The idea behind the Output tab is to make it more convenient for Actor users to see whether the run results are relevant to their scraping request right away.
In this quick demo, I'll show you how to set up an output tab for your own Actor.
Firstly, you should create a .actor folder in the root of your Actor's source code. Create a actor.json file in this folder, after which you'll have .actor/actor.json (or use existing templates when creating a new Actor).
In the next step, copy-paste the following code example into your .actor/actor.json
{
"actorSpecification": 1,
"name": "___ENTER_ACTOR_NAME____",
"title": "___ENTER_ACTOR_TITLE____",
"version": "1.0.0",
"storages": {
"dataset": {
"actorSpecification": 1,
"views": {
"overview": {
"title": "Overview",
"transformation": {
"fields": [
"___EXAMPLE_NUMERIC_FIELD___",
"___EXAMPLE_PICTURE_URL_FIELD___",
"___EXAMPLE_LINK_URL_FIELD___",
"___EXAMPLE_TEXT_FIELD___",
"___EXAMPLE_BOOLEAN_FIELD___"
]
},
"display": {
"component": "table",
"properties": {
"___EXAMPLE_NUMERIC_FIELD___": {
"label": "ID",
"format": "number"
},
"___EXAMPLE_PICTURE_URL_FIELD___": {
"format": "image"
},
"___EXAMPLE_LINK_URL_FIELD___": {
"label": "Clickable link",
"format": "link"
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
To check if the file is configured correctly, you can paste the following code at the beginning of your Apify.main() function.
const output = {
"___EXAMPLE_NUMERIC_FIELD___": 42,
"___EXAMPLE_PICTURE_URL_FIELD___": "https://freeiconshop.com/wp-content/uploads/edd/image-outline-filled.png",
"___EXAMPLE_LINK_URL_FIELD___": "https://developers.apify.com/",
"___EXAMPLE_TEXT_FIELD___": "One result example",
"___EXAMPLE_BOOLEAN_FIELD___": true
}
await Apify.pushData(output)
return
Your Apify.main() function might look like this:
Hopefully, Build & Start was successful, and you can see the following result in the Overview table inside the Output tab.
If you see the results in the Overview table, it means you are finished. The very first setup should be pretty quick. Now, just go back to your code, and replace the fields in .actor/actor.json prefixed by ___ENTER* with your Actor's name and title and the ___EXAMPLE* fields with real field names from your Actor's result dataset.
If you want to read technical documentation on the subject, head directly to Apify Docs.