 Tutorial 1: Data Collection
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Defining the Tip Type |
We will be creating a simple robot that goes to the Kapow website and fetches a list of "Kapow Katalyst tips of the week" and stores them in a database. This demonstrates how to create a simple data collection robot.
The first thing we do is to model the type of object that the robot will be extracting. We will call this type Tip, and it will contain attributes that describe the tip. Then we go on to create the robot. It will be a small and simple robot that reads the various parts of the tip from the web page.
After the robot is finished, we run the robot. First we run it in Design Studio's debugger, then using the Management Console, then by calling RoboServer from RoboClient, and finally programmatically using the Java API to call RoboServer.
The tutorial is divided into a number of small steps, each describing a single action to take. Most steps start out with a short description of what we will do, and two subsections: Action, and Effect.
During the tour, we make references to the
installation folder. By this we mean the directory that
Kapow Katalyst is installed in. On a Windows system, this would be
C:\Program Files\Kapow Katalyst 8.2.0
if you have chosen the default value at installation. Since the
precise location of the folder will vary among users, depending on
where you selected to install, we refer to it instead as the
installation folder.
Before you can go through this guide, you need to have Kapow Katalyst installed on your system. If you have not installed Kapow Katalyst already, now would be a good time. You can find help on how to do this in the Installation Guide.