A new step has been added to specify the “Base Selector,” primarily for usability. Previously, at the bottom of the API Settings or Crawler Settings step, users had to fill out whether they wanted to convert the input into one or many entities (detail page vs. list page for crawler for example). Instead, we moved that to a separate step.
When building a new Crawler, API, or Function Connector, users need to determine if each crawled page, API response, or Function response contains data for a single entity or for a list of entities. If a user decides the crawled data is for a list of entities, they also need to provide the “base selector” so that the Connector system knows how to break their data up into multiple entities.
We have made a few improvements to this part of the Connectors flow for usability. First, we added a dedicated step for identifying the base selector. Previously, at the bottom of the Crawler Settings, API Settings, or Function Settings step, users had to fill out whether they wanted to convert the input into one or many entities (detail page vs. list page for crawler for example). Instead, we moved that to a separate step.
Second, we provide a list of predictions for a user’s base selector for API and Function sources. This will help users identify what it is, so they don’t need to type it from scratch.
Last, for API and Function sources, once a user selects a base selector (or indicates that API response or Function response contains a single entity), we will automatically identify all possible Field selectors and display them in the Preview data table. From there, users can edit or remove any unnecessary columns, so users will not need to manually add each selector that they would like to extract data from.
To learn more about creating Connectors, visit the Create Pull Connector or Create Push Connector guide. For more details about the site Crawler, visit the Yext Site Crawler and Crawler Connector training module.