Glossary

Definitions of the most important concepts used on the dexi.io platform

Morten Franck avatar
Written by Morten Franck
Updated over a week ago
  • Account: is created when you sign up. Multiple users with different roles can be added to your account.

  • App: additional functionality that can be added to your account, e.g. more step types/pipe actions or integrations.

  • AutoBot: a type of robot that, given a list of input URLs (on different domains), maps inputs to outputs via an Extractor robot per domain.

  • Configuration: various properties of a robot, e.g. its concurrency level, inputs, proxy or schedule. Multiple configurations can be defined for a robot. Synonymous with Run.

  • Crawler: a type of robot that visits links given a starting page and extracts basic information about the pages it visits, e.g. the URL and page title.

  • Data set: a set or table of rows. Similar to a table in a SQL database, a sheet in a spreadsheet or collection in a NoSQL database. See also Deduplication and Record Linkage.

  • Data type: field definition of a row used in a data set, dictionary - or as input or output for an Extractor, Pipes or AutoBot robot. Can be useful to standardise input and output when working with many robots.

  • Deduplication: the process of removing duplicate rows within one data set as defined by the key configuration on the data set.

  • Dictionary: a mapping of keys to values.

  • Element path: a CSS3 selector expression used in steps in Extractors specifying how to traverse the DOM tree of a web page to reach the particular element to interact with.

  • Execution: the process of running a specific configuration of a robot. An execution has one result per input.

  • Extractor: a type of robot that extracts information from a web page and interacts with the page in various ways, e.g. fills in forms, clicks buttons and much more.

  • Input: the values to be used when executing a robot, e.g. a URL or a search query value. A data type can be used. In an Extractor the input fields are defined and in a configuration of the robot the actual values are specified. In Pipes robots input fields are automatically calculated given the starting nodes of the Pipes graph.

  • Integration: a type of app that specifically integrates (or connects) with an external/3rd-party service, e.g. Amazon S3 or Google Drive.

  • Key configuration: field definition of how duplicates in a data set should be identified.

  • Output: the definition of fields in a robot that should be saved as results. A data type can be used. In an Extractor the output fields are defined. In Pipes robots output fields are automatically calculated given the exit nodes of the Pipes graph.

  • Pipes: a type of robot that performs various actions in a sequence or workflow, e.g. reads data from a source, performs some processing/transformation and saves results in a data store.

  • Pipes action: a part of a Pipes robot that performs some action, e.g. executes a robot, iterates rows in a data set or make a HTTP requests.

  • Project: an asset on your account, e.g. a robot or data set.

  • Proxy: a server performing requests on behalf of a robot execution.

  • Record Linkage: the process of combining two data sets using the key configuration on the data set combining into. For more details, see How do I use Data Sets for deduplication/record linkage?

  • Results: the data, in row format, saved by a robot. See also Execution and Output.

  • Result log: a text file containing all events pertaining to the particular result.

  • Robot: a type of asset that performs an automated process, e.g. extracts information from a web page. See Extractor, Pipes, Crawler and AutoBot.

  • Run: synonymous with Configuration.

  • Schedule: the recurrence with which a configuration is executed. Can be expressed in cron syntax.

  • Scraper: deprecated. See Extractor.

  • Step: a part of an Extractor robot that performs some action, e.g. visits a URL, clicks a link, waits for an element or extracts a piece of information.

  • Timetable: the earliest and latest possible times that a configuration can be executed.

  • Trigger: is added to a project asset, e.g. a configuration or data set, which causes an action to be performed when some event occurs, e.g. adding a row to a data set when an execution completes.

  • Webhook: a type of integration that notifies an external endpoint about some event, e.g. when an execution completes.

  • Worker: a part of the dexi.io platform that does the work of a robot, e.g. extracts information from a web page. The number of workers on your account determines how much execution work can be done concurrently.

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