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  • 1.  Place as Array vs Object in Product Inventory and Product Order API

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 12, 2025 21:32

    As per the API Documentation for TMF-622 and TMF 637, place is represented as an Array. 

    But as part of implementation the API provider has implemented place as an Object. Snippet of the sample payload is as below:

    Is this an accepted implementation? Is the Conformance Test Kit capable of highlighting such deviations?



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    Aneesh D
    Infosys
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  • 2.  RE: Place as Array vs Object in Product Inventory and Product Order API

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 13, 2025 02:51

    Hello,

    you can check the conformance guide provided by TMF for each API.



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    Kind regards,

    Matthieu Hattab
    Lyse Platform
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  • 3.  RE: Place as Array vs Object in Product Inventory and Product Order API

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 13, 2025 03:28

    CTK will not catch this issue as it only checks mandatory attributes as far as I can see, here is an excerpt from underlying postman collection used within CTK:

    But conformance guide is very clear about that 

    So yes, implementation of the API with "place" defined as "object" is not compliant with TMF 622.



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    Denis Kozlov
    Telefonica Germany GmbH & Co. OHG
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  • 4.  RE: Place as Array vs Object in Product Inventory and Product Order API

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 13, 2025 08:57

    Thank you @Denis Kozlov - I was also of the same opinion that this is not in compliance. But the API Provider claims that their API is already certified and do not accept to change their implementation. 
    TMForum should make sure that CTK is aligned and make sure to test what conformance profile preaches. 
    What is the process to report concerns about already certified APIs? How can I get some attention on this?



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    Aneesh Da
    Infosys
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  • 5.  RE: Place as Array vs Object in Product Inventory and Product Order API

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 13, 2025 09:36

    hi,

    This is a known "issue".

    "compliance" and "certification" are different things. in a nutshell, A TMF "certification" means... not much, really.

    The admission bar is incredibly low that any vendor can certify a TMF API with little effort. 

    Only the compliance is important. Certification is just a logo on vendors websites and pre-sales powerpoint slides.

    I couldn't find it anymore, but a prominent CSP in Europe wrote last year something somewhere about evaluating TMF APis and how compliance is far more important than certification. compliance should be validated as part of a RFP and POC process.

    Compliance is not sanctioned by TM Forum. That activity is the responsibility of the buyer.

    PS: There are also inconsistencies between TMF APIs (attribute name, resource/sub-resource name etc) but this is not the vendor's fault.



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    Kind regards,

    Matthieu Hattab
    Lyse Platform
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: Place as Array vs Object in Product Inventory and Product Order API

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 14, 2025 02:10

    Is there desire to improve that? Any particular reason why CTKs rely on explicit checks in Postman collections and not (at least in addition to) validating JSON Schemas already there? It won't help against the vendor's "but we're certified" claim (and the point about POCs unfortunately doesn't go anywhere just because of that) but that would at least make CTKs slightly less of a fig leaf.



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    Alexey Rusakov
    Red Hat, Inc.
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  • 7.  RE: Place as Array vs Object in Product Inventory and Product Order API

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 13, 2025 09:52

    In addition, i would point to this document https://www.tmforum.org/resources/technical-report/tr250-api-rest-conformance-guidelines-r15-5-1/ 

    Although one may say it is quite old, but i find information there quite relevant and it is marked still as "current production version". 

    This paper outlines multiple conformance levels, where 1 and 2 are self-administered. 

    On page 9 there are criteria for the level 1, and among others we have "the support of the core data model of the API (presence and proper constructs for the entities in data model)". So clearly "proper constructs" principle is violated here. 



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    Denis Kozlov
    Telefonica Germany GmbH & Co. OHG
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  • 8.  RE: Place as Array vs Object in Product Inventory and Product Order API

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 13, 2025 10:23
    Edited by Matthieu Hattab Jan 15, 2025 02:59

    Good catch Denis. Although, having looked at many, many certifications of TMF620, I can tell you that "presence and proper constructs for the entities in data model" is often not enough to use the API (I know a vendor that has certified TMF620 but doesn't support: product offering bundle, recurring or usage prices, which is quite a gap in the telecom world)

    Do your own due diligence and check conformance. You can also discuss with your vendor to change the API. We improve a TMF API with our BSS vendor several times a year. It benefits all parties.



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    Kind regards,

    Matthieu Hattab
    Lyse Platform
    ------------------------------



  • 9.  RE: Place as Array vs Object in Product Inventory and Product Order API

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 15, 2025 01:55

    There was a mistake in the definition of place within these APIs (including in the JSON payloads) that got fixed back in 2018.  The cardinality was changed from 0..1 to 0..*. Perhaps this is just an unfortunately consequence.



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    Dan d'Albuquerque
    Entronica Company Limited
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