What are exactly standalone products ?

[julien...@champs-libres.coop]

Hi,

I am facing a new question about catalog and I don't find the answer in the archives' mailing-list.

In our catalog, some product are available freely as a an add-on: the user pay a subscription and this give the ability to publish some announcements on the website (case 1).

But we have also the possibility to pay for one announcement. This should generate immediately an invoice, and, if paid, the announcement will be published on the website (case 2).

My most important question is about case 2:

I am considering handling case 2 (a single announcement) as a STANDALONE product.

Question 1: Does I understand well if I say that "standalone" product are only items, available without any subscription ?

Question 2: If yes, how to "create" them through the API ? I do not understand how to "add" them.

Question 3: As I understand, case 1  and case 2 could also be handled as "CAPACITY IN ADVANCE" usage (http://killbill.io/blog/usage-billing/): the user subscribe to the capacity of make an announcement. In case 1, the subscription cost some money, but usage is not limited; in case 2 the subscription is free but usage cost xx €). Am I right ? Or did I misunderstood the concepts ?

Question 4: As I could read on the mailing-list here (https://groups.google.com/forum/?pli=1#!searchin/killbilling-users/usage$20billing%7Csort:date/killbilling-users/t-QIPW4oS_0/NXv93RyxBAAJ), only the "capacity in arrear" is implemented. Is this always the case ?

I am also open to all your advices and experiences about this case :-)

Thanks !

Julien Fastré

[Pierre-Alexandre Meyer]

On Wed, Nov 29, 2017 at 8:35 PM, <julien...@champs-libres.coop> wrote:

In our catalog, some product are available freely as a an add-on: the user pay a subscription and this give the ability to publish some announcements on the website (case 1).

If announcements are modeled through plans, it sounds like you could use the <included> directive here, to note that the add-on is bundled for free in that base plan. See http://docs.killbill.io/latest/userguide_subscription.html#_add_ons.

 

Question 1: Does I understand well if I say that "standalone" product are only items, available without any subscription ?

No: STANDALONE is just a different product category (like BASE and ADD_ON). Such products still need to be subscribed to.

Question 2: If yes, how to "create" them through the API ? I do not understand how to "add" them.

It would go into your catalog, in the product section (<category>STANDALONE</category>). 

 

Question 4: As I could read on the mailing-list here (https://groups.google.com/forum/?pli=1#!searchin/killbilling-users/usage$20billing%7Csort:date/killbilling-users/t-QIPW4oS_0/NXv93RyxBAAJ), only the "capacity in arrear" is implemented. Is this always the case ?

Both capacity and consumable in arrear models have been implemented. We most likely won't get into in advance models for 0.20.x (and 0.18.x is in maintenance mode only).

 

I am also open to all your advices and experiences about this case :-)

If you don't need subscriptions, you could simple charge for announcements through external charges:

  https://github.com/killbill/killbill/blob/570992ee7e6998c8ee5a9446eeee224cc4cab8c3/jaxrs/src/main/java/org/killbill/billing/jaxrs/resources/InvoiceResource.java#L484-L546

This would simply generate an invoice, without any subscription attached to it.

Hope that helps,

--

Pierre

[julien...@champs-libres.coop]

Thanks for your answer, Pierre !

I understand better that STANDALONE is not the concept I was thinking about.

So, to be clear :

- BASE product allow subscriptions with eventually ADDONS product

- STANDALONE product does not allow ADDONS

Am I right ?

If yes, I think I fully understand this sentence, now:

Subscription Bundles can either consist of a collection of subscriptions to stand-alone plans or a single B Plan subscription with zero or more Add-On Plan subscriptions.

Thanks for the tip about `/invoices/charge`, this works like a charm and do what I expect.

Regards,

Julien

[Pierre-Alexandre Meyer]

On Fri, Dec 1, 2017 at 1:34 PM, <julien...@champs-libres.coop> wrote:

So, to be clear :

- BASE product allow subscriptions with eventually ADDONS product

- STANDALONE product does not allow ADDONS

Am I right ?

Yes. You can also have multiple STANDALONE subscriptions per bundle.

--

Pierre

[Julien Fastré]

Le 01/12/17 à 18:20, Pierre-Alexandre Meyer a écrit :

> Yes. You can also have multiple STANDALONE subscriptions per bundle.

Thanks for all those informations !

Julien Fastré