Sun Microsystems 5 Server User Manual


 
Chapter 1 Introduction 9
Vending Manager Processes
The previous figure illustrates the Vending Manager processes. The Vending
Manager is responsible for the following practices:
Content Management
Plan Management
Account Management
Reporting
Content Management
The Catalog Manager publishes content to the Vending Manager. The Vending
Manager is responsible for stocking this content to make it available to the
subscriber. The Vending Manager administrator can change the subscriber pricing of
the content, allow trial usage, and assign the content to a new category. The
administrator can also change the category assignments and add new categories to
control subscriber access to content. See “Managing Catalog Content” on page 134
for more information.
Plan Management
The Vending Manager uses Subscriber Plans to control subscriber access to content.
Each Subscriber Account is assigned to one or more Subscriber Plans. Subscriber
Plans determine what content a subscriber can access and download.
A Subscriber Plan is mapped to selected categories in the Vending Manager. The
content in the selected categories is made available to plan members. If content is in
a category that is not supported by the Subscriber Plan, the subscriber cannot access
it for download. See “Managing Subscriber Plans” on page 216 for more
information.
Account Management
Accounts define access to the Vending Manager. The Vending Manager is
responsible for two types of accounts:
Subscriber. Subscriber Accounts are for individuals who subscribe to a service
plan that provides them with the download service. Each Subscriber Account is
associated with one or more Subscriber Plans. See “Managing Subscriber
Accounts” on page 209 for more information.
Administrator. Administrator Accounts are for individuals who administer the
Vending Manager. There are two administrator roles: Administrator for
administrators with full privileges for administering the Vending Manager, and