Configure rate plan with custom attributes

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Introduction

In some cases, you may need transaction counters to be based on a variable or custom value. For example, you may need to:

• Charge developers a variable amount based on a value provided in the message of an API call. For example, you may want to charge app developers based on the number of bytes transmitted in the API request.
• Bundle multiple API calls into a single transaction.

Using rate plans with custom attributes, you can identify a value in the message of an API call that acts as counter, and that is used to calculate transaction counts and charges.

The following rate plans with custom attributes are supported:

• Rate card with custom attribute
• Adjustable notification with custom attribute

You can set a maximum of ten custom attributes per rate plan.

Understanding custom attribute calculations

How the custom attribute value gets factored into the rate plan transaction counts and charges depends on the charging model, as summarized in the following table.

Charging model	Custom attribute calculation
Flat Rate and Volume Banded	custom attribute number * rate = charge to developer For a Flat Rate, the custom attribute number becomes the number of transactions that are multiplied against the rate. For Volume Banded, the number of transactions in a band is incremented by the custom attribute number, and the developer is charged for that number of transactions. For example, If a custom attribute value in the message is 10, then the developer is charged for 10 transactions, and 10 transactions are added to the current band count. If the developer had only 6 transactions remaining in the current band, 6 is multiplied by the rate for that band. The remaining 4 go into the next band and are multiplied by that band's rate. In a Volume Banded plan, if the last volume band has a limit (is not "unlimited") and a transaction exceeds that limit, two things happen: The developer gets the "over" amount free. The developer app is blocked from making further calls to the API until the plan period resets. See When are recurring fees charged and bundle plans reset? for details on when plans are reset.
Bundles	Since bundles are charged by the group, not by the transaction, the following calculation occurs: custom attribute number = amount added to bundle count For example, if the custom attribute number in the message is 10, then 10 is added to the number of transactions used in the bundle. If the developer had only 6 transactions remaining in the current bundle, then that bundle is filled and the next bundle count is incremented by 4. The rate for that next bundle, if any, is charged. If the last bundle has a limit (is not "unlimited") and a transaction exceeds that limit, two things happen: The developer gets the "over" amount free. The developer app is blocked from making further calls to the API until the plan period resets. See When are recurring fees charged and bundle plans reset? for details on when plans are reset.
Adjustable notifications	For adjustable notification, the following calculation occurs: custom attribute number = amount added to transaction count For example, if the custom attribute number in the message is 10, then 10 is added to the total number of transactions.

Where the rate plan gets the custom attribute value

The Transaction Recording Policy (on the API product bundle) tells monetization where to look in the message for the custom attribute value. You define the custom attribute in the Custom Attributes section of the transaction recording policy for the API product bundle.

Then, you can select that custom attribute in the rate plan—after you create an API product bundle that contains the transaction recording policy with the custom attribute defined.

Here is the high-level flow:

1. Define the custom attributes when adding an API product.
2. Create an API product bundle that contains the product.
   In the transaction recording policy for the API product bundle, add the custom attributes that will be used to define rate plans.
3. Create a rate plan of type rate card or adjustable notification for the API product bundle and specify a custom rating parameter.

The following figure shows the relationship between the custom attribute defined in the transaction recording policy and the rate card plan configuration. The adjustable notification with custom attribute rate plan relationship is similar, though the volume-banded value is not applicable.

How to generate the custom attribute value in the message

The transaction recording policy can look for the custom attribute value in several places, such as the response header, the response body, or the predefined flow variables in the response. (The request isn't available, because a transaction isn't official until you get a successful response.) Following are examples showing you how to add a response header with its numeric value to the message. In both cases, we'll use the Assign Message policy in conjunction with variables.

Adding request payload size to the response header

In each message request, there's a client.received.content.length variable that contains the number of bytes in the request payload. By attaching an Assign Message policy to the Proxy Endpoint response, we can generate a response header called messageSize that contains the length value:

<AssignMessage async="false" continueOnError="false" enabled="true" name="Assign-Message-1">
    <DisplayName>Assign Message 1</DisplayName>
    <Set>
        <Headers>
          <Header name="messageSize">{client.received.content.length}</Header> 
        </Headers>  
    </Set>
    <IgnoreUnresolvedVariables>true</IgnoreUnresolvedVariables>
    <AssignTo createNew="false" transport="http" type="request"/>
</AssignMessage>

Adding an app custom attribute value to the header

In much the same way, we can generate a header with the value of a custom attribute on an app. For example, if you include a custom attribute called apprating on each developer app, as follows:

When using the Verify API Key policy (which is required for monetization), this value is stored in a variable called verifyapikey.{policy_name}.apprating. Using the Assign Message policy attached to the Proxy Endpoint response, you could generate a header called apprating that contains the app's apprating value:

<AssignMessage async="false" continueOnError="false" enabled="true" name="Assign-Message-1">
    <DisplayName>Assign Message 1</DisplayName>
    <Set>
        <Headers>
          <Header name="apprating">{verifyapikey.Verify-API-Key-1.apprating}</Header> 
        </Headers>  
    </Set>
    <IgnoreUnresolvedVariables>true</IgnoreUnresolvedVariables>
    <AssignTo createNew="false" transport="http" type="request"/>
</AssignMessage>

Setting up the rate plan

Other than the custom attribute setup described above, the rate plan is set up in the same way as you would normally (for rate plans without custom attributes), but must adhere to the following requirements.

