For conceptual information about resources, see Managing Resources.
You can create or modify the following resource types in Billing:
- Simple (or elementary) resources. See below.
- Composite resources. For more information see Managing Composite Resources.
Note: You cannot modify or configure in Billing resources that were imported from Operations.
Creating resources
To create a resource:
- Go to Products > Resources. Click Add New Resource. Complete the form:
Name: Enter a name of the new resource.
Note:
1. The resource name must not exceed 250 characters.
2. As Billing supports different locales, you can have names and descriptions of resources displayed in the Online Store and control panel in several languages. For that, specify the resource name and description in the necessary languages in the respective fields. For information about how to enable multiple languages in Billing, see Activating a Language.- Resource Category: Click
next to the field. Select a resource category. The newly created resource will belong to the selected category. For information about resource categories, see Adding Resource Categories. - Description: Enter a description of the resource. See the Note for the Name field.
- Additive: Select this option for additive resources, that is, for those resources whose usage accumulates throughout a billing period. For example, traffic is an additive resource. A user pays for the amount of traffic the user has consumed during a billing period. Do not select this option for non-additive resources, that is, those resources whose usage does not accumulate throughout a billing period. For example, CPU usage is a non-additive resource. A user pays for the average CPU usage during a billing period.
Measurable: Select this option if you want to bill your customers for the actual resource usage. When a resource is measurable, it means that the resource can be billed based on its actual usage (depending on the values of the Additive and Controlled By parameters). By contrast, non-measurable resources are billed based on their purchased limit and cannot be billed based on actual usage.
Note: Composite resources cannot be measurable because such resources cannot be billed based on their actual usage. Resources in a composite resource cannot be measurable either. Composite resources can be used only within their allowed prepaid limits and cannot be billed based on actual consumption. See Adding a Composite Resource.
Measurable and Controlled By are interrelated and indicate how usage statistics are collected and how overuse is handled for the resource.
- Measurable = No, Controlled By = External System. Billing requests an external system to allocate only the purchased resource quantity, does not accumulate usage statistics for the resource, and relies on the external system to disallow resource overuse.
- Measurable = No, Controlled By = Billing. Billing requests an external system to allocate only the purchased resource quantity and accumulates the resource usage statistics. When usage reaches the purchased resource quantity, the subscription service status changes to Stopped.
- Measurable = Yes, Controlled By = External System. Billing requests an external system to allocate the maximum resource quantity for the service plan, accumulates the resource usage statistics, and bills the customer if usage exceeds resource quantity. Billing relies on the external system to disallow resource overuse.
- Measurable = Yes, Controlled By = Billing. Billing requests an external system to allocate the maximum resource quantity for the service plan, accumulates the resource usage statistics, bills the customer if usage exceeds the purchased resource quantity, and puts the subscription on hold when usage reaches the maximum resource quantity for the service plan.
Note: To bill your customers for resource usage, when choosing External System, set Measurable to Yes.
The option can be overridden in a service plan resource rate. For details on how resource overuse is calculated, see Calculating Resource Usage Amount.
- Unit of Measure: Choose from the drop-down list. To learn how to create your own unit of measure, see Adding a Unit of Measure.
- Service Gate: Choose one of the gates depending on the resource type:
- Dummy Gate: Choose this option for such resources as support hours, email migration (for manual migration support), or resources of custom services that the Provider wants to sell.
- Domain Management Gate: Choose this option for resources related to domain management such as, for example, WHOIS Privacy.
- Reseller Management Gate: Choose this option when creating "reseller resources", which are necessary in reseller creation. For more information, please refer to Getting Started with Resellers Guide.
- SSL Gate: Choose this gate for SSL certificates.
- Max and Min fields: Enter the maximum and minimum values. An external system cannot provision less than the minimum or more than the maximum. These values can be overridden when configuring service plan resource rates.
- To configure a resource as additional, namely, to make it possible for the customer to choose whether or not to buy it, enter 0 into the Min field.
- To include a resource in a service plan, specify its minimum amount greater than 0. Customers cannot exclude the included resources from service plans. Such resources cannot be canceled without canceling the respective subscriptions.
- To make a resource unlimited, enter -1 into the Max field.
- For non-quantity-based resources only one unit of which can be purchased (for example, "premium support" can either be ordered or not ordered: customers cannot choose several units of premium support - it is either included or not included with their service): set Min to 0 and Max to 1.
- Display Type: Select how the resource will be displayed in the CCP to choose the quantity they want to purchase:
- Default: Customers can select the resource quantity using a spinner, a group of checkboxes, or a group of radio buttons depending on the Min and Max values as well as the display type of the resource category.
- Slider: Customers can select the resource quantity by moving a slider. Sliders are useful for resources that may typically have large limits (such as disk space and RAM).
- Controlled by (see Measurable above): Select one of these options:
- Billing: Billing checks resource usage statistics, compares it with the purchased quantity of the resource, and suspends the subscription in case of overuse;
- External System: Billing relies on an external system (such as Operations ) to monitor the resource usage and to take appropriate actions in case of resource overuse.
- MPN: (optional) Enter a Manufacturer Part Number; for OSS resources, to retrieve MPN from an APS Connector, click Load MPN from Connector.
- Vendor ID: (optional) Enter a unique vendor identifier; for OSS resources, click the Load Vendor Data from Connector button to retrieve the data from an APS Connector.
- Vendor Name: (optional) Enter a vendor name; for OSS resources, click the Load Vendor Data from Connector button to retrieve the data from an APS Connector.
- Type: Choose one of the resource types available:
- Resource: a simple resource representing a physical service.
- Composite Resource: a resource that consists of two or more simple resources. Composite resources help you to make your offers more attractive by bundling several services.
Note: All service gates except for DUMMYGATE can process only their own closed lists of resources, which cannot be changed. This means that Billing can provision through DUMMYGATE only those resources which users create in the system, but not those resources which are imported from integrated systems.
Note: In CloudBlue Commerce, a resource maximum limit should not exceed 2147483648.
Note:
– Display Type can be set only for limited resources. Display Type defines how the resource quantity selection controls are displayed to customers in the CCP.
– The Slider type is supported for UX1 for Customers only. In UX1 for Customers, spinners are displayed instead. - Click Save to finish adding a resource.
Editing resources
To edit a resource:
- Go to Products > Resources. Click the necessary resource. Click Edit. Edit the fields as described above. Save the changes.
- To change the unit of measurement, click Change Unit of Measure. Select the necessary unit of measurement. Click Save to complete the change.
- If the resource is already used in some service plans:
- Synchronize the changes to the online store and current subscriptions as described in Synchronizing Changes of Service Plans and Related Objects with Subscriptions and the Online Store.
- Notify your customers of the changes. The changes will be applied to the existing subscriptions immediately.
Note: The button Change Unit of Measure is active only for those resources whose current unit of measure has at least one alternative configured in the system. For example, if you can choose between Mbit/sec and Gbit/sec for the unit of measure of a resource, the button will be displayed. For such units of measure as Boolean, for example, the button will not be displayed.
After the unit of measure of a resource is changed, the resource amount and prices in service plans to which the resource was added are automatically recalculated accordingly.
Related Topics