Parameters

Overview

Product parameters enables Vendors to collect data from customers that ordered their product and to store product data that is essential for the fulfillment operations. Parameters can also be used to pass required information to Distributors and customers.

Three different phases of Parameters can be configured within the Parameters section as schematically illustrated and described below:

• Ordering phase Parameters are specified during the ordering phase by Customers.
• Fulfillment phase Parameters are set during the fulfillment phase by the Vendor.
• Configuration phase Parameters are defined and managed even before any order is placed.

Note that parameter attributes are localized and not versioned.

The following describes all parameter aspects and showcases how to create a parameter on the CloudBlue Connect platform.

Parameter Creation

Proceed your product profile page and navigate to the Parameters section to access your parameter list.

Click the Create Parameter button to launch a parameter creation wizard.

Follow the wizard steps to successfully configure a new parameter.

Type

First, the system requires to specify your parameter type. Choose between email addresses, objects, passwords, choices and other types. Thus, for example, in case your customers should specify email address before ordering your product, select the email parameter type.

Note that available options (such as placeholder text and hint text) vary depending on your selected type.

Phase and Scope

Specify your parameter phase in the following form.

This step has 3 groups of settings, depending on the Phase (Ordering, Fulfillment, or Configuration). All 3 scenarios are described below.

Ordering phase

The customer is asked to provide value for the parameter unless it is hidden. In most cases, such value will be collected by Distributor’s commerce system.

Ordering phase could cover 3 scopes:

• Subscription: Select this scope to associate your parameter with provided subscriptions.
• Tier 1 – Choose this scope to collect or store reseller authorization details of your first tier reseller (direct reseller).
• Tier 2 – Select this scope to collect or store reseller authorization details of your second tier reseller (reseller of the reseller)

Fulfillment phase

Fulfillment phase requires Vendors to provide parameter values upon request fulfillment.

• Typical examples of such parameters are service IDs like “tenant id”, “customer id” or any other data that is used to identify a particular subscription for Vendor’s system.
• Additionally, this kind of parameter can be used to store attributes that should be specified for the customers (like activation keys, links, etc.). Such parameters typically used in the Activation Templates.
• Furthermore, in case of fulfillment automation via the Subscription API, such parameters can be used to handle multi-step asynchronous provisioning. For example, Vendors create a parameter that stores information on the provisioning stage and corresponding data attributes.

Fulfillment phase parameters can also cover 3 scopes (Subscription, Tier 1, and Tier 2), same as Ordering phase scopes that are described above.

Configuration phase

The Configuration phase is used to store a number of custom parameters defined and managed before an order is placed. Configuration phase parameters can cover the following scopes:

• Product: Such configuration parameters are created in the scope of the whole Product and thus are handy to store some constant values used by the fulfillment automation middleware.
• Marketplace: This scope is useful to store configuration parameters that vary per Marketplaces, like API Endpoint URLs and access information.
• Item: Use this scope when Item’s MPN attribute is not enough and there is a need to store additional configuration values associated with an Item.
• Item x Marketplace: When there is a need to store additional information associated with an Item in each Marketplace, Item x Marketplace scope will make this process simple for you by managing them in a uniform way.

Constraints

The list of constraints displayed in the following form vary depending on your selected Phase and Scope. The following describes all available constraints:

• Required: Mandatory parameters marked as required are enforced by the system in the corresponding phase and scope. Therefore, your subscription request will not be fulfilled until all of the required fulfillment-phase parameters are specified.
• Unique: Parameters marked with this attribute are checked by the system for uniqueness while storing them in the corresponding scope and phase. This enables to provide passwords, identifiers, or any other parameters that should not be specified more than once.
• Read-only: Enable this constraint to make your parameter non-modifiable, so it cannot be altered in any way. Thus, your parameter will be displayed to your customers, and in turn, your customers will not be able to edit such parameters. This constraint can be useful to display your static emails, addresses, phone numbers or any other pre-defined parameters that should not be changed.
• Hidden: This constraint is used to apply your conditional logic that is required for a given phase and scope. It can be especially helpful to hide certain parameters until a certain condition is met. For example, the system can ask to enter an identifier or a valid phone number without need to specify error values for such cases.
• Visible by Distributor: In case your configuration parameter should be visible for the Distributors, this constraint should be activated. For example, a “partner code” can be used for the subsequent fulfillment operations or similar scenarios.
• Editable by Distributor: If your configuration parameter should be editable for Distributor, this constraint can be used. For instance, “partner access configuration” and other similar scenarios.
• Primary Vendor Reconciliation ID: Value of this parameter can be used as a primary reconciliation ID for matching the data within the Vendor systems. Only one fulfillment phase parameter can be marked as reconciliation ID for a given product.

Details

Specify your parameter details in the following form:

• ID: Unique identifier of the parameter in the context of a product. Specific IDs are also required to identify parameters using the Subscription API.
• Title: This text will be shown within the different system inputs. Note that in case that an ordering phase parameter is specified (and not hidden by using constraints), this title will be visible to a customer.
• Description: This text allows providing meaningful information for what the parameter is used for.

Click the Create button to finalize your parameter configuration.

Summary

As a result, your parameter will be successfully created, The system will also display they parameter summary.

Click Go to Details to review your parameter configuration. Otherwise, click Close to close the summary.

Removing Default Parameters

If you try to delete the product default parameters, your attempt will be rejected because the default parameters are used in the system Subscription Approved template that can be configured within the Embedding section. To delete the parameters, you need to edit the templates that use these parameters as follows:

1. Access the Embedding section from the product profile page.
2. Navigate to the Templates tab.
3. Locate Subscription Approved Template and edit Default Activation Template.
4. Remove the section where the default parameters are included. Don’t forget to click Save to save your changes.
5. Proceed to the Parameters section and remove both default parameters.

As a result, default parameters will be successfully deleted.