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  • 1.  TMF 620 Product Catalog Attribute visibility

    TM Forum Member
    Posted 4 days ago

    Hi All,

    Is there a characteristic to control product attribute visibility in TMF 620?

    I presume product specification characteristics should control whether the attribute needs to be made visible whilst selling or can be visible and/or editable for regrade scenarios.



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    Regards,
    Rupen Dewan
    Tata Consultancy Services
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  • 2.  RE: TMF 620 Product Catalog Attribute visibility

    TM Forum Member
    Posted 3 days ago

    Hi Rupen

    Firstly, let's reverse your question to align the terminology. You are asking if there is an attribute (or property) to control product characteristic visibility.

    There is indeed a property configurable on characteristic specification, which controls if the value of the characteristic can be modified when the containing entity (e.g. product) is instantiated.

    However, by design, the catalog API model does not include issues relating to presentation - these would more likely be handled in a content management system or similar. It was indeed discussed in the Open API team (I have a Jira from March 2017 discussing this).

    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


  • 3.  RE: TMF 620 Product Catalog Attribute visibility

    TM Forum Member
    Posted 3 days ago

    Thank you Jonathan, this helps. 

    I would appreciate if you could share the JIRA reference to see this further.



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    Rupen Dewan
    Tata Consultancy Services
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: TMF 620 Product Catalog Attribute visibility

    TM Forum Member
    Posted 3 days ago

    https://projects.tmforum.org/jira/browse/AP-872

    You'll be able to access this only if you are a member of the Open API project.



    ------------------------------
    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.
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: TMF 620 Product Catalog Attribute visibility

    TM Forum Member
    Posted 2 days ago

    Hello Rupen,

    I'd like to propose an alternative based on our current implementation.

    First, I would be cautious using TMF620's "configurable" to represent "visible" because:

    • "Configurable" is static (its value doesn't change at runtime), whereas you need a dynamic attribute (true/false value changes based on client context or business rules).
    • "Configurable" and "visible" convey different information, according to TMF definitions, and you likely need both.
    • TMF620 is a Ressource API, it's a dumb data store that only allows you to GET data.

    We heavily inspire our architecture based on recommendation from IG1228. we use TMF760 to expose products and product offerings with "configurable characteristics and characteristics values". TMF760 provides more granularity and is a Task API:

    {"ConfigurationCharacteristic":[{"name":"Bandwidth","isConfigurable":true,"isVisible":true,"configurationCharacteristicValue":[

    {"isSelectable":false,"isSelected":false,"isVisible":false,"name":"5000/5000 Mbits"},

    {"isSelectable":true,"isSelected":true,"isVisible":true,"name":"1000/1000 Mbits"},

    {"isSelectable":true,"isSelected":false,"isVisible":true,"name":"750/750 Mbits"}]}]}

    In TMF760, attributes values are dynamic; their visibility and configurability depend on use cases.
    Examples:
     
    1. At char level:
      1. In a contract renewal (ConfigurationAction=Renew), the SSID characteristic is "isConfigurable": false (customer cannot change their phone number during renewal) but remains "visible".
      2. In a new sales scenario (ConfigurationAction=Add), the SSID characteristic is "isConfigurable": true, allowing customers to port their existing number or choose a new one.
    2. At char value level:
      1. When we sell FTTH, visibility and selectability of bandwidth values or are contingent on TMF645 SQ results: "visible=false" and "isSelectable=false" if ineligible (red), but opposite if eligible (green or orange).
     
    My opinion is that TMF APIs should remain unbiased/unopiniated. If your visibility needs are UX-focused rather than rule-based, I endorse Jonathan's suggestion to consider a (headless) CMS, as UX is outside core commerce functions and aligns with party management ODA block. In that case, you need a layer (DXO, DXC, BFF...) to add an opinion on top of the TMF API.
    There are other options depending on requirements
     
    My two cents.


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    Kind regards,

    Matthieu Hattab
    Lyse Platform
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    Original Message