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6 Notifications Management

This chapter explains how to configure Profile Notifications.

This chapter contains the following topics.

Notifications Introduction

Notification Management Module

Profile Notifications

Notifications Introduction

Profile notifications are SMSs which are sent to subscribers when their profile fields are changed. They can be used to inform subscribers about events which have happened to their accounts.

Profile notifications are different from real-time wallet notifications, control plan feature node notifications or periodic charge notifications, though all these notifications use SMS notifications and DAP templates.

Notifications can be delivered through the ACS Notifications subsystem, or the Data Access Pack notifications subsystem. To use the DAP notifications, you must have DAP installed.

For more information about how profile notifications are delivered, see CCS Technical Guide.

Preconditions

Preconditions are used to determine when an update to the Subscriber profile will trigger a Profile Notification message. Each precondition is evaluated based on a selected profile field and the Precondition Type configured for it.

You can specify more than one precondition per notification message. If you specify more than one precondition, then these must all be joined together, either using an 'And' or an 'Or' operator. Use:

  • And to generate the notification only if all the preconditions are met.

  • Or to generate the notification if any of the preconditions are met.

Tip: If you do not specify any preconditions for the notification message, then it will be triggered unconditionally.

This table describes the available Precondition Types.

Precondition Type Availability Description
Field Created All field types The precondition is met when the selected profile field is not present in the old subscriber profile but is present in the new subscriber profile.
Field Modified All field types The precondition is met when the old and new values for the selected profile field are different.
Field Removed All field types The precondition is met when the selected profile field is present in the old subscriber profile but is no longer present in the new subscriber profile.

Check Old Value

or

Check New Value

 Only available for integer, byte, Boolean and date field types Compares the old or new value for the selected profile field with a specified value. See Checking profile field values for details.

Checking profile field values

The Check Old Value and Check New Value precondition types provide the facility to trigger Profile Notifications based on a precondition expression that compares the selected Profile Field with a specified value.

Precondition expressions have one of the following formats:

  1. <Profile Field Value> <Compare Operator> <Compare Value 1>

  2. (<Profile Field Value> '>' <Compare Value 1>) And (<Profile Field Value> '<' <Compare Value 2>)

Tips:

  • If the selected Profile Field is a Boolean field, then its value may only be compared with the Boolean values 'True' or 'False'. The precondition is met if the Profile Field value matches the specified Boolean value.

  • For format 2, the precondition is met if the profile field value is between 'Compare Value 1' and 'Compare Value 2' ".

This table describes parameters for the precondition expressions that determine when a Profile Notification message is triggered.

Parameter Description
Profile Field Value The value for the selected Profile Field from either the old or the new subscriber profile, depending on the Precondition Type.
Compare Operator

Determines how the comparison is made. If you select:

= the expression evaluates to true if the value from the Profile Field is equal to the specified Compare Value

!= the expression evaluates to true if the value from the Profile Field is not equal to the specified Compare Value

< the expression evaluates to true if the value from the Profile Field is less than the specified Compare Value

> the expression evaluates to true if the value from the Profile Field is greater than the specified Compare Value

Note: If you select Not Used, no comparison will be made.

Compare Value 1 The first value against which the Profile Field Value will be compared.
Compare Value 2

The second value against which the Profile Field Value will be compared. This must be greater than Compare Value 1.

Note: Compare Value 2 may only be set if you selected the '>' Compare Operator for Compare Value 1.

Notification Management Module

The Notification Management screen lets you configure Profile Notifications.

The Notification Management screen contains this tab:

Accessing the Notification Management screen

Follow these steps to open the Notification Management screen.

  1. Select the Services menu from the SMS main screen.

  2. Select Prepaid Charging > Notification Management.

    Result: You see the Notification Management screen.

Profile Notifications

The Profile Notifications tab lets you configure Profile Notifications that are triggered by changes to subscriber profiles.

Each profile notification is configured by specifying:

  • whether a DAP and/or a notification is sent

  • the Preconditions used to qualify when the notification will be triggered

  • the DAP Template used to generate the DAP notification message, and

  • the Profile Notification Fields that will be substituted for the parameters defined in the DAP Template.

For more information about configuring Notifications, see ACS User's Guide.

For more information about configuring DAP Templates, see DAP User's Guide.

Topics:

Adding profile notifications

Editing profile notifications

Deleting profile notifications

Adding profile preconditions

Editing profile preconditions

Deleting profile preconditions

Adding profile notification fields

Editing profile notification fields

Deleting profile notification fields

Adding profile notifications

Follow these steps to add a new Profile Notification. This can trigger the relevant type of notification from the system.

  1. In the Notification Management screen, select the Service Provider from the drop down box.

  2. On the Profile Notifications tab, click New.

    Result: You see the New Profile Notification screen.

  3. In the Name field, type the Profile Notification name.

  4. Select the DAP Operation you want to use to construct the DAP notification message.

    Tip: If you selected No DAP then a DAP notification will not be triggered and you must select an SMS Template for the notification instead.

  5. From the Suppress DAP Notification drop down list, select Not Used if you do not want to suppress DAP notifications. To suppress DAP notifications, select the Suppress Notification field. All notifications for a profile update that include this field with a value set to True will be suppressed.

    Note: The suppress field will be reset to false when a notification has been suppressed.

  6. Select the SMS Template you want to use to construct the notification message.

    Tip: If you selected No SMS then a notification will not be triggered and you must ensure a DAP Template is selected for the notification instead.

  7. From the Suppress Notification drop down list, select Not Used if you do not want to suppress notifications. To suppress notifications, select the Suppress Notification field. All notifications for a profile update that include this field with a value set to True will be suppressed.

    Note: The suppress field will be reset to false when a notification has been suppressed.

  8. In the Precondition Join field select the operator to use to join the preconditions listed in the Preconditions table. Choose:

    • And to trigger a notification only when all the preconditions evaluate to true.

    • Or to trigger a notification if any of the preconditions evaluates to true.

  9. In the Preconditions panel, specify the preconditions that will trigger the profile notification. For details, see Adding profile preconditions.

  10. In the Fields panel, configure a profile notification field for each parameter defined in the DAP Template. For details, see Adding profile notification fields.

    Tip: It is recommended that you use the fields evaluated by the preconditions.

  11. Click Save.

Related topic

Profile Notifications

Editing profile notifications

Follow these steps to edit an existing Profile Notification.

  1. In the Notification Management screen, select the Service Provider from the drop down box.

  2. On the Profile Notifications tab, select the Profile Notification to edit.

  3. Click Edit.

    Result: You see the Edit Profile Notification screen.

  4. Edit the profile notification configuration as described in Adding profile notifications.

  5. Click Save.

Related topic

Profile Notifications

Deleting profile notifications

Follow these steps to delete an existing Profile Notification.

  1. In the Notification Management screen, select the Service Provider from the drop down box.

  2. On the Profile Notifications tab, select the Profile Notification to delete.

  3. Click Delete.

    Result: You see the Delete Confirmation prompt.

  4. Click OK to delete the record from the database.

    Result: You see the Profile Notifications message box.

  5. Click OK.

Related topic

Profile Notifications

Adding profile preconditions

Follow these steps to add a precondition to a profile notification.

  1. On the Preconditions panel in the New Profile Notification screen, click Add.

    Result: You see the Add Profile Precondition Field screen.

  2. Select the Profile Field to evaluate in the precondition.

  3. Select the Precondition Type from the drop down list. For more information on precondition types, see Preconditions.

    Note: The list of available precondition types depends on the data type of the selected profile field.

  4. If you selected either Check Old Value or Check New Value, follow steps 5 to 9. Otherwise go to step 9.

  5. If the selected Profile Field is a BOOLEAN field, select True or False from the drop down list and go to step 9. Otherwise go to step 6.

    Note: The precondition is met if the Profile Field value and the selected BOOLEAN value are the same.

  6. Select the Compare Operator from the drop down list.

    Note: If you select Not Used, no comparison will be made.

  7. In the Compare Value 1 field, enter the value you want to compare with the value from the subscriber profile field. In the case of DATE type profile fields, select the date you want from the drop down lists.

  8. If you selected the '>' Compare Operator, then you may enter a second compare value in the Compare Value 2 field if required, To enter a date in the Compare Value 2 field, select the Use Date check box.

    Note: The precondition is met if the profile field value is greater than Compare Value 1 and less than Compare Value 2.

  9. Click Ok.

Related topic

Profile Notifications

Editing profile preconditions

Follow these steps to edit an existing Precondition for a Profile Notification.

  1. In the Preconditions panel in the New/Edit Profile Notification screen, select the row for the Precondition you want.

  2. Click Edit.

    Result: You see the Edit Profile Precondition Field screen.

  3. Edit the precondition details as described in Adding profile preconditions.

  4. Click Ok.

Deleting profile preconditions

Follow these steps to delete an existing Precondition for a Profile Notification.

  1. In the Preconditions panel on the New/Edit Profile Notification screen, select the row for the Precondition to delete.

  2. Click Delete.

  3. Click Save.

    Result: The record is deleted from the database.

    Tip: The record is not deleted from the database until you click Save. Prior to this point you can reverse any changes by clicking Cancel.

Adding profile notification fields

Follow these steps to add a field to a profile notification.

  1. On the Fields panel in the New Profile Notification screen, click Add.

    Result: You see the Add Profile Notification Field screen.

  2. If you need the MSISDN (subscriber ID) to be made available to DAP for the XML request, select the Use Subscriber ID check box.

  3. Select the Profile Field to use in the notification message.

  4. Select the DAP Parameter from the drop down list.

    Warning: You must configure a profile notification field for all the DAP parameters defined in the DAP template. Once a DAP parameter has been used it is removed from the list of available parameters.

  5. Select the Source Profile. Select:

    • Old - to substitute the Profile Field value from the old subscriber profile for the selected DAP parameter.

    • New - to substitute the Profile Field value from the new subscriber profile for the selected DAP parameter.

  6. Click Ok.

Related topic

Profile Notifications

Editing profile notification fields

Follow these steps to edit the configuration for a Profile Notification field.

  1. On the Fields panel in the New/Edit Profile Notification screen, select the row for the Profile Notification Field you want to edit.

  2. Click Edit.

    Result: You see the Edit Profile Notification Field screen.

  3. Edit the details as described in Adding profile notification fields.

  4. Click Ok.

Related topic

Profile Notifications

Deleting profile notification fields

Follow these steps to delete an existing Field for a Profile Notification.

  1. In the Fields panel on the New/Edit Profile Notification screen, select the row for the field to delete.

  2. Click Delete.

  3. Click Save.

    Result: The record is deleted from the database.

    Tip: The record is not deleted from the database until you click Save. Prior to this point you can reverse any changes by clicking Cancel.

Related topic

Profile Notifications