Set Up Export/Import Schedulers in Comestri Channels

This video shows you how to set up the 2 types of Schedulers (Export/Import) available in Comestri Channels.

In this video, you’ll be looking at Schedulers in Comestri Channels. These Schedulers allow you to schedule export and import jobs.

You’ll be looking at the BigCommerce Channel, which is an example of a Comestri Channel that uses both Export and Import Schedulers.

This video starts on the Channels page with the ‘Sample Apparel Company – Bigcommerce v3CM’ Channel selected by the Filter.

Open the Channel Configuration by clicking the Configure cog.

There are 2 types of Schedulers – Export Schedulers and Import Schedulers.

Export Schedulers – used to create jobs that will export your data from Comestri on a regular schedule.
Import Schedulers – used to create jobs that will import your data into Comestri on a regular schedule.

The BigCommerce Channel uses an Endpoint to connect to the BigCommerce platform.

Both export and import jobs use this Endpoint for transferring data.

N.B. Other Comestri Channels may define Endpoints differently or use alternative connection methods.

The BigCommerce Channel uses both Export Schedulers and Import Schedulers.

We’re looking at the BigCommerce Channel because it’s a flexible channel that shows Comestri’s capabilities in terms of Schedulers.

You can see it has many export jobs. (Not all Comestri Channels have this many export jobs.)

An export job collects a specified type of Export Item (e.g. products, prices, inventory) and exports these to the external service.

Let’s look at the various columns listed on the Export Scheduler page.

Name – Name of the export job Direction – Export
Job Type – indicates the type of Export Item the job will export
Status – can be enabled or disabled (enabled jobs run automatically according to their scheduled Frequency)
Frequency – how often the job will run (can be from every 10 minutes to weekly)
Next Run – the next time an enabled export job will run

At the end of each job row, you’ll see an ellipsis. Clicking this allows you to Trigger, Edit or Delete the export job.

To create a new export job, click the New Job button.

This opens the ‘New Job’ dialog box where you can enter the details for your new job in the fields provided.

Each field corresponds to a column on the Export Scheduler page (as explained earlier).

N.B. You must also select an Endpoint for your export job.

The Endpoint provides a connection to the BigCommerce platform. The export job will use the Endpoint for exporting to BigCommerce.

The Enqueue Multiple Jobs checkbox is only selected in special circumstances where jobs need to run in parallel.

Next, we’ll look at the Import Scheduler page.

You can see it has only 2 import jobs. Most Comestri Channels have 1 or 2 import jobs.

An import job imports data from an external service and transforms it into Import Items (e.g. orders, products, prices or inventory).

The Import Items are then sent to the Comestri PIM or Comestri Order Manager (OMS).

Let’s look at the columns listed on the Import Scheduler page. (You’ll see these are the same as those on the Export Scheduler page.)

Name – Name of the import job Direction – Import
Job Type – indicates the type of Import Item the job will import
Status – can be enabled or disabled (enabled jobs run automatically according to their scheduled Frequency)
Frequency – how often the job will run (can be from every 10 minutes to weekly)
Next Run – the next time an enabled import job will run

At the end of each job row, you’ll see an ellipsis. Clicking this allows you to Trigger, Edit or Delete the import job.

To create a new import job, click the New Job button.

This opens the ‘New Job’ dialog box where you can enter the details for your new job in the fields provided.

Each field corresponds to a column on the Import Scheduler page (as explained earlier).

N.B. You must also select an Endpoint for the import job.

The Endpoint provides a connection to the BigCommerce platform. The import job will use the Endpoint for importing from BigCommerce.

N.B. The Import Transformer field is not used in the Comestri BigCommerce Channel.

The Enqueue Multiple Jobs checkbox is only selected in special circumstances where jobs need to run in parallel.

Note that, when any of the export or import jobs run, they will be listed under either the Export Jobs tab or the Import Jobs tab.