9 Installing and Configuring Voucher Manager and Voucher Administration Center

This chapter describes how to install and customize Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) Voucher Manager and Voucher Administration Center.

For information about Voucher Manager and Voucher Administration Center, see "About Managing Voucher Inventory".

Important:

Voucher Manager is deprecated and supported only for backward compatibility. Use Oracle Communications Convergent Charging Controller to manage vouchers.

Mandatory Configuration Tasks

In addition to installing the Voucher Manager software, you must configure and load several text files before you can use Voucher Manager and Voucher Administration Center.

Before performing these configuration tasks, you should gather all the information about your voucher dealers, your recharge card types, and the batch and package numbers you will use.

Note:

If you already installed the product, you must uninstall its features before reinstalling them.

• Define voucher device states. This involves two tasks:

  • Define and load the state transition model.

  • Load localized state descriptions.

  See "Loading Voucher Device States".

• Define order device states. See "Loading Voucher Order States".

• Specify the services with which vouchers can be associated and load this information into the BRM database. See "Customizing and Loading Voucher Service Associations".

• Associate the voucher devices with batch and part numbers and with batch and package quantities. See "Loading Voucher Details".

• Define your voucher dealers and load this information into the database. You can also associate dealers with a specific voucher recharge card type. See "Loading Dealer Details".

• Define your recharge card types. Each recharge card type is associated with an order configuration, which includes voucher dealer information, batch number, and order size. See "Loading Recharge Card Details".

Installing Voucher Manager

To install Voucher Manager, see "Installing Individual BRM Components" in BRM Installation Guide.

Installing Voucher Administration Center

To install Voucher Administration Center, see "Installing Individual BRM Clients" in BRM Installation Guide.

Loading Recharge Card Details

Note:

This is a mandatory configuration task.

To load recharge card details into the database, you run the load_pin_recharge_card_type utility to load the data into the /config/recharge_card_type object. See "About Recharge Card Types".

Note:

The utility needs a configuration (pin.conf) file in the directory from which you run the utility. See "Creating Configuration Files for BRM Utilities" in BRM System Administrator's Guide.

1. In the pin_recharge_card_type file located in BRM_home/sys/data/config, enter the recharge card details.

2. Save and close the file.

3. Use the following command to load the pin_recharge_card_type file:

   load_pin_recharge_card_type card_type_input_file 
   

For more information, see "load_pin_recharge_card_type".

Loading Dealer Details

Note:

This is a mandatory configuration task.

To load dealer details into the database, you run the load_pin_dealers utility to load the data into the /config/dealers object. See "About Dealers".

Note:

The utility needs a configuration (pin.conf) file in the directory from which you run the utility. See "Creating Configuration Files for BRM Utilities" in BRM System Administrator's Guide.

1. In the pin_dealers file in BRM_home/sys/data/config, enter the dealer names and code.

2. Save and close the file.

3. Use the following command to load the pin_dealers file:

   load_pin_dealers dealer_input_file
   

For more information, see "load_pin_dealers".

Loading Voucher Device States

Note:

This is a mandatory configuration task.

Voucher devices have the following states:

• 1 = New

• 2 = Used

• 3 = Expired

For information on voucher device states, see "About Voucher Device States".

These states are already defined in the pin_device_state_voucher file. You run the load_pin_device_state utility to load the data into the /config/device_state/voucher object.

Note:

The load_pin_device_state utility needs a configuration (pin.conf) file in the directory from which you run the utility. See "Creating Configuration Files for BRM Utilities" in BRM System Administrator's Guide.

1. Edit the pin_device_state_voucher file in BRM_home/sys/data/config.

2. Save and close the file.

3. Use the following command to load the pin_device_state file:

   load_pin_device_state state_file_device 
   

For more information, see "load_pin_device_state" in BRM Developer's Guide.

Loading Voucher Order States

Note:

This is a mandatory configuration task.

Voucher states are defined in the pin_order_state_voucher file. You run the load_pin_order_state utility to load the data into the /config/order_state/voucher object.

