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Siebel Order Management Guide Addendum for Industry Applications > Business Service Methods Reference > Product Manipulation Toolkit Business Service Methods >

Delta

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This is one of the Product Manipulation Toolkit Business Service Methods.

It generates the actions necessary to change an existing customizable product (asset) into a new customizable product. The set of actions can be written to a quote or an order.

Delta compares two complex assets (original and modified) and returns a quote or order. The return contains line items that specify the actions required to change the asset from the original state to the final state.

NOTE:  An update occurs if a field in the product or any of its attributes changes. The list of fields being compared is defined in Asset > Quote > Order Data Flow. This list of fields is configurable to support customer extensions to the database.

Arguments

SiebelMessage

[in] Hierarchical property set containing the final Asset (output returned from call to PMT business service method Reconfigure Product Instance).

SiebelMessage

[out] Hierarchical property set containing a quote or order header, complex line items, and attributes.

Returns

Property Set containing the complex quote or order.

Remarks

Because Delta is used frequently, you may be able to use the additional information about the method presented below.

User Properties

The Delta method uses the following user properties:

Asset Integration Object Name
Quote Integration Object Name
Order Integration Object Name
Delta Line Item Compare Field
Delta XA Compare Field
Line Item Map
Attribute Item Map
Workflow Product Configurator View

For descriptions of these user properties, see User Properties used by PMT Methods.

Before Invocation

Before Delta is invoked, the system must call two other methods:

Set Product Instance

Saves the original asset's configuration before the Product Configurator is called. For more information, see Reconfigure Product Instance.

Set Output Header

Saves the quote or order header that will be the Delta output. If a line item or attribute is associated with the Quote-Order property set, it is stripped from the property set returned by the Delta method. Later, when the returned Quote-Order is synchronized, the system determines whether to maintain or delete the line items that were associated with the quote or order before the call to Delta. For more information, see the Siebel eAI Adapter manual. For more information, see Set Output Header.

Processing

During Delta processing, the method:

Compares the before and after images to determine the correct action codes for output.
Passes all fields in the new customizable asset through to the delta quote or delta order. This includes all custom fields.

Delta compares a user-configurable set of fields. This includes the parent component ID to make sure that changes to the customizable product structure are reflected as an update.

Increasing Quantities of an Asset Component

If the user edits a customizable asset and increases the quantity of an existing component, the result is two line items. The first line item represents the original asset. The second line item adds new copies of that asset. If the original line item is changed, the Delta action is Update or NULL.

Action Field in the Quote and Order Attribute Tables

Delta logic populates an Action field in the quote attribute and order attribute tables. This field allows order provisioning logic to determine which of the attributes of a service product has changed.

For example, a delta quote can be represented as shown in Figure 45:

Figure 45. Action on Attribute Method Example

In this example, the call forwarding number changed but the number of rings did not.

Action Codes Reset Upon Delta Line Item or Attribute Changes

When a delta-enabled field in a line item changes (because of direct user input or a process such as repricing) or an attribute of a line item changes, the action code is automatically set.

This is shown in Table 9.

Table 9. Line Item Action Code Transitions

Original Action	New Action
-	Update
Add	Add
Update	Update
Delete	Delete

NOTE:  The customer should make the Action field Read-Only to avoid possible violations of configuration rules that could be caused by changing the action code of a line item.

Service Item Unique Keys (Asset Integration Id)

The Delta and Apply method operations depend upon the unique keys to each service item. Typically, the unique key is an invariable combination of fields in the service item record. Because no combination of user-entered fields is certain to be unique or invariable, the Siebel application provides a hidden Asset Integration Id field that stores a unique identifier for each service item.

The asset integration ID links the service item to the quotes and orders that modify it. On creation of a quote to add a new service item a new asset integration ID is generated from the row ID of the quote line item The quote is converted to an order at which time a new asset integration ID is generated from the row ID of the order line item. This occurs only if the action code of the quote line item is `Add' to enforce uniqueness if multiple orders are created from the same quote.

When the completed order is converted into an asset the asset integration ID is copied from the order line item to asset. When the asset is subsequently modified (Modify or Disconnect) the asset integration ID is copied to the quote and order line items.

Action Types

Each action types is implemented as a soft-coded list of values. This soft coding supports a multilingual user interface and allows for industry specific terminology. The action types supported by the Siebel application are listed in Table 10.

Table 10. Action Types

Action Type	Comments
Add
Update
Delete
-	No action

Examples

Generating a Delta Quote to Update an Asset

The following example shows how this method generates a delta quote to update an asset.

A configuration session starts with the GCI One Bundle in the state shown in the following diagram.
A CSR updates the customizable asset.
The Delta method generates the delta quote shown in the following diagram.

Generating a Delta Quote to Add a New Asset

The following example shows how this method generates a delta quote to add a new asset.

A configuration session starts with no existing asset. The user configures a new customizable product.
The Delta method generates the following delta quote.

Generating a Delta Quote to Disconnect an Asset

The following example shows how this method generates a delta quote to disconnect an asset.

The user selects a customizable asset in the service profile view.
The user clicks Disconnect.

A workflow runs Delta with the current state of the customizable asset and an empty customizable asset as input arguments. The resultant delta quote is shown below.

Generating a Delta Property Set to Add More Assets

The following example shows how this method generates a delta property set to add additional copies of an asset.

The user selects a customizable asset in the service profile view.
The user makes various changes including changing the quantity of Calling Card from one to three.
Delta generates the following delta property set. The calling card record is split out into the original, unchanged asset and an action to add the new copies of the original calling card.

Identifying Changes in Product Structure

The following example shows how this method is used to change a product structure.

The user selects a customizable product in the customer profile view.
Since this asset was created, the customizable product structure has changed to group all features beneath a Feature Package component. When the product is loaded into the Configurator, it is relinked and displayed the following way.
When the new structure is saved, Delta identifies the new Feature Package component and marks the Call Forwarding feature for update because its parent has changed.

See Also:

Methods Apply, Trim, Explode, Reconfigure Product Instance, Set Output Header, and Set Product Instance and workflows SIS OM Edit Delta Quote Line Item, SIS OM Edit Service Order Line Item, SIS OM Edit Complex Asset Workflow, SIS OM Disconnect Asset Sub-process, and SIS OM Move Process.

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