Here is a list of some key terms you'll need to know when using PhantomBuster to better understand your Phantoms' logs and consoles.
Phantom
A useful little creature that carries out a simple automated action for you. It takes an input, processes an action or scrapes information, and gives you an output file consisting of data or a summary of what it's done.
Here are some examples of Phantoms available for different social networks:
- Profile Scraper - takes users' profiles and extracts all the available information.
- Search Export - scrapes all the results of a specified search.
- Auto Follow/Liker/Commenter/etc - different Phantoms that carry out actions such as following profiles or liking and commenting on posts on your behalf.
Even when a Phantom only performs one action, its output can be used with another Phantom to string together a succession of actions. This is called chaining Phantom together.
Input
The information you give your Phantom that enables it to run, as well as the info that you want your Phantom to process. These are things like your session cookies, or could be a search term, a website URL, or a URL of a spreadsheet containing a list of profile URLs or hashtags. If using a spreadsheet, it must be publicly accessible.
Output
This concerns the data results files produced each time a Phantom launches. These contain information that has been extracted or about what the Phantom has done during its launch. They come in CSV and JSON form and can be easily downloaded.
Launch
Each time your Phantom is put to work. A Phantom will run for a period of time, during which you can specify how many actions should be performed. It should be launched multiple times to best fulfil its duty. Phantoms can be launched manually or scheduled to launch automatically and repeatedly throughout the day.
Console page
All of the controls and details of a Phantom in one place. Here you can access your output files, a summary of your setup, toggle your console to watch what's happening with a Phantom throughout its launch, and view your logs to see the details of individual launches including checking any errors that might have occurred.
Setup
The multiple steps of configuring your Phantom, including input settings, launch conditions, and notifications.
Session cookies
A string of characters that act as an identity card for a specific website. They are generated when you visit it and expire when you manually log out.
Phantoms use your cookies to access and use your account on your behalf. You can use our Chrome and Firefox extensions to get them easily. To refresh them all at once, check out this guide.
Log
You can open your Phantom’s launch log by hovering over each launch on your console page and clicking "View log." Here, you will find detailed information about what your Phantom has done on each launch. If you encountered any error during your launch, viewing your Phantom’s log will help identify the error.
Proxy
An intermediary between your browser's IP address and PhantomBuster's, used to place your actions through PhantomBuster in a geographical location close to yours. This can come in very handy with websites such as Facebook which closely monitors where in the world you are logging in from.
Email discovery
A feature for finding professional email addresses which are not otherwise available to you. These are constructed using a full name and company name, then tested and verified for authenticity before being returned to you if correct.
Each paid plan with PhantomBuster includes a certain amount of daily email discovery credits which correspond to the number of attempts at finding a verified professional email address. You can find out how many daily credits are included with each subscription plan on our Pricing page.
Execution time
The total time taken for the Phantoms on your account to execute their actions. Each subscription includes a different amount of daily execution time for the month.
User settings
Here you will find and be able to edit your personal information such as name, email address, phone number, and password. You can also unsubscribe from our email service if you wish.
Workspace settings
Here you will find and be able to edit your company information including company name, address, VAT ID, and time zone. These are the details which are important for your invoices. You can also generate API keys on this page and unsubscribe from resource notification settings if you wish.
Workflow
A workflow is a combination of Phantoms that processes a set of data. This means that you are able to run three different Phantoms by running only one flow. The workflow will use the same data to run the three Phantoms.
Buster
The amazing Phantom who created PhantomBuster. If you want to know more about him, you can find his story on our blog!