Choose the Right Property for Every Field
RTILA X supports CSS, XPath, and text-based fields so you can capture the exact value you need.
Selecting the Right Data Type
Every dataset field represents a piece of information captured from a page. RTILA X gives you multiple ways to define that capture. You can select visible text, read an HTML attribute such as href or src, or extract raw markup for later transformation. This flexibility lets you model real-world pages accurately without forcing every field into the same shape.
The most common property type is visible text. Product names, review bodies, article headlines, and price labels are all examples of page content that exists as readable text. RTILA X captures that text cleanly, removing extra whitespace where needed.
CSS and XPath Selectors
Behind each visual selection, RTILA X stores a selector. CSS selectors are the default for most workflows because they are compact and easy to understand. XPath selectors are available for deeper structural queries, such as finding an element by its containing text or navigating to a parent or sibling node.
The element picker can create either selector type. If the automated suggestion looks fragile, you can switch to the other selector type or edit the selector manually. This gives experienced users full control while keeping the basic experience approachable.
Repeated Elements and Collections
Many pages contain repeating blocks, such as product cards or job listing rows. RTILA X treats these as collections and lets you define a repeating container. Once the container is set, each field inside the dataset can be defined relative to that container, reducing the need to write absolute selectors for every row.
This collection pattern is essential for capturing dozens or hundreds of records from a single page. You define the block once, then RTILA X applies the same field mapping to every matching row.
Validation and Missing Values
Not every row contains every field. A product listing may have an image while another listing does not. RTILA X lets you mark fields as optional or required, and you can set fallback values for missing content. These settings keep your dataset consistent when page structure varies between rows.
By choosing the right property type and validation rules, you can build an extraction workflow that handles real-world page variation without stopping for every missing element. This is a key part of moving from a demo scraper to a reliable dataset builder.