Templates

The Extractor block extracts attribute values from an entity as it passes through the block. Each attribute has an output value port associated with it. When an entity enters the block, entity attribute values are retrieved from the entity and pushed to their respective output value ports.

You can also connect an Extractor block’s output value port to an input value port of another block without any connections to the Extractor block’s InEntity port. For example, you can connect an output value port of an Extractor block to the InServiceTime port of a Server block. After an entity enters the Server block, it is passed to the Extractor block (via the InServiceTime port) to extract the appropriate entity attribute value to be used for the InServiceTime value.

You identify attributes to be extracted from the entity by clicking the Add button on the Properties dialog box Attributes page. This results in a new attribute entry (with a default name) being added to the Attributes table. You can edit the name and type of the attribute directly in the table. The attribute names that are listed in the Extractor block’s Attributes table must be unique. You can change the attribute type through a drop-down box on the type table cell. You can delete attributes from the Attributes table by selecting the attribute row in the table and then clicking the Remove button. Clicking the Apply button pushes all entries in the Attributes table to the Extractor block, and output ports are created or deleted as needed. (Note: You cannot change an attribute’s type after you close the Properties dialog box.) You use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to reorder the attributes in the Attributes table. The order of the output value ports on the Extractor block is adjusted to be the same as the order of the attributes in the Attributes table.