Configuring rate card plan with custom attribute using the UI

Configure rate card plans with custom attributes using the Edge UI or Classic Edge UI, as described in the following sections.

Configuring an adjustable notification plan with custom attributes using the UI

Configure adjustable notification plans with custom attributes, as described below.

Specifying details for a rate plan with custom attributes using the API

Perform the following prerequisite steps:

1. In an API product's transaction recording policy, add the custom attributes that will be used to define rate plans. For details, see the introduction in this topic, as well as Create a transaction recording policy. Do this for each API product you want to include in the API package.
2. Once the API products and transaction recording policies are configured exactly the way you want them, create an API package that contains the product. See Create API packages.

Next, you use the API to create the rate plan.

You specify details for a rate plan with custom attributes when you create the rate plan. You specify the details in the ratePlanDetails property within the request body in a call to /organizations/{org_name}/monetization-packages/{package_id}/rate-plans. In the details, you specify a rating parameter value that identifies the name of the custom attribute. You can also specify a rating parameter value that aggregates the custom attribute over a specified time interval.

See Rate plan details configuration settings for a complete list of rate plan detail options.

For example, the following creates a Rate Card with Custom Attribute plan based on a custom attribute named messageSize (see items in bold).

$ curl -H "Content-Type:application/json" -X POST -d \
'{
   "name": "Custom attribute-based rate card plan",
   "developer":null,
   "developerCategory":null,
   "currency": {
     "id" : "usd"
     },     
   "description": "Custom attribute-based rate card plan",
   "displayName" : "Custom attribute-based rate card plan",
   "frequencyDuration": "1",
   "frequencyDurationType": "MONTH",
   "earlyTerminationFee": "10",
   "monetizationPackage": {
      "id": "location"
        },
      "organization": {
       "id": "{org_name}"
      },    
   "paymentDueDays": "30",
   "prorate": "false",
   "published": "false",     
   "ratePlanDetails":[
      {
        "currency":{
           "id":"usd"
        },
      "duration":1,
      "durationType":"MONTH",
      "meteringType":"VOLUME",
      "paymentDueDays":"30",
      "ratingParameter":"messageSize",
      "ratingParameterUnit":"MB",
      "organization":{
         "id":"{org_name}"
      },
      "ratePlanRates":[
         {
           "rate":0.15,
           "startUnit":0,
           "type":"RATECARD",
           "endUnit":1000
         },
         {
           "rate":0.1,
           "startUnit":1000,
           "type":"RATECARD",
           "endUnit":null
         }
      ],
      "freemiumUnit":0,
      "freemiumDuration":0,
      "freemiumDurationType":"MONTH",
      "type":"RATECARD",
      "customPaymentTerm":false
      }
    ],
    "freemiumUnit":0,
    "freemiumDuration":0,
    "freemiumDurationType":"MONTH",
    "contractDuration":"1",
    "contractDurationType":"YEAR", 
    "recurringStartUnit": 1,
    "recurringType": "CALENDAR",
    "recurringFee": "10",
    "setUpFee": "10",
    "startDate": "2013-09-15 00:00:00",
    "type": "STANDARD"
}' \
"https://api.enterprise.apigee.com/v1/mint/organizations/{org_name}/monetization-packages/location/rate-plans" \
-u email:password

The following creates an Adjustable Notification with Custom Attribute rate plan based on a custom attribute named messageSize (see item in bold).

$ curl -H "Content-Type:application/json" -X POST -d \
'{
     "name": "AdjustableNotification",
     "displayName": "Custom attribute-based adjustable notification plan",
     "description": "Custom attribute-based adjustable notification plan",
     "published": "true",  
     "organization": {
      "id": "myorg"
     },
     "startDate": "2016-04-15 00:00:00",
     "type": "STANDARD",
     "monetizationPackage": {
        "id": "p1",
        "name": "test"
     },
     "currency": {
        "id" : "usd",
        "name" : "USD"
     },
     "ratePlanDetails": [
        {
           "type": "USAGE_TARGET",
           "meteringType": "DEV_SPECIFIC",
           "duration": 1,
           "durationType": "MONTH",
           "ratingParameter": "messageSize",
           "ratingParameterUnit": "MB",
           "organization": {
             "id": "myorg"
           },
           "currency": {
             "id": "usd",
             "name": "USD"
           }
        }
     ]
}' \
"https://api.enterprise.apigee.com/v1/mint/organizations/myorg/monetization-packages/p1/rate-plans"  \
-u email:password