Configuring Subscriber Preferences

11 Configuring Subscriber Preferences

You can configure subscriber preferences such as how they want to receive notifications from the network in Oracle Communications Elastic Charging Engine (ECE).

Topics in this document:

How BRM Manages Subscriber Preferences

You can use BRM to manage how each subscriber prefers to receive notifications from the network. For example, you can specify that a subscriber wants to receive notifications in French by SMS.

By default, you can manage the following subscriber preferences in BRM:

Preferred communication channel, such as IVR, SMS, or email
Preferred communication language, such as English or French
Number of days in advance that the subscriber wants to receive the notification
Interval between successive notifications
Timestamp of the last notification sent to the subscriber

BRM stores each subscriber's preferences in a subscriber profile repository. The /config/subscriber_preferences_map object stores the preference types that you track and their default values. BRM stores each subscriber's preferences in individual /profile/subscriber_preferences objects at the account and service levels.

For more information about the /config/subscriber_preferences_map and /profile/subscriber_preferences objects, see BRM Storable Class Reference.

Tasks for Including Subscriber Preference Information in Notifications

To set up ECE to include subscriber preference information in notifications:

Enable in-session notifications. See "Enabling Specific Notification Types".
Specify the subscriber preferences that can be collected along with their default values. See "Configuring Which Subscriber Preferences to Collect".
(Optional) Configure ECE to enrich external notifications with subscriber preference information. See "Configuring ECE to Enrich External Notifications with Subscriber Preference Information".
(Optional) Configure ECE to send credit limit and threshold breach notifications to multiple members of a sharing group. See "Configuring Group Notifications".

Afterward, you can start collecting your subscribers' preferences through Billing Care or your custom client application. See "Collecting Subscriber Preferences Using Client Tools".

Configuring ECE to Enrich External Notifications with Subscriber Preference Information

You can configure ECE to enrich external notifications with subscriber preference information.

BRM enables you to manage how each subscriber prefers to receive notifications from the network. For example, you can specify that a subscriber wants to receive notifications in French (Language preference) via SMS text messages (Channel preference). All subscriber preferences set for customers in BRM are also stored in ECE.

You can configure ECE to enrich the following types of ECE external notifications with all or a subset of subscriber preferences:

Threshold breach notifications
Aggregated threshold breach notifications
Advice of Charge notifications
Credit limit ceiling breach notifications
Credit limit floor breach notifications
Subscriber life cycle state transition notifications
First usage validity initialization notifications

If the same subscriber preference is defined as a customer preference and as a service preference, ECE uses the service preference. If a subscriber preference is not specified for the service but is specified for the customer, ECE uses the customer subscriber preference.

To configure ECE to enrich external notifications with subscriber preference information:

If you do not have it, obtain the list of subscriber preference names you have set in your BRM system.

When configuring ECE to enrich the external notifications with a subset of subscriber preferences, you must enter the name of the subscriber preferences that you previously set in your BRM system.
Access the ECE configuration MBeans in a JMX editor, such as JConsole. See "Accessing ECE Configuration MBeans".
Expand the ECE Configuration node.
Expand charging.notification.
Expand Attributes.
Set the subscriberPreferenceUpdateNotificationMode attribute to ASYNCHRONOUS.
Select a notification type for which notification messages are to be enriched with subscriber preference information.
Specify values for the following attributes:
- enrichName: Enter subscriberPreferences.
- enrichValue: Enter one of the following values:
  - No value: (Default) External notifications are not enriched with subscriber preferences.
  - Individual subscriber preferences: External notifications are enriched with a subset of subscriber preferences. Enter the name of each preference, separated by commas. The names must match the preference names set in your BRM system.
  - ALL: External notifications are enriched with all the customer's subscriber preferences.

For each notification type enabled to be enriched with subscriber preference information, ECE publishes subscriber preference information in the SubscriberPreferences block of the external notification messages.

The following is an example of the SubscriberPreferences block for a threshold breach notification enriched with the language subscriber preference of the customer.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<Notification>
<NotificationType>THRESHOLD_BREACH_EVENT</NotificationType>
<PublicUserIdentities>
<PublicUserIdentity>6500000001</PublicUserIdentity>
</PublicUserIdentities>
<BalanceElementId>840</BalanceElementId>
<BalanceElementCode>USD</BalanceElementCode>
<CurrentBalance>-3.00</CurrentBalance>
<ThresholdAmount>-4</ThresholdAmount>
<ThresholdPercent>98.0</ThresholdPercent>
<BreachDirection>THRESHOLD_BREACH_UP</BreachDirection>
<DuplicateEvent>False</DuplicateEvent>
<SubscriberPreferences>
<SubscriberPreference PublicUserIdentity="6500000001:VOICE">
<SubscriberPreferencesInfo>
<PreferenceName>Language</PreferenceName>
<PreferenceValue>French</PreferenceValue>
</SubscriberPreferencesInfo>
</SubscriberPreference>
</SubscriberPreferences>
</Notification>

Configuring Which Subscriber Preferences to Collect

You can configure which subscriber preferences your client applications display and collect. To configure these preferences, update the config_subscriber_preferences_map.xml file and use the load_config utility to load its contents into the database. The default config_subscriber_preferences_map.xml file includes sample subscriber preferences that you can add, modify, or remove.

To configure which subscriber preferences your client applications collect:

(Optional) Customize the subscriber preferences:

Open the BRM_home/sys/data/config/config_subscriber_preferences_map.xml file.
Modify or delete the existing subscriber preferences.

For each custom subscriber preference, add a <SUBSCRIBER_PREFERENCES> array element and define the fields described in Table 11-1.

Table 11-1 Elements That Store Subscriber Preferences

Element	Description
<NAME>	The name of the preference.
<SUBSCRIBER_PREFERENCE_ID>	The ID associated with the preference.
<STRING_ID>	The string ID that Billing Care uses to display the localized preference name.
<STR_VERSION>	The string field version.
<DEFAULT>	The default value for the preference field.
<TYPE>	The preference can be assigned one of these value types: 1: STR (alphanumeric) 2: INT (integer) 3: ENUM (indicating that the preference is one of an ordered list of possible values. An array of values must be provided for this selection.) See the <VALUES> element in this table. 4: DECIMAL 5: TSTAMP (timestamp) 6: TIME (time in 24-hour format HH:mm) 7: MULTI SELECT ENUM (a fixed list that is displayed as a string with checkboxes or combo boxes. The list is stored as a string in CSV format.) 262: TIME RANGE (time range in 24-hour format: HH:mm-HH:mm. For example, 16:00-20:00) To provide a set of possible values, set <TYPE> to 3 and enter the values in <VALUES>.
<VALUES>	An array of possible values for the field. Use this element only for ENUM types.

For example, the following entries define a subscriber preference named Include Current Date. The possible values are True and False, with False as the default.

<ConfigObject>            
   <DESCR>Subscriber Prefs Map</DESCR>            
   <NAME>Subscriber Prefs Map</NAME>            
   <SUBSCRIBER_PREFERENCES elem="x">              
      <NAME>Include Current Date</NAME>              
      <SUBSCRIBER_PREFERENCE_ID>10</SUBSCRIBER_PREFERENCE_ID>              
      <STRING_ID>10</STRING_ID>              
      <STR_VERSION>1</STR_VERSION>              
      <DEFAULT>909</DEFAULT>              
      <TYPE>3</TYPE>  
         <VALUES elem="0">                        
            <VALUE>True</VALUE>                        
            <STRING_ID>908</STRING_ID>                        
            <STR_VERSION>998</STR_VERSION>                
         </VALUES>                
         <VALUES elem="1">                        
            <VALUE>False</VALUE>                        
            <STRING_ID>909</STRING_ID>                        
            <STR_VERSION>999</STR_VERSION>                
         </VALUES>          
   </SUBSCRIBER_PREFERENCES>
</ConfigObject>

Save the config_subscriber_preferences_map.xml file.

Open the BRM_home/apps/load_config/pin.conf file in a text editor.

At the end of the file, add this entry:

- load_config validation_module libLoadValidTCFAAA LoadValidTelcoAAA_init

Save the pin.conf file.
Run the load_config utility to load the config_subscriber_preferences_map.xml file into the database:
```
load_config config_subscriber_preferences_map.xml
```
Note:
- The load_config utility requires a pin.conf configuration file.
- If you do not run the utility from the directory in which the configuration file is located, include the complete path to the file.
For more information, see "load_config" in BRM Developer's Guide.
Stop and restart the Connection Manager (CM).

To verify that the updated subscriber preference configuration was loaded, display the /config/subscriber_preferences_map object by using the Object Browser or the robj command with the testnap utility.

For more information about the /config/subscriber_preferences_map object, see BRM Storable Class Reference.

Configuring Group Notifications

You can configure ECE to send credit limit and threshold breach notifications to multiple members of a sharing group. By default, only the member who triggered the breach is notified.

To configure group notifications:

Confirm that group notifications are enabled as described in "Enabling In-Session Group Notifications in ECE".
For group owners, set the ResourcesForSendingNotification subscriber preference at the account level to a comma-separated list of resource balance element IDs that the owner wants to send notifications for.
For group members:
1. Set ResourcesForReceivingNotification at the account level to a comma-separated list of resource balance element IDs that the member wants to receive notifications for. Values included in this list must also be listed in ResourcesForSendingNotification for the group owner.
2. Set NotificationEnabledAgreements at the account or service level as a comma-separated list of sharing group names that the subscriber wants notifications for. For example:
```
SharingAgreement12, Charge_Sharing14, DataSharing_143
```
  These sharing groups must contain the resources specified in ResourcesForReceivingNotification.
3. Set OfflineNotificationEnabled at the account or service level to true if the group member wants to receive notifications when they are offline for breaches caused by other group members. The setting at the service level overrides the setting at the account level.
Note:
Because group owners can also be group members, an individual subscriber might have all of these preferences set in their subscriber profile.

Collecting Subscriber Preferences Using Client Tools

You can add subscriber preferences to your customers' accounts by using the following client tools:

Billing Care. See "Viewing and Adding Subscriber Preferences" in Billing Care Online Help.
A custom client application calling the Profiles REST endpoints in the Billing Care REST API. See REST API References for Billing Care.
A custom client application calling the subscriber profile opcodes. See "Managing and Customizing Profiles" in BRM Opcode Guide.

These client tools use the configurations in the /config/subscriber_preferences_map object to dynamically list the preferences that a subscriber can configure. The client tool does not display the subscriber preferences pages and dialog boxes if this object is missing.

Granting CSR Access to Subscriber Preferences

By default, CSRs cannot access subscriber preferences in Billing Care. You grant permissions to view and update subscriber preferences in Billing Care by granting CSRs the ProfileResource authorization resource. See "About Billing Care Authorization Resources" in BRM Security Guide.