or pause the robot steps at the current step.
— Open the toolbox in a separate browser window.
— Close the current robot. Choose to save or cancel the close.
— Discard the draft without saving.
— Save the current robot.

More on Extractors

To learn more about branches and how Extractors navigate pages, see What should I know about the extractor editor? and What should I know about site navigation?

For information about how to handle lists, see Extractors: Lists & Loops.

For other specific topics, please use the search function on support.dexi.io.

General topics

• Getting Started
• Web Data Extraction Basics
• Glossary