Service providers can define any custom service features, such as parental control or a custom ringback tone, and control them at the product level, even if they are delivered by a third-party system and not covered by standard PortaBilling service settings.
Service providers can use custom features to monetize services (such as voice, data, or messaging), either by including them in the main product or by offering them as paid add-ons. Service providers can also offer custom features as stand-alone value-added services (e.g., automatically activating or deactivating the subscriber’s access to premium video streaming, paid apps, or other services delivered by your partner).
When a product is assigned, modified, or canceled, the service configuration, including the custom feature parameters, is updated automatically for the subscriber. A middleware (such as NSPS or the Boomi low-code platform) retrieves these custom feature parameters via the API and changes the service configuration in the relevant external system accordingly (activates or deactivates the service, changes the limits, etc.).
An MVNO Owl Mobile plans to introduce a new feature: a custom ringback tone add-on priced at $2 per month; the service itself is delivered by an external platform installed alongside their mobile network core.
The feature must be enabled in the mobile core and triggered by a product assignment or change in PortaBilling. To support this, Owl Mobile developers build an external application that captures service change events in PortaBilling and applies the corresponding updates in the mobile core.
In PortaBilling, the Owl Mobile admin defines a custom service setting for the voice service – the “Custom ringback tone” feature. The setting has two values: disabled (default) and enabled. The admin then enables this setting in an add-on product. When the add-on product is assigned to a subscriber (via USSD, self-care app, customer support, or even an AI sales agent), the $2 fee is applied, and PortaBilling generates a provisioning event that triggers activation of the feature in the mobile core and ring-tone platform.
- Launch and monetize provider-specific features as a part of the product.
- Define custom features once per product and provision them automatically to external systems, eliminating manual subscriber-level configuration.
- Custom service settings are defined in the PortaBilling admin web interface as service custom data. Admin can set a default value for the custom data and allow the feature to be managed by end users.
- The admin assigns this custom data to one or more services and may override the value at the product or account level.
- When the value changes at the service, product, or account level, PortaBilling generates a relevant provisioning event:
- Service/CustomField/Changed,
- Product/CustomField/Changed, or
- Account/CustomField/Changed
- PortaBilling sends these events to the service provider middleware through the External System Provisioning Framework (ESPF).
Configuration
To configure service custom data in PortaBilling, admins should do the following:
1. Configure ESPF
Configure ESPF as described in the ESPF Configuration handbook. Make sure to subscribe to the following events on the Infrastructure > Event handlers > Event subscriptions tab:
- Account/CustomField/Changed
- Product/CustomField/Changed
- Service/CustomField/Changed
2. Create custom data
2.1 Go to My company > Custom data.
2.2 Click +Add and fill in the custom data details:
- Name – type in a descriptive name for the custom data, e.g., Custom ringback tone.
- Object – select Service.
- Type – select the format of the data that is stored in this field, e.g., list.Type in the names of the options and their values:
- Name – type in the name of the option that can be selected on the service panel, e.g., Enable.
- Value – type in the value that corresponds to this option, e.g., Enable. Note that this value is not displayed on the service panel.
- Click Add
to add more option names and their values, e.g., Disable. - Default value – select the default option for this custom data, e.g., Disable.
- Access for end users – specify whether the custom data is available to end users, e.g., Visible by end users.
- Mandatory – select the checkbox to make this custom data mandatory and display it during service creation. By default, custom data is optional and can be filled in at any time.
- Contains personal data – for the custom ringback tone feature, leave this checkbox unselected. You can enable this option to anonymize your users’ personal data (e.g., driver’s license or insurance ID) for staff members who, under GDPR requirements, are not allowed to access such information.
2.3 Click Save.
3. Assign custom data to a service
3.1 Go to Service catalog > Services.
3.2 Click +Service. In the General tab, fill in the details for a new service that needs to be provisioned, e.g., Mobile services.
3.3 In the Custom data tab, select the custom data created at step 2, e.g., Custom ringback tone.
3.4 Click Enable. Then click Save.
4. Configure product
4.1 Go to Service catalog > Products, click +Add to create an add-on product, and fill in the required information.
4.2 In the product panel, go to Services and click Add a service.
4.3 Select the service created at step 3, e.g., Mobile services, and click Add.
4.4 On the product toolbar, click Save.
4.5 Define which main products this add-on is compatible with, then assign a Subscription that charges end users $2 for this feature.
Admins can now configure custom data for the product.
5. Configure account if needed
Admins can override the service custom data value for specific accounts.
For this, go to the account’s Service configuration > General tab > Custom data.
- If a custom value set at the account level is later reset to default, PortaBilling applies the default value from the custom data level, not from the product.
- Multiple add-on products with the same priority cannot define different values for the same service custom data. The system returns a product compatibility validation error.
- Service custom data is available in the admin web interface and via the API.
- Service custom data is not supported for resellers.
- The admin web interface does not support searching or filtering by service custom data.
