Integration Guide 1
Purpose of this Guide
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Network Participant journey with easy steps to integrate with ONDC
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Provide the necessary resources for Integration
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Provide communication channels for query resolution
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How to use this Guide
Keep an eye out for the following icons or formatting:
| Icon/ Formatting | Meaning |
| Highlights why a step is important | |
| Links for documents, recordings and other important resources. | |
| Link for Meetings | |
| Milestone/ Action | |
| To be completed by Technology Service Provider |
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Network Participant Journey
Onboarding – Refers to introductory phase of a potential Network Participants journey including initial briefings, completion of the NP Profile Form, planning for Implementation etc.
Staging – Staging refers to the Sandbox environment available for potential Network Participants to carry out their tech development and testing
Pre-Production – It is the environment where Network Participants carry out end-to-end testing before going live on the network
Production – It is the live environment where ONDC transactions are carried out
Onboarding Staging Pre-Production Production 4
Network Participant Journey
The following steps comprise a Network Participants Journey on ONDC: 1 2 3 4 5
Introduction to ONDC
Role
Selection
Network Participant Profile Form
Implementation Planning
Implementation
A. Technology Development B. Policy Implementation C. Operational Readiness D. Community Engagement
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10 8 7 9
Go – Live on Production
Final Checklist Verification
Testing on Pre Production
Verification & Certification
Testing on Staging
Onboarding Staging Pre-Production Production 5
Onboarding
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Step1: Introduction to ONDC | What is ONDC and how does it work?
Your ONDC journey begins with the following briefings and resources:
Business Briefing Call Technology Briefing Call Introductory Resources
In this call the team will: 1. Walk you through the basics of ONDC
2. Provide a value
proposition for entities 3. Call Details:
Tuesday 3:00 – 4:00 PM Meeting link
Provide you with an overview of:
1. APIs for Integration
2. Resources available for Integration on Github and Swaggerhub
3. Call Details:
Friday 11:00 – 12:00 PM Meeting link
1. ONDC Strategy Paper 2. Website
3. ONDC Business Briefing Presentation
4. ONDC Technical Briefing Presentation
Once you have attended the briefing calls please fill the NP Profile Form
An accurate understanding of ONDC is essential in helping you pick your role in the network 7
Step 2: Role Selection | What role will your organisation play on ONDC?
An entity can play various roles on ONDC, the primary roles* are:
Seller Node Buyer Node Technology Service Provider
1. Marketplace Seller Node – Any entity that enables third party merchants / service providers to sell their products on the ONDC Network
2. Inventory Seller Node – Any entity that will act as a “seller on record” on ONDC selling from their own inventory
Buyer Node – Any entity that enables any buyer to search for and buy products or services on the ONDC network
Any entity that enables either a seller node or a buyer node on ONDC by providing a software
application (either stand alone or through cloud)
Network Participants includes Seller side and Buyer side nodes, TSPs are not Network Participants. You can use the following documents to help you determine your role on the network:
Network Participant Agreement
Regulatory Requirements for NPs
Taxation Obligations for NPs
*Note – We recommend that you review the Network Agreement for legal definitions of these roles.
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Domains | What are Domains and how do they differ from categories?
To understand ONDC and how it expands, it is important to distinguish between Domains and Categories on the Network
Domains Categories
● At ONDC, Domains can be distinguished by the way products/services are bought and sold (Ex. Retail, Logistics, Financial Services, Mobility & Travel etc.)
● Domain switch/ change usually merits a protocol modification whereas new
category introduction in a domain doesn’t ● An entity can play the role of a Buyer node or Seller node or both in each domain. (Ex. A Seller node in the Retail domain can act as a Buyer node in the Logistics domain
● Category constitutes products that have similar market or usage characteristics. Some examples are:
Retail domain (Categories: Grocery, F&B, Consumer Electronics. etc)
Financial Services domain (Categories:
Banking, Insurance, etc)
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Step 3: Fill the Network Participant Profile Form
Once your team has been through briefing calls and decided on a role/roles to play on ONDC, they must fill the NP Profile Form (as mentioned in Step 1):
NP Profile Form
The NP Profile Form is crucial in helping ONDC Team understand your business profile and support you on the next steps accordingly
Once you’ve filled the NP Profile form we will add your SPOCs to ONDC Slack Community 10
Step 4: Implementation Planning | We’ve filled the NP Form, what next?
Once your organization has completed the NP Profile Form, you can initiate Implementation. Here are the relevant resources:
Implementation Plan Briefing Call
Implementation Plan Briefing Deck
Monday 3:00 – 4:00 PM, Meeting Link
Implementation Plan – Retail & Logistics
The ONDC Implementation Plan provides the steps for integrating with ONDC. It will act as your primary guide document through the integration journey
Participants should:
1. Make a copy of this document and create a customized plan for your organization 2. Share the plan with team@ondc.org so that our teams can follow real time updates
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Implementation
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Step 5: Implementation | An Overview
Once your team has completed the onboarding steps including Introductory calls and implementation briefing, they can initiate implementation. This includes:
Phase 1: Development
Technology Development
Policy
Compliance
Phase 2: Testing & Operationalization
Operational Readiness
The following environments have been provisioned for testing and operationalization: 1. Staging (Sandbox Environment)
2. Pre-Production
3. Production
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Technology
Development
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Step 5A: Technology Development | What are the APIs for integration and where do I find them?
Here is an overview of the APIs that need to be build to be compliant to the ONDC protocol:
Post
fulfillment Discovery Order Fulfillment
Search
Select
Init
Confirm
Update
Cancel
Status
Track
Support
Rating
On_Search
On_Select
On_Init
On_Confirm
On_Update
On_Cancel
On_Status
On_Track
On_Support
On_Rating
You can find all tech resources related to integration and development in the following documents: Tech Quick-start Guide Recordings of Community
Calls with Tech Discussions Protocol Specification
You can test your application with other participants on ONDC Staging environment, refer to Staging Section for more information15 Credits for API Figure: Beckn
Step 5A: Technology Development | What is the minimum viable product for a successful ONDC Integration?
Participants will be required to build for a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) during their integration journey. The MVP documents for Retail and Logistics domains are provided below:
Retail MVP
Logistics MVP
Further, find the following:
Recordings of Community Calls with MVP Discussion
MVP Use Cases Checklist – provides use cases for testing for the MVP
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Step 5A: Technology Development | Key Technology Resources available for NPs
Retail Transaction Contracts
Order state &
Logistics Transaction Contracts
Error Handling &
Process flow for Order Cancellation, returns & replacements
Signing & