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TMF 622 Product Ordering API v5 - How to specify Characteristic Values for the Product Offerings referred by ProductOrderItem

  • 1.  TMF 622 Product Ordering API v5 - How to specify Characteristic Values for the Product Offerings referred by ProductOrderItem

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 16, 2024 12:02
    Edited by Dr. Roy Kucukates Jan 16, 2024 12:02

    Hi,

    I have a question about how to specify the selected Characteristic Values of a Product Offering that has been referred by a ProductOrderItem (through ProductOfferingRef sub entity). When the user selects a Product Offering from the catalog we want them to specify the characteristic values they have selected. And then we put the selected Product Offering into the Product Order as a new Product Order Item. The ProductOrderItem entity has a ProductOfferingRef sub entity that points to the Product Offering however it is not possible to write the Characteristic Values selected by the user using this structure because there is no place we can write them on the below resource model. Does anybody has a solution to this requirement?

    Thanks,
    Roy

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    Roy Kucukates
    LotusFlare
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  • 2.  RE: TMF 622 Product Ordering API v5 - How to specify Characteristic Values for the Product Offerings referred by ProductOrderItem

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 16, 2024 15:45

    Hi Roy

    You would out the characteristic values in the Product sub-entity that is contained in the ProductOrderItem.

    Please note that you can also use a new API in v5, Product Configuration, which gives you an easier way as a consumer for initializing a product tree structure from a product offering, as part of the sales and ordering process. Of course some back-end would have to implement this API, but for a commerce consumer the API makes things easier.

    Hope it helps



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    Jonathan Goldberg
    Amdocs Management Limited
    Any opinions and statements made by me on this forum are purely personal, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the TM Forum or my employer.
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  • 3.  RE: TMF 622 Product Ordering API v5 - How to specify Characteristic Values for the Product Offerings referred by ProductOrderItem

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 16, 2024 16:10
    Hi Jonathan,

    Thanks for the reply.
    I was thinking that the Product sub-entity is for the already purchased products (i.e. already instantiated products in the Product Inventory) so that the order can make modifications on them. Having a ProductRefOrValue entity referring to the Product or a ProductRef that points to an instantiated product gave me that impression.

    On the other hand, the Product Configuration is a nice solution. But, again in this case, I was thinking that the Product Configuration would give me only the configuration possibilities during the order capture, and not the "selected" values. I will double check the Product Configuration option.

    Thanks,
    Roy






  • 4.  RE: TMF 622 Product Ordering API v5 - How to specify Characteristic Values for the Product Offerings referred by ProductOrderItem

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 17, 2024 01:15

    The ProductRefOrValue is there in the order item so that you can either refer to an existing product or embed a new/updated product in the order item.

    The product configuration API is intended to give you the configuration possibilities, to generate an initial configuration, and to deal with configuration updates.



    ------------------------------
    Jonathan Goldberg
    Amdocs Management Limited
    Any opinions and statements made by me on this forum are purely personal, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the TM Forum or my employer.
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: TMF 622 Product Ordering API v5 - How to specify Characteristic Values for the Product Offerings referred by ProductOrderItem

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 17, 2024 08:36
    Edited by Jag Baddukonda Jan 17, 2024 08:37

    Hi Roy,

    The product Configuration is the right way to do this. It enables the configuration during the Quote / Sales Order process and also 'specifies / maintains" those attribute / Char values that were selected by the user. 

    Regards,

    Jag



    ------------------------------
    Sri-Jagadish (Jag) Baddukonda
    Bell Canada
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  • 6.  RE: TMF 622 Product Ordering API v5 - How to specify Characteristic Values for the Product Offerings referred by ProductOrderItem

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 17, 2024 16:59
    Hi Jag,

    Thanks for the feedback. I understand the benefits of the Product Configuration. But, that configuration is not referred by ProductOrderItem by any means. It looks like this Product Configuration API needs lots of work. Good part is that we at LotusFlare will work on that and do some extensions to support the minimum requirements. Let's see where we will land. 

    Thanks again,
    Roy Kucukates 





  • 7.  RE: TMF 622 Product Ordering API v5 - How to specify Characteristic Values for the Product Offerings referred by ProductOrderItem

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 18, 2024 01:56

    I think you'll find that there is a reference from configuration to order. But the idea is that presumably the consumer will copy the configured product from a configuration structure into the order item structure when POSTing the product order.



    ------------------------------
    Jonathan Goldberg
    Amdocs Management Limited
    Any opinions and statements made by me on this forum are purely personal, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the TM Forum or my employer.
    ------------------------------



  • 8.  RE: TMF 622 Product Ordering API v5 - How to specify Characteristic Values for the Product Offerings referred by ProductOrderItem

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 18, 2024 08:41
    Jonathan,

    To me it makes more sense to have all order related information (order quantities, selected characteristic values, references to the product offerings or products, parties, etc.) contained in the Product Order so that the component can work without dependencies on other components. Having the Product Configuration (that is directly related with the Product Order) on another component creates lots of dependencies and results in multiple calls between these components. So, to me, it doesn't sound like a nice solution.
    On the other hand, I wouldn't like to put the Product Offering configuration details of a new purchase into the Product sub-resource of ProductOrderItem, because by the time the order is created it is not a Product yet. I believe the best solution is: 1) to have the Product Configurator used to step by step build a configuration during the user interaction; 2) Copying the ultimate configuration of the user to the Product Order on a Product Offering sub-resource with all characteristics and values. But, anyways, just a personal opinion.

    Thanks,
    Roy Kucukates







  • 9.  RE: TMF 622 Product Ordering API v5 - How to specify Characteristic Values for the Product Offerings referred by ProductOrderItem

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 18, 2024 09:22
    Edited by Jag Baddukonda Jan 18, 2024 09:30

    Hi Roy,

    The entities (SID) and APIs (Open APIs) and IS functions (ODA) needed are provided as a guidance. How to stitch them into a solution is upto the SW vendors and there are various patterns available which are chosen based on various criterion. 

    TMF is as neutral standards body providing the framework as a guideline. And these are entirely extensible with enhancements happening every release.

    Regards,

    Jag 



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    Sri-Jagadish (Jag) Baddukonda
    Bell Canada
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  • 10.  RE: TMF 622 Product Ordering API v5 - How to specify Characteristic Values for the Product Offerings referred by ProductOrderItem

    Posted Jan 19, 2024 04:07

    I disagree with this statement. Product is a HUGE entity if you look at the directly related SID entities for product and including ALL of that in an order is not practical. An order only needs the relevant minimal information of a product in order to fulfil that order, not the entire product construct.

    See product entities below to get an idea of all the related information in a product definition...



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    Theuns van Onselen
    Multichoice Support Services (Pty) Ltd
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  • 11.  RE: TMF 622 Product Ordering API v5 - How to specify Characteristic Values for the Product Offerings referred by ProductOrderItem

    TM Forum Member
    Posted Jan 21, 2024 03:17

    Hi Theuns

    Not clear from your post which statement you are disagreeing with ...

    At any rate, Product is indeed a large model. In the Open API team, we have flirted in the past with stripped-down models for Product and Service, but this was abandoned.

    Basically it's up to the consumer and/or provider to decide how to populate and how much to populate in the model, depending on the context of the API operation being invoked.



    ------------------------------
    Jonathan Goldberg
    Amdocs Management Limited
    Any opinions and statements made by me on this forum are purely personal, and do not necessarily reflect the position of the TM Forum or my employer.
    ------------------------------