For information on voucher order states, see "About Managing Orders".

Note:

The load_pin_order_state utility needs a configuration (pin.conf) file in the directory from which you run the utility. See "Creating Configuration Files for BRM Utilities" in BRM System Administrator's Guide.

1. Edit the pin_order_state_voucher file in BRM_home/sys/data/config.

2. Save and close the file.

3. Use the following command to load the pin_order_state file:

   load_pin_order_state state_file_order 
   

For more information, see "load_pin_order_state" in BRM Developer's Guide.

Customizing and Loading Voucher Service Associations

Note:

This is a mandatory configuration task.

The voucher service association file (BRM_home/sys/data/config/pin_device_permit_map_voucher) specifies the services (/service objects) with which voucher devices (/device/voucher objects) can be associated in your BRM system. By default, vouchers can be associated with these services:

• /service/telco/gsm/data

• /service/telco/gsm/fax

• /service/telco/gsm/sms

• /service/telco/gsm/telephony

  Note:

  To enable vouchers to be associated with accounts, the pin_device_permit_map_voucher file also includes the /account object in the list of services with which /device/voucher objects can be associated.

To use the voucher management features, you must load the voucher service association file into your BRM database. Before loading the file, you can customize the voucher service associations that it contains. See "Defining Device-to-Service Associations" in BRM Developer's Guide.

Loading Voucher Details

Note:

This is a mandatory configuration task.

Voucher details are defined in the pin_voucher_config file. You run the load_pin_voucher_config utility to load the data into the /config/voucher object. See "About Voucher Details".

Note:

The load_pin_voucher_config utility needs a configuration (pin.conf) file in the directory from which you run the utility. See "Creating Configuration Files for BRM Utilities" in BRM System Administrator's Guide.

1. Edit the pin_voucher_config file in BRM_home/sys/data/config.

2. Save and close the pin_voucher_config file.

3. Use the following command to load the pin_voucher_config file:

load_pin_voucher_config voucher_input_file 

For more information, see "load_pin_voucher_config".

Creating Vouchers for Testing

You need voucher devices in your database so you can create accounts and then create a set of vouchers.

Note:

This procedure creates an order with five vouchers.

To create a set of vouchers for testing:

1. In Voucher Administration Center, click the New Order icon or choose File - New Order.

2. Create an order using the following entries:

   • Customer Info tab:

     Customer name: Telecom Services

     Contact name: John Brown

     Email address: [e-mail]

     Address: 100 Main St

     City: Fremont

     State/Province: CA

     Zip/Postal: 99999

     Country: USA

   • Vendor Info tab:

     Vendor name: Cell Corp

     Contact name: Mary John

     Email address: [e-mail]

     Address: 200 Main St

     City: RedWood City

     State/Province: CA

     Zip/Postal: 12234

     Country: USA

   • Order Details tab:

     Recharge card: V02 Voucher

     Order number: 1.35667

     Note:

     You can select either Recharge Card or Order number, but not both.

     Batch part number: BTH001

     Package part number: PT02

     Start serial number: 734536

     This is the voucher card starting number for this order, which you enter in the last box of the Start serial number box.

     Dealer: D001Airtel

     Total Vouchers: 2500

     If you select Total Vouchers and enter the quantity, the batch quantity is displayed in the Number of batches field.

     Number of batches: 1

     If you select Number of batches and enter the batch quantity, the package quantity is displayed in the Total Vouchers box.

     Days: 10

     Date: 2/19/04

     Note:

     You can select either Days or Date, but not both.

     Deal Selected: Voucher_$300

3. Click Generate File to generate the request file.

4. Select or create a directory in which to generate the request files. The file name is XXXXX.inp. This file will be the request file sent to the voucher card vendor.

5. Save the file as XXXXX.out. This file will be the vendor response file.

6. Process the vendor response file.

7. Load the response file. For complete instructions on using Voucher Administration Center, see Voucher Administration Center Help.

Uninstalling Voucher Manager

To uninstall Voucher Manager, see "Uninstalling Optional Components" in BRM Installation Guide.