Data Inspector (UI Element)

This article is about the current version of Grooper. Note that some content may still need to be updated.

2025

WIP	This article is a work-in-progress or created as a placeholder for testing purposes. This article is subject to change and/or expansion. It may be incomplete, inaccurate, or stop abruptly. This tag will be removed upon draft completion.

The Grooper Data Inspector is a UI Element that can be found anywhere there is a Document Viewer showing extraction results. This UI Element allows a user to inspect the Data Instance hierarchies of an extracted result.

About

The Data Inspector is a UI Element that allows you to inspect an extracted Data Instance to see the instance hierarchy and extraction logic. The Data Inspector is good for gaining a better understanding of how extraction works and is useful for troubleshooting extraction problems.

How to

An instance can be inspected anywhere you test extraction and have the inspector icon available. Common areas to use a Data Inspector include the Tester tab of an Extractor Node Type like a Data Type, the Tester tab of an Extract Batch Process Step, or when testing the extraction on a Data Element like a Data Model.

Inspecting an instance

1. In your Node Tree, navigate to and select a configured Value Reader or Data Type.
2. Click over to the Tester tab.
3. In the Results Panel located in the bottom right of the screen below the Document Viewer, we can see all of the results returned by the Extractor object.
4. Select a single result in the Results panel.
5. Click the Data Inspector icon located in the top right of the Results panel.
6. The Data Inspector should open up in a new tab in your web browser.

There are four main panels that comprise the Data Inspector:

1. The Data Hierarchy Panel - Located in the top left of the Inspector.
   • This will show you not only what is extracted, but also any hierarchy contained within the extraction.
2. The Properties Panel - Located in the bottom left of the Inspector.
   • You cannot edit these properties. It is informational only.
3. The Results Panel - Located in the bottom right of the Inspector.
   • This panel shows the text of the extracted result based on the selected instance in the Hierarchy panel. It will also show you how the data will appear when extracted into a Data Element like a Data Field.
4. The Document Viewer - Located in the top right of the Inspector.
   • The extracted value of the instance selected in your Hierarchy panel will be highlighted in green on the page.

Inspecting collated instances

Collated instances often have some kind of hierarchy involved with the extraction. Using the instance inspector not only allows you to see how the hierarchy is working, but also see how the final result will be presented when extracted.

Ordered Array Example

Using the Data Inspector, you can see how Grooper is using hierarchy to return a specific data instance when collating results.

1. Select a parent Data Type that has child extractor nodes that are collated with an Ordered Array.
2. Click over to the Tester tab.
3. In the results panel, select an extracted result
4. Click the Inspector icon.
   • The Data Inspector will open in a new tab in your web browser.
5. The hierarchy of extraction is shown in the Data Hierarchy Panel. Select one of the children in the Data Hierarchy panel.
   • You will be able to see what the child extractor is extracting on its own in the Results panel.
6. Select the parent in the hierarchy.
   • You will be able to see what the final extracted result will be.

If there were any issues with the extraction, you would be able to identify it here, and possibly see if the problem lies with the parent or a child extractor. This makes the Data Inspector a valuable tool in troubleshooting extraction issues.