Open APIs

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  • 1.  OpenAPI: Billing. How to send billing request

    Posted Jul 13, 2018 11:12
    Edited by Nikolay Kuznetsov Jul 15, 2018 12:36
    Dear all,

    I am trying to understand the idea behind Open API project. Hope my question is not too lame.  Let's imagine following situation:

    There is ideal Billing System that implements all OpenAPI from TMForum, Supports eTOM, SID. I am trying to understand what command should I send to it to perform some use cases in Billing. I've identifiet that the description of the APIs that I need is in documents TMF636 and TMF678.

    I'd like:
    1. Send Billing request
    2. Send Immediate billing request, informative bill
    3. Ask the system to recalculate invoice ID=65
    4. Send Billing request to Bill cycle ID=01
    5. Write off two Invoice Items
    6. Credit invoice X
    ...
    n. Execute any of the eTOM processes related to bills


    I am opening the documents mentioned above and I see that what I can do is GET, POST, PUT etc.
    I can retrieve Bills, overwrite some amounts in the bill, delete bills. But I don't see actions or methods.  

    Are OpenAPI just JSON wrapper for SID?

    What I would expect from that what is called API should look like:

    POST http://host:port/sendBillingRequest?customerID=65&billingDate=....

    And what I see is:
    GET https://host:port/customerBillManagement/customerBill/829

    What's wrong in my expectations?


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    Nikolay Kuznetsov
    Detecon International
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  • 2.  RE: OpenAPI: Billing. How to send billing request

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jul 16, 2018 02:34
    Hi Nikolai

    Great question. Firstly, to my best understanding TMF 636 has been deprecated and replaced by TMF 678 - I assume that at some point in the future the API table should be updated to reflect this status (and I have communicated this to the team leaders).
    Regarding the Customer Bill API 678: in general the TMF Open APIs are entity-based, and allow the following operations:
    You are invited to reach out to @Sophie BOULEAU, the leader of this API, to discuss possible additional features. 
    Specifically considering each of your items:
    • Send Billing Request - I am not sure what you mean by this, perhaps you can give a concrete use case?
    • Send Immediate billing request, informative bill - this is presumably a bill-on-demand request, covered in the API (POST CustomerBillOnDemand) 
    • Ask the system to recalculate invoice ID=65 - this could be an additional TASK in the API, suggest it to Sophie
    • Send Billing request to Bill cycle ID=01 - I am not sure what you mean by this, perhaps you can give a concrete use case?
    • Write off two Invoice Items - I don't think that this should be part of the API; probably we need a new API for financial transactions and AR, you are welcome to raise this with the API leadership @Andreas Polz or @Steve Harrop.
    • Credit invoice X - As previous bullet
    Hope it helps
    ​​

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    Jonathan Goldberg
    Amdocs Management Limited
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