Find Information on the Feasibility of the Recharging

service operation

Definition

To determine if the recharging for a charging contract at a specified date is feasible

Technical Data

Software Product and Version	SAP Convergent Charging 4.1
Technical Details	chargingContractRechargingFeasibilityInfoFind
Namespace	http://recharging.ws.highdeal.com/
Proxy Instance in SAP CC System	Dispatcher
Service Operation Version	0
Application Area	IS-CC
Direction	inbound
Mode	synchronous
Idempotency	false

Business Context and Use

This service operation is used to find information about the feasibility of the recharging of chargeable items for a specified charging contract and at a specified date.

This operation must be called when the recharging of chargeable items is requested to check whether SAP CC is able to restore the charging contract at a specified date called 'recharging date'. For the same recharging date, the charging contracts may not be restored in the same way and so the feasibility of the recharging could be different between two charging contracts.

According to the recharging date, recharging chargeable items for a specified contract is:

• possible when the recharging date is the date of a restoration point of the charging contract or if the recharging date is before the first restoration point of the charging contract
• possible but the recharging date must be adapted in the past to be the date of the first older restoration point compare to the recharging date.
• not possible until the oldest of restoration point when the date is older than the counter snapshot retention period. In that case the relevant restoration point has been already deleted and the charging contract could not be reset.
• not possible when the charging contract cannot be reset and no better date can be provided.

Rerating Scenario

A correction step precedes the recharging step of the rerating scenario. This step performs corrections when errors leading to the computation of wrong prices are identified. For example, such errors are related to the pricing logic, the properties of chargeable items, and so on.

The recharging step of the rerating scenario consists in sending again chargeable items which were previously charged so that SAP Convergent Charging computes the correct prices after the correction step.

You can implement the following customizing sequence of operations for the recharging step if you want to provide rerating services in your system landscape:

• Find the charging contracts which must be recharged together
• Lock the related charging contracts
• Find information on the feasibility of the recharging for a charging contract at a given date
• Prepare the execution of the recharging process
• Search the restoration points for the related charging contracts
• Restore the related charging contracts at a date corresponding to one of their restoration points
• Recharge the related chargeable items
• Unlock the related charging contracts

The recharging step may be followed by:

• An activation step, in order to trigger again recurring charges which have been undone during the recharging step. See the Activate charging contracts in bulk operation.
• A re-invoicing step in the connected billing system

Related Service Operations

You can also use the following operations to restore charging contract collections:

• Find the restoration points of a charging contract
• Restore the state of a charging contract collection at a given date
• Restore the state of a set of charging contract collections at a given date

Features

The feasibility of the recharging of chargeable items for a specified charging contract and for a specified recharging date is described with the following information:

• A status indicating the feasibility of the recharging for the charging contract. The status can be:
  • possible
    The recharging is possible at the requested recharging date
  • possibleAt
    The recharging is possible but must start before the requested recharging date
  • notPossibleUntil
    The recharging is not possible until a date after the requested recharging date
  • notPossible
    The recharging is not possible
• The requested recharging date
  The date on which the feasibility of the recharging has been checked
• The possible recharging date
  The date when the recharging is really possible in SAP CC. This date is computed from the requested recharging date. If the recharging is really not possible then the possible recharging date is empty.
• A restoration point contains the following information:
  • The identifier of the restoration point (a date, which can be used in the operations which restore the state of charging contracts)
  • The identifier of the related charging contract
  • The range of charged item set unique identifiers
  • The consumption date of the oldest consumption item charged on the restoration point
  • The list of external accounts of the charging contract
  If the recharging is possible but there is no counter snapshot for the recharging date, then no restoration point is returned and that means there is no needed charging contract restoration.

Examples

The following examples show for a given recharging date, what is the feasibility of a recharging of chargeable items for a given contract. All the examples have the same structure. After a description of a charging contract to which this operation will be applied, a table gives the result of this operation applied to the charging contract for different interesting date. It is supposed that the retention period of the counter snapshots is 5 days and that the current day is the 10th of the month. When the time of the date is not specified, that means it is 00:00am.

Sample#2
The charging contract was created the 07th of the month. Every day at 00:00, a counter snapshot is created and the last chargeable item was charged the 09th at 05:00pm. The oldest counter snapshot date is the 7th of the month. The recharging feasibility is like for the sample#1 except for the recharging date before the first restoration point of the charging contract.

Recharging date	Recharging feasibility	Possible Recharging date	Restoration point date
06th	possible	06th	07th
02nd	possible	02nd	07th

Sample#3
The charging contract was created several month ago. Its oldest counter snapshot date is the 02nd of the month (7 days before the current day).

Recharging date	Recharging feasibility	Possible Recharging date	Restoration point date
10th	possible	10th	none
02nd	possible	02nd	02nd

Sample#4
The charging contract was created the 07th of the month at 10:00am. Some recurring charges/one-shot/chargeable items was only charged the 07th. So the oldest counter snapshot date is the 07th of the month. The youngest counter snapshot is also the 07th.

