Extending Purchased Catalog Items
Service providers can extend purchased catalog item instances to contain additional provider-specific information using custom MATRIXX Data Containers (MDCs). The field values can be set during purchase time and can be the basis of normalizations and rating formulas. They can also be used to identify information for external applications, such as a downstream billing systems. The field values are included automatically in offer notifications and Event Detail Records (EDRs) in the applied offer array.
A purchased catalog item is associated with the subscriber, device, or group for which it is purchased. The private field values can be set during purchase time or any time afterward by using the REST APIs to modify the extended purchased catalog item instance. This allows service providers to offer multiple instances of the same catalog item, each of which can have different values set for the same private fields. During rating, if the fields are specified in a normalizer template or as the basis of a rating formula, the values are evaluated and can control how pricing is applied and whether usage is allowed.
For example, say an extended purchased catalog item
has a private field called Location that is set with the
subscriber's current location at purchase time (for instance, Germany). Service
providers can limit subscribers to using this catalog item only when the subscribers
are in Germany and not while they are roaming in another country. In this case, a
rating normalizer is set up to examine this field during rating and causes a message
to be sent to the network to deny usage when the value is not Germany. For example,
say an AVP in a received Diameter CC message has a subscriber location value of
Austria. In this case, to allow subscribers to roam in Austria, service providers
can allow subscribers to purchase another instance of the same catalog item and,
during purchase time, have the Location value set to Austria.
To extend a purchased catalog item or bundle, define a
custom MDC based on the MtxPurchasedOffer MDC or another private
MtxPurchasedOffer MDC and add any necessary fields. These
fields can be used during normalization as the basis of rating. For example, to use
the field as the scaled part of a rating formula, you must add the field to the Field Definitions in My MATRIXX and then, when creating the rating formula, set the Quantity
Definition value to Field and select the new
field.
For more information about extending MDCs, see the discussion about extending MATRIXX Engine functionality in MATRIXX Configuration. For more information about adding fields to use during rating, see the discussion about defining a field to use as the scaled part of a rating formula in My MATRIXX Help.
To use the REST APIs instead of a custom MDC to query and modify an existing purchased catalog item, see the discussion about catalog items in MATRIXX Subscriber Management API.