EDGEBIC Scheduled Integration Runs Explained: Import Masks on a Timer

EDGEBIC by User Solutions can run its import masks automatically, on a timer or when a watched file changes, with a persistent end-to-end run history and a built-in simulator, so data flows in from other systems without manual re-imports and without a native ERP connector. Getting data into a scheduling system reliably is half the battle, and EDGEBIC's answer is to automate the import mechanism it already has rather than bolt on a fragile connector. The result is a mapped, scheduled feed you can see into.

This is the automation layer over the import masks that define how outside data lands in EDGEBIC's fields. If the mask is the contract, scheduled integration runs are the timer that executes it.

Masks, Automated, Not a Connector

The honest framing comes first because it shapes everything else. EDGEBIC integrates with other systems through import and export masks: a mask maps columns from a spreadsheet, a CSV, or a database query into EDGEBIC's fields. That is the whole integration model, and it is deliberately transparent. Scheduled integration runs do not replace masks with a certified plug-in for a particular ERP; they automate the masks.

A definition names a source and a mask. The source is either a file to watch or a database query to run. When the definition fires, its rows are read from the source, mapped through the mask, and processed by the exact same import pipeline you would use by hand. What changes is that you no longer launch it manually; a schedule or a file change does.

Calling this a mapped scheduled feed rather than a connector is not modesty, it is accuracy, and the accuracy is the point. You can see precisely what is mapped where, change it without waiting on a vendor, and audit what came in.

Two Ways to Trigger

A run can be driven two ways. A watched file means EDGEBIC notices when a file changes and imports it, which suits a workflow where your ERP or another system drops a fresh export into a location on a regular basis. An interval schedule means the definition runs on a timer, which suits pulling from a database query on a cadence.

Either way, the row-level behavior is identical to a manual import, because it is the same pipeline. If your masks already work by hand, automating them does not introduce a new set of rules to learn; it just removes the hand. For building the mask itself, see how to build an import mask.

End-to-End Run History

Automation you cannot see into is automation you cannot trust, so every run is recorded. Each execution writes a persistent record: when it ran, what source it read, how many rows it processed, whether it succeeded, and a pointer to its log. Crucially, the run row is written before the work begins and finalized when it ends, so a run that is interrupted still leaves a detectable record rather than disappearing.

That end-to-end history is what turns a background process into an accountable one. When someone asks whether last night's orders came in, the answer is a run row with a count and a status, not a shrug. It is the same instinct behind the rest of EDGEBIC's auditing, like the way it tracks every schedule change.

Guardrails Against Disturbing the System

Automated imports run against a live scheduling database, so the design leans hard on containment. Runs are time-boxed and row-capped, so a runaway source cannot churn forever or flood the store. A manual import and a scheduled run of the same mask serialize rather than collide, so two writers never fight over the same records. Each integration is isolated, so one failing definition cannot take down the others or the scheduling application. And the runner is built never to throw its way out of a run without leaving that finalized history record.

The overall goal is automation that does not disturb the running system, and these guardrails are how it holds to that.

The Built-In Simulator

Because pointing an automated pipeline at real data is a leap of faith, EDGEBIC includes a simulator: it generates demo data and exercises the whole flow, so you can rehearse a scheduled integration end to end before it touches anything real. You watch a run happen, read its history, and confirm the mapping behaves, all against safe generated data. When you are satisfied, you point the definition at your actual source.

That rehearsal capability is what makes the feature approachable. You do not have to trust the automation blind; you can prove it to yourself first.

Where It Fits

Scheduled integration runs sit at the edge of the system, feeding the same sales orders, products, and routings that everything downstream depends on. The mask defines the mapping, the schedule or file trigger runs it, the history records it, and the simulator lets you rehearse it. For the whole system the feed supplies, the complete EDGEBIC guide is the map.

The Point of Automating the Mask

The temptation in integration is to promise a magic connector and deliver a brittle one. EDGEBIC takes the other road: automate the transparent, mappable, auditable import you already control, and give it a run history and a simulator so you can trust it. You trade the illusion of plug-and-play for the reality of a scheduled feed you can see, change, and verify, which is the trade most plants would make on purpose.

Want to see a mapped feed run on a timer against your own export? Bring an export to a demo and we will schedule it.