1. Patch Set Release Notes
  2. Utility Changes

12 Utility Changes

The Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) 12.0 Patch Sets include new, modified, and removed utilities.

Topics in this document:

New Utilities

Table 12-1 lists the utilities that have been introduced in the BRM 12.0 patch set releases.

Table 12-1 New Utilities

New Utility Description

pin_apply_promotion

(Patch Set 5) Introduced to apply promotions based on special dates.

For more information, see "Applying Promotions On Special Dates" in BRM Configuring Pipeline Rating and Discounting.

pin_clean_offer_override

(Patch Set 5) Introduced to remove expired override date ranges.

For more information, see "pin_clean_offer_override" in BRM Configuring Pipeline Rating and Discounting.

pin_gen_notifications

(Patch Set 5) Introduced to generate notification events when a customer's balance is about to expire, product is about to expire, subscription is about to renew, or bill is almost due.

For more information, see "Sending Messages to Customers through External Applications" in BRM Managing Customers.

rel_manager

(Patch Set 5) Introduced to provide functionality for the Rated Event Loader, primarily for use with the new Rated Event Manager.

For more information, see "Rated Event Loader Manager Utility" in Loading Rated Events.

pin_contracts

(Patch Set 4) Introduced to renew customer contracts or cancel contracts that have expired. This utility calls the PCM_OP_CONTRACT_RENEW_CONTRACT opcode to renew contracts, and the PCM_OP_CONTRACT_CANCEL_CONTRACT opcode to cancel expired contracts.

For more information, see "Processing Contract Auto-Renewals" and "Canceling Expired Contracts" in BRM Managing Customers.

pin_del_closed_accts

(Patch Set 1) Introduced to delete closed accounts in BRM. This utility calls the PCM_OP_CUST_DELETE_ACCT opcode to delete the closed accounts that are older than the specified retention period.

For more information, see "Enhanced Data Protection".

pin_roll_up_ar_items

(Patch Set 1) Introduced to process the temporary A/R items (/tmp_ar_item_to_roll_up object) of the nonpaying child bill units and roll the balance impact up to the corresponding A/R items in the paying parent bill unit. You can run multiple threads of pin_roll_up_ar_items to process A/R items for different paying parent bill unit.

For more information, see "Improved Performance for Large Accounts".

pin_update_journals

(Patch Set 1) Enhanced to process the temporary journals (/tmp_journals_to_process object) of the nonpaying child bill units and roll them up to the paying parent bill unit. You must run this utility before billing the paying parent bill unit.

For more information, see "Improved Performance for Large Accounts".

Changed Utilities

Table 12-2 lists the utilities that have been modified in the BRM 12.0 patch set releases.

Table 12-2 Changed Utilities

Changed Utility Description

pin_cc_migrate

(Patch Set 6) Modified to support PINless debit transactions.
pin_sub_balance_cleanup

(Patch Set 6) Modified to support temporary credit limits. It includes the new -t parameter for purging sub-balances with temporary credit limits.

See "pin_sub_balance_cleanup" in BRM System Administrator's Guide.

pin_collect

(Patch Set 6) Modified to support PINless debit transactions.

pin_deposit

(Patch Set 6) Modified to support PINless debit transactions.

pin_gen_notifications

(Patch Set 6) Modified to support notifications for installments and collections. It includes two parameters:

  • -collections_action action that generates an /event/notification/collections_action/due notification event for each specified collections action that needs to be performed for a customer. Replace action with the name of the /collections_action subclass, such as close_billinfo, late_fee, or promise_to_pay.
  • -installments [end_date|due_date] that generates an /event/notification/installment_schedule/due notification event for each installment that is due or ends on the current date.

See "pin_gen_notifications" in BRM Managing Customers.

pin_balance_transfer

(Patch Set 5) Modified to support recurring standard top-ups. It includes a new -standard parameter, which specifies to perform recurring standard top-ups.

See "pin_balance_transfer" in BRM Configuring and Collecting Payments.

loadpricelist

(Patch Set 6) Modified to support:

  • Additional values for PIN_FLD_TYPE in /rate objects
  • Setting the following fields in /rate objects:
    • PIN_FLD_PRORATE_QUANTITY set according to the prorate_quantity flag of the rate element.
    • PIN_FLD_MINIMUM_SCALED_AMOUNT set according to the minimum_scaled_amount element for the balance impact.
  • Setting the following fields in /product objects:
    • PIN_FLD_MAX_RETRY_COUNT
    • PIN_FLD_RETRY_UNIT
    • PIN_FLD_RETRY_OFFSET

(Patch Set 5) Modified to support:

  • Setting PIN_FLD_TYPE in /rate objects according to the values provided in the type flag of the rate element.
  • Setting PIN_FLD_RENEWAL_MODE in /deal.products objects according to the values provided in the renewal_mode element.

