Basic steps for creating a text analyzer

This topic outlines the basic steps for creating and running a text analyzer using VisualText. Since VisualText can be used to create many different types of text analyzers, we will give a rough outline of the overall process of creating, running and defining a text analyzer.

Creating a new analyzer project:

1. From the File menu, select New Analyzer.

2. In the New Analyzer dialog, provide the following information:

• Analyzer Name: This name will be used to organize the analyzer project. VisualText automatically assigns a .ana extension to the name to mark it as the analyzer project file. You use the .ana file to open the analyzer project.

• Location: Select the default location or navigate to the drive and folder that you would like to save the analyzer project in.

• Template: Select "Bare". (Currently, the only template available is Bare.) Bare is the absolute basic or minimal analyzer.)

3. Click OK.

Creating text files to be analyzed:

1. In the Text Tab, right click and select Add > New Text File.

2. In the dialog box, give the text file a name.

3. Click OK. The newly created text file opens up in the Workspace. (The text file is stored in the input folder of the analyzer project. You can also add files to be analyzed directly into the input folder.)

Adding and saving text to a text file:

1. Double click on the a file in the Text Tab to open it in the Workspace.

2. Add text to the file.

3. Save the file by right-clicking on the file and selecting Save. You can also use the save icon on the Main Toolbar.

Defining the analyzer sequence:

The analyzer sequence, made up of passes, is viewed and managed in the Ana Tab. A pass is a discrete step in the analyzer sequence that has its own pass algorithm. Each analyzer project comes with a built-in pass in the analyzer sequence. The default pass tokenize tokenizes each of the characters in an input file into token types, such as alpha for alphabetic, num for numeric, punct for punctuation, etc. As you build your analyzer, you add passes to the analyzer sequence after the tokenize pass. Each pass in the analyzer sequence is associated with a pass file that contains NLP++ code and rules which instruct the rule matcher what to do. Here is how you add passes to the analyzer sequence:

1. Select the pass in the analyzer sequence where you want to add a pass.

2. Right-click and select, Add > New Pass. (The pass is inserted AFTER the pass you selected.)

3. In the Pass Properties dialog, provide the following:

• Name: This is the name for the analyzer pass.

• Type: Select Pattern for a pattern-based pass and recursive for a recursive pass.

4. Click OK.

The new pass is created in the analyzer sequence. To edit the pass, double click on the pass to open the associated pass file in the Workspace. For a description on editing pass files, see the Developer's section.

Running an analyzer:

1. Select a file in the Text Tab.

2. From the Analyzer Menu, select Run. You can also use the run icon from the Workspace toolbar. A red checkmark on the file icon indicates that the file has been analyzed.

When an analyzer is run, a parse tree is created for the analyzed text. How you define your analyzer sequence and pass files will determine what kind of information will be displayed in the parse tree.

Viewing the parse tree of an analyzed text

1. Select the analyzed file in the Text Tab.

2. Click on the Parse Tree button. You can also open the file in the Workspace, right-click on the file and select View > Parse Tree.

Saving the Analyzer:

1. Select Save Analyzer from the File menu. Save Analyzer saves the analyzer project and the associated Knowledge Base. (You should save your project often.)

2. Answer Yes to the prompt asking if you want to save the analyzer.