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AppDirect
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Functionality Details

Contents

This article introduces the AppDirect extension functionality and how this functionality can be helpful for the CloudBlue Connect users. Note that the number of the AppDirect extension features will be increased in future. This article will provide additional functionality details once new features are introduced.

Product

The following describes product definition characteristics and also outlines the differences between provided product types that are available on the AppDirect platform:

Base Product

Base products on the AppDirect platform represent a collection of unit-based items that do not have any identifiers besides their units. Namely, this allows creating products that are similar to Office 365 bundles that have multiple services in a single plan. Note that only plans can have a price value, while individual services in a plan are not allowed to have such values. However, AppDirect allows defining various combinations of services that consequently can produce different plans with different prices.

Therefore, the extension maps base products as product objects with a single item on the CloudBlue Connect platform.

Add-on Product

Add-on products, as the name implies, represent additional products that are linked to a base product. The link should be established during the creation of your add-on product. In general, such products are similar to base products. Note, however, that customers are required to have an active subscription to your base product before purchasing a subscription to your add-on product.

Trial Option

AppDirect also provides the functionality to create a trial period for your product. Namely, in case a customer is subscribed to such a product and the trial period is over, this customer will be asked to buy a subscription. Once a paid version is activated, this customer can continue using the product. Otherwise, the subscription is suspended automatically.

Fulfillment

AppDirects supports both recurring subscriptions and one-time purchases. The platform supports the following subscription operations from the customer’s point of view:

  • Purchasing new subscriptions
  • Change operations (both quantity update and transition changes)
  • Cancelling subscriptions

It is important to note that other subscription operations (such as suspend and resume operations) represent administrative hold actions. Such actions are performed via the subscription contract description on AppDirect.

Order Validation

Pre-provisioning order validation can also be implemented on the AppDirect platform. However, it is applicable only to parameter information on CloudBlue Connect. Currently, item or tier data validation cannot be passed to the AppDirect platform.

Usage Reporting

The extension provides the functionality to submit your usage reports to AppDirect. It supports both usage only and price-based reports that are generated according to the enabled product settings. Therefore, depending on these settings and your product type, usage report files can be provided to the AppDirect for the subsequent billing operations.

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