ImportExportPricing

(Patch Set 6) Modified to support:

  • Additional values for the enforceCreditLimit element
  • Setting the following fields in /rate objects:
    • PIN_FLD_PRORATE_QUANTITY set according to the creditLimitProrateQuantity element in the price tier.
    • PIN_FLD_MINIMUM_SCALED_AMOUNT set according to the creditLimitMinimumAmount element for the charge.
  • Setting the following fields in /product objects:
    • PIN_FLD_MAX_RETRY_COUNT
    • PIN_FLD_RETRY_UNIT
    • PIN_FLD_RETRY_OFFSET

(Patch Set 5) Modified to support:

  • Setting PIN_FLD_TYPE in /rate objects according to the values provided in the enforceCreditLimit element.
  • Setting PIN_FLD_RENEWAL_MODE in /deal.products objects according to the values provided in the renewalMode element.

(Patch Set 4) Modified to support subscription terms and deliverables.

See "ImportExportPricing" in PDC Creating Product Offerings.

pin_clean

(Patch Set 4) Modified to support multischema systems. It includes a new -schema schema_number parameter that specifies the schema on which to run the utility on multischema BRM systems. By default, the utility runs on all schemas.

See "pin_clean" in BRM Configuring and Collecting Payments.

pin_recover

(Patch Set 4) Modified to support multischema systems. It includes a new -schema schema_number parameter that specifies the schema on which to run the utility on multischema BRM systems. By default, the utility runs on all schemas.

See "pin_recover" in BRM Configuring and Collecting Payments.

purge_audit_tables.pl

(Patch Set 4) Modified the utility to read the database user name and password from the Oracle Wallet rather than from a command-line parameter.

To connect the utility to the database, you now use the -l /@connection parameter rather than -l login/password@connection.

See "purge_audit_tables.pl" in BRM System Administrator's Guide.

pin_ifw_sync_oracle

(Patch Set 4) Modified the utility to read the database user name and password from the Oracle Wallet rather than from a command-line parameter.

To connect the utility to the database, you now use the -l /@connection parameter rather than -l login/password@connection.

See "pin_ifw_sync_oracle" in BRM Installation Guide.

db2irules.pl

(Patch Set 4) Modified the utility to read the database user name and password from the Oracle Wallet rather than at the command line.

See "db2irules.pl" in BRM Configuring Pipeline Rating and Discounting.

irules2db.pl

(Patch Set 4) Modified the utility to read the database user name and password from the Oracle Wallet rather than at the command line.

See "irules2db.pl" in BRM Configuring Pipeline Rating and Discounting.

stateconfigtool

(Patch Set 4) Modified the utility to read the database user name and password from the Oracle Wallet rather than at the command line.

See "stateconfigtool" in BRM Configuring Pipeline Rating and Discounting.

pin_job_executor

(Patch Set 3) Modified to support custom MTA applications.

See "pin_job_executor" in BRM System Administrator's Guide.

pin_crypt_app

(Patch Set 3) Modified to support the AES encryption method.

The AES encryption method is supported only for backwards compatibility with BRM 7.5.

See "pin_crypt_app" in BRM Developer's Guide.

pin_del_closed_accts

(Patch Set 3) Modified to include a new -force parameter, which allows BRM to close accounts that still have active open sessions in ECE.

See "pin_del_closed_accts" in BRM System Administrator's Guide.

cmt_mta_cycle_fees

(Patch Set 2) Renamed as cmt_mta_deploy and modified to support incremental migration of legacy BRM data.

See "Support for Migration of Legacy Data into BRM and ECE in Real Time" for more information.

partition_utils

(Patch Set 2) Modified to support creation of partitions for the prepaid events.

See "BRM Supports POID Generation in ECE" for more information.

pin_cmt

(Patch Set 2) Modified to migrate legacy service and balance data incrementally into the BRM system. You can now run the pin_cmt utility with the following new parameters to migrate data:

  • deploy_db

  • deploy_ece

See "Support for Migration of Legacy Data into BRM and ECE in Real Time" for more information.

pin_collect

(Patch Set 2) Modified to support stored credentials for payment transactions.

See "Support for Stored-Credential Transactions for Payments" for more information.

pin_deposit

(Patch Set 2) Modified to support stored credentials for payment transactions.

See "Support for Stored-Credential Transactions for Payments" for more information.

Removed Utilities

Table 12-3 lists the utilities that have been removed in the BRM 12.0 patch set releases.

Table 12-3 Removed Utilities

New Utility Description

pin_installment_notifications

(Patch Set 6) You now use the pin_gen_notifications utility to trigger notifications for installments.

See "Running the pin_gen_notifications Utility" in BRM Managing Customers.

pin_update_items_journals

(Patch Set 1) This utility has been replaced by the pin_update_journal utility.

See "Improved Performance for Large Accounts" for more information.