Introduction

Communication Storage helps you to generate and store or distribute digital documents, such as invoices, letters, and statements in formats such as PDF or CSV, along with metadata in JSON format. This metadata helps categorize and organize documents. As part of the end-to-end communication workflow, Communication Storage, Communication Distribution Storage along with Communication configuration work together to ensure that generated documents and their metadata are delivered to the external storage, with the help of Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) or storing internally to Communication Cloud Service as a Digital Asset.

While Communication Storage handles the document generation, Communication Distribution Storage supports storage of documents to external Object Storage with SFTP which acts as the secure transfer layer to deliver files, using configured credentials and through Operations Company Supplier Service or internally to Communication Cloud Service (as Digital Assets).

Communication Storage

Communication Storage configuration helps you to generate business communication, such as invoices, account statement and so on, based on predefined Communication Packages. These packages contain the Document that has required layout, styling, and personalized content through associated Assembly Templates. Using the data received in the request, the Assembly Template dynamically generates documents in formats such as PDF or CSV, customized to the specific recipient or business context.

Communication Storage also produces a metadata file in JSON format, which includes any descriptive information, such as customer ID, document type, creation date, and so on. This metadata supports document categorization.

See Creating a Communication Storage Configuration for more information.

Digital Asset

As part of the Communication configuration having Process Type Distribute, you can use Service Type Digital Asset Distribution to store the PDF documents, generated through Communication Storage, internally within the Communication Cloud Service. You can retrieve these documents later using a REST API call. When the Communication Service configuration executes Digital Asset Distribution, it uses the Marketing Company information to identify the appropriate Digital Asset configuration. Both the Communication configuration and the Digital Asset configuration must be associated to the same Marketing Company. The PDF document generated by Communication Storage is then stored securely as Digital Assets within the identified Digital Asset configuration.

See Creating a Digital Asset for more information on creating a Digital Asset.

SFTP

SFTP configuration helps Communication Distribution Storage to securely transfer communication assets, such as documents and metadata, to remote servers or content management application. This allows Communication Distribution Storage to integrate with the Supplier Service to securely distribute both generated communication outputs and associated metadata. The documents can either be sent to a content management application or directly to a remote server using SFTP. Once transferred, the documents can be accessed, downloaded, or stored internally within Communication Cloud Service. These stored documents can later be retrieved for various purposes. The Operations Company Supplier Service manages the interaction details for the Supplier Service, including authentication credentials and connection settings.

See Creating an SFTP Configuration for more information.

Communication Distribution Storage

Communication Distribution Storage configuration supports the storage of digital assets or SFTP of the generated communications using Communication Storage, such as documents and metadata, based on the data provided from your organization's application. It facilitates the storage of documents to external storage with SFTP or as digital assets in Communication Cloud Service. Through this configuration, you can set process, and select the appropriate supplier service, ensuring that the files are transferred securely.

See Creating a Communication Distribution Storage Configuration for more information.

Communication

Communication configuration orchestrates and automates the generation and distribution of business communication within Communication Cloud Service. It initiates request based on business rules to generate and store documents along with metadata. Communication configuration interacts with the Communication Distribution Storage configuration to manage the storage of documents either in external Object Storage or as digital assets within Communication Cloud Service.

See Creating a Communication Configuration for more information.