Recharging date	Recharging feasibility	Possible Recharging date	Restoration point date
10th	possible	10th	none
07th at 5:00pm	possibleAt	07th	07th
07th at 3:00am	possibleAt	07th	07th
06th	possible	06th	07th

Sample#5
The charging contract was created the 07th of the month at 10:00am. No recurring charges/one-shot/chargeable items was charged until now. The charging contract has no counter snapshot.

Recharging date	Recharging feasibility	Possible Recharging date	Restoration point date
10th	possible	10th	none
05th	possible	05th	none
02nd	possible	02nd	none

Sample#6
The charging contract was created several month ago. Every day at 00:00am, a counter snapshot is created and the last chargeable item was charged the 09th at 3:00pm. The oldest counter snapshot date is the 05th of the month and the youngest one is the 09th. However the counter snapshots of the 06th and the 07th are corrupted.

Recharging date	Recharging feasibility	Possible Recharging date	Restoration point date
09th	possible	09th	09th
07th	possibleAt	05th	05th
05th	possible	05th	05th
04th	notPossibleUntil	05th	05th

Sample#7
The charging contract was created several month ago. Every day at 00:00am, a counter snapshot is created and the last chargeable item was charged the 09th at 3:00pm. The oldest counter snapshot date is the 05th of the month and the youngest one is the 09th. However ALL the counter snapshots until the 07th included are corrupted.

Recharging date	Recharging feasibility	Possible Recharging date	Restoration point date
09th	possible	09th	09th
06th	notPossibleUntil	08th	08th

Sample#8
The charging contract was created several month ago. Every day at 00:00am, a counter snapshot is created and the last chargeable item was charged the 09th at 3:00pm. The oldest counter snapshot date is the 05th of the month and the youngest one is the 09th. However ALL the counter snapshots are corrupted.

Recharging date	Recharging feasibility	Possible Recharging date	Restoration point date
09th	notPossible	none	none
06th	notPossible	none	none

The expected behavior of the consumer according to this operation result would be the following:

    if (status is possible) then
      // continue the recharging with the possible recharging date
    else if (status is possibleAt) then
      // restart the recharging of the consumption items with the possible recharging date
      // and possibly check again with the chargeable item/charged item storage for the possible recharging date
    else if (status is notPossibleUntil) then
      // the recharging must be interrupted for the charging contract
      // and the user must be advised to choose a date after the possible recharging date
    else if (status is notPossible) then
      // the recharging must be interrupted for the charging contract
      // and the user must be informed that it isn't possible to recharge this charging contract
    end
    

Authorization

Refer to the SAP CC Security Guide , to know the role that is expected in the SAP CC user profile of the service user specified in your request messages.

Error Handling

The SAP CC system may return a charging error classified into a category and an error stack detailing the issue and its cause.

Categories

Use the following error categories to customize the behavior of your application or system:

Prerequisite Missing	The master data required for the execution of the operation request is missing, or the request is incorrect and does not target the correct master data.	Applicable for this service operation: Next follows a non-exhaustive list of errors linked to the Prerequisite Missing category: The subscriber account specified does not exist The subscriber account specified does not have associated charging contracts The charging contract specified does not exist The charging contract specified does not belong to the subscriber account specified
Invalid	The parameters of the request are not valid. The request must be corrected before sending it again.	Applicable for this service operation: Next follows a non-exhaustive list of errors linked to the Invalid category: No subscriber account identifier was specified in the request
Invalid Configuration	The configuration of the SAP CC system is not valid. It must be corrected before sending the request again.	Applicable for this service operation: Next follows a non-exhaustive list of errors linked to the Invalid Configuration category: The recharging feature is deactivated
Illegal State	The master data used by the operation is not in a valid state. This is usually a normal behavior of the process and should be acknowledged as a failure.	Applicable for this service operation
Temporary Illegal System State	The connected SAP CC system is currently not in an appropriate state to execute the operation request. The request can usually be sent again later without any modification. If the error persists, the system administrators must be informed about it.	Applicable for this service operation
Illegal System State	The operation request failed because of a technical error or an unexpected issue. The system administrators must be informed about this error.	Applicable for this service operation

Troubleshooting

Refer to the SAP CC Error Code Reference (SAP Site) for more information about a returned error code and the corrective actions necessary for troubleshooting your implementation project.

Message Types

Consult the structures of the message types related to this service operation:

• chargingContractRestorationPointFindRequest
• chargingContractRestorationPointFindResponse

Prerequisites

• The relevant subscriber account exists
• The relevant charging contracts exist
• The relevant charging contracts belong to the subscriber account

Integration

There is no specific integration information.

Constraints and Integrity Conditions

There is no specific constraint.

Notes on SAP CC Implementation

You must have installed and configured the SAP CC Core Server system.

Configuration

Consult the SAP CC Configuration and Implementation Guide to know the necessary configuration or customizing of the SAP CC system. Before implementing SAP Convergent Charging in your system landscape, you must configure the systems and the data (master data, business data).