Open APIs

Hello,  I have a ProductSpecificationCharacteristic that I want to re-use across a number of ProductSpecifications.  I want to define it for one ProductSpec then reference it in a number of others. 

As a simple example, I want to define "3p.servicename" and use that characteristic in 4 different ProductSpecs.  I don't want to risk the characteristic being defined differently across PSs, so I want to define it in the context of one PS (by value) then reference it in the other 3.  Is that a common need, or is it best practice to just define it 4 times? 

I notice ProductSpecificationCharacteristic has 'name' and 'id,' but not 'href.'  So the standard way of referencing won't work (unless we add href ourselves).  

I would appreciate your thoughts/suggestions.

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John Streete
Amdocs Management Limited
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Hi,

API620 being a representation of your product structure, it doesn't care how you use your PSChar and PS in your Product Catalogue Management (PCM) system.
both options you mentioned have merits. 
So I think you have to see how both options suit your enterprise needs.

Generally speaking normalizing your PSChar should be the best practice: if a given PSchar has the same definition, then you ought to re-use it for all your PS. 
And if you still need to customize your PSChar and/or the CharValues, for a given PO, SID and API also offer the "ProdSpecCharValueUse" pattern to create override or restrictions for your PSChar and for your CharValues

Of coure, all of the above depend on your PCM capabilities, I've seen CPQ or PCM or ecommerce sotware that offer either options. Generally they denormalize the charspec because it's easier.

PS: I doubt you'll ever need hreff for PSchar.
a "Get PS" and a "Get PO" will give you all you need to know about your PSChars.

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Kind regards,

Matthieu Hattab
Lyse Platform
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Hi John and Matthieu
Characteristics specifications are not separately manageable entities in the Open API. They are embedded/contained within the specification (product, resource, test, etc.).
They are locally unique on name within the containing spec.
You might be able to manage some re-use at the level of persistence/internal implementation, but it will be tricky, since you'll have to correlate the characteristic spec in each containing spec to a single instance in persistence, and decide what to do if you get POSTs that contradict each other.

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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Original Message:
Sent: Jun 15, 2022 05:37
From: Matthieu Hattab
Subject: TMF620 Reference ProductSpecificationCharacteristics

Hi,

API620 being a representation of your product structure, it doesn't care how you use your PSChar and PS in your Product Catalogue Management (PCM) system.
both options you mentioned have merits.
So I think you have to see how both options suit your enterprise needs.

Generally speaking normalizing your PSChar should be the best practice: if a given PSchar has the same definition, then you ought to re-use it for all your PS.
And you still need to customize your PSChar and/or the CharValues, for a given PO, SID and API also offer the "ProdSpecCharValueUse" pattern to create override or restrictions for your PSChar and for your CharValues

Of coure, all of the above depend on your PCM capabilities

PS: I doubt you'll ever need hreff for PSchar.
a "Get PS" and a "Get PO" will give you all you need to know about your PSChars.

------------------------------
Kind regards,

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