Creating and Managing Business Profiles

27 Creating and Managing Business Profiles

Learn how to use business profiles to classify types of data to specify how to treat the data in Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM). For example, business profiles can be used to classify bills as prepaid or postpaid to determine how bills and payments should be handled.

Topics in this document:

About Business Profiles

Use business profiles to classify types of data to specify how to treat the data. For example, business profiles can be used to classify bills as prepaid or postpaid to determine how bills and payments should be handled.

A business profile includes the following:

A set of requirements that a bill unit and its related objects must meet to be associated with the profile. These requirements are stored in validation templates linked to the business profile. You can create validation templates for the following objects:
- /account
- /balance_group
- /billinfo
- /group/sharing/charges
- /group/sharing/discounts
- /group/sharing/profiles
- /ordered_balgrp
- /profile/acct_extrating
- /profile/serv_extrating
- /purchased_discount
- /purchased_product
- /service
An array of key-value pairs used to retrieve information about the bill units that belong to the business profile. For example, a business profile object that includes the key Prepaid with the value Yes indicates that bill units belonging to the business profile are prepaid. A business profile set up for postpaid bill units includes the key Postpaid with the value Yes. To find out whether a bill unit is associated with a prepaid or postpaid bill, use the PCM_OP_CUST_GET_BUSINESS_PROFILE_INFO opcode to check the value of this key in the bill unit's business profile. See "Getting Information about a Business Profile" in BRM Opcode Guide for information.

Note:

To use business profiles, create a custom user interface (UI) that does the following:

Enables customer service representatives (CSRs) to assign bill units to business profiles.
Provides different interfaces based on the business profile of a bill unit. For information about setting up business profiles and assigning bill units to them, see "Creating and Managing Business Profiles".

A bill unit can belong to only one business profile at a time. To assign a bill unit to a business profile, BRM puts the Portal object ID (POID) of the business profile object into the PIN_FLD_BUSINESS_PROFILE_OBJ field of the /billinfo object.

Before assigning a bill unit to a business profile, BRM verifies that the bill unit and all of its associated objects comply with the requirements specified in the business profile's validation templates.

To create business profiles and validation templates, you edit the BRM_home/sys/data/config/pin_business_profile.xml business profile configuration file, where BRM_home is the directory in which the BRM server software is installed. This file contains three default business profiles that can be used to set up cache residency distinction. See "Editing the Business Profile Configuration File".

After editing the configuration file, you use the "load_pin_business_profile" utility to load the file's contents into the BRM database. See "Setting Up Business Profiles and Validation Templates".

Setting Up Business Profiles and Validation Templates

To create, modify, or delete business profiles (/config/business_profile objects) and validation templates (/config/template subclass objects), edit the business profile configuration file (pin_business_profile.xml) and then load its contents into the BRM database:

Open the pin_business_profile.xml file in an XML editor or a text editor.

By default, the file is in the BRM_home/sys/data/config directory.
Enter the appropriate information into the file. See "Editing the Business Profile Configuration File".
Save and close the file.
Use this command to load pin_business_profile.xml file:
```
load_pin_business_profile pin_business_profile.xml
```
Note:
- When you run the utility, the pin_business_profile.xml and business_configuration.xsd files must be in the same directory. By default, both files are in BRM_home/sys/data/config.
- This utility needs a configuration (pin.conf) file in the directory from which you run the utility.
- If you do not run the utility from the directory in which pin_business_profile.xml is located, include the complete path to the file. For example:
```
load_pin_business_profile BRM_home/sys/data/config/pin_business_profile.xml
```
To verify that the business profile and validation template information was loaded, display the /config/business_profile objects and /config/template subclass objects by using one of the following features:
- Object Browser
- robj command with the testnap utility
For information about reading an object and writing its contents to a file, see "Reading an Object and Writing Its Contents to a File" in BRM Developer's Guide.

Editing the Business Profile Configuration File

You configure all of the business profiles (/config/business_profile objects) and validation templates (/config/template subclass objects) in your BRM system in the BRM_home/sys/data/config/pin_business_profile.xml file. This file contains prepaid, postpaid, and convergent business profiles by default.

To edit this configuration file, open it in an XML editor or text editor and then perform these tasks:

Defining Business Profiles

In the business profile configuration file, business profiles (/config/business_profile objects) are defined as <BusinessProfile> child elements of the <BusinessProfileList> parent element. A <BusinessProfile> child element consists of the following elements and attributes:

The name of the business profile (BusinessProfile name).
An optional attribute (type). If the type attribute value is Invoice, the business profile is identified as an invoicing business profile. See "Creating an Invoicing Configuration Business Profile" in BRM Designing and Generating Invoices.
A description of the business profile (Desc).
A list of associated validation templates (TemplateId).
A list of key-value pairs (NameValue). An unlimited number of key-value pairs can be associated with a business profile. See "About Business Profiles".

The syntax of a <BusinessProfile> child element is:

<BusinessProfileList>
 <BusinessProfile name="string" type="string">
  <Desc>string</Desc>
  <!-- Specify List of Templates --> 
  <TemplateId name="string" type="object_type"/> 
  <TemplateId name="string" type="object_type"/>
  <TemplateId name="string" type="object_type"/> 
  <!-- Specify List of Key Values --> 
  <NameValue key="string" value="string"/> 
 </BusinessProfile>
</BusinessProfileList>

To create a business profile, add a BusinessProfile child element to the BusinessProfileList parent element. In the child element, specify values for the items listed in Table 27-1.

Table 27-1 Business Profile Elements

XML element or attribute	Description	Possible values
BusinessProfile name	Character string used as the name of the business profile object (for example, PrepaidGold).	The name must be unique within your BRM system. Minimum length is 1 character. Maximum length is 255 characters. Note: This string is mapped to the PIN_FLD_NAME field in the /config/business_profile object. Values in this field can be used to populate a list of business profiles in a user interface (UI). When creating the string, take any UI length restrictions into consideration.
type	An optional attribute that identifies a business profile.	Invoice
Desc	Character string that describes the type of bill units that belong to the business profile (for example, Bill units with credit balances).	Minimum length is 1 character. Maximum length is 255 characters. Note: This string is mapped to the PIN_FLD_DESCR field in the /config/business_profile object. Values in this field can be used to populate a list of business profile descriptions in a UI. When creating the string, take any UI length restrictions into consideration.
TemplateId	ID of a validation template associated with the business profile. In each TemplateId element, specify the following: The name value of a validation template defined in the file's TemplateList element. The type value of the same template.	-
NameValue	Key-value pair used to retrieve information about objects associated with the business profile. In each NameValue element, specify the following: key: Character string used with NameValue value to describe characteristics of the bill units belonging to the business profile. value: Character string used with NameValue key to describe characteristics of the bill units belonging to the business profile (for example, Yes and No).	Minimum length of each character string is 1 character. Maximum length of each character string is 255 characters.

Modifying Business Profiles

To modify a business profile already defined in your BRM system, redefine the business profile in your business profile configuration file (see "Defining Business Profiles"). You can change any aspect of a business profile except "BusinessProfile name".

When you load the contents of the configuration file into your BRM database (see "Setting Up Business Profiles and Validation Templates"), BRM incorporates your changes into the existing business profile object.

Deleting Business Profiles

To delete a business profile from your BRM system, add the following child element to the <BusinessProfileList> element in your business configuration file:

<BusinessProfile name="name_of_profile_to_delete" action="delete">

Note:

You cannot delete a business profile to which any bill unit belongs.

When you load the contents of the configuration file into your BRM database (see "Setting Up Business Profiles and Validation Templates"), BRM deletes the specified business profile.

Deleting Validation Templates

To delete a validation template from your BRM system, add the following child element to the <TemplateList> element in your business configuration file:

<Template name="name_of_template_to_delete" type="type_of_template_to_delete" action="delete">

Note:

You cannot delete a validation template associated with a business profile.

When you load the contents of the configuration file into your BRM database (see "Setting Up Business Profiles and Validation Templates"), BRM deletes the specified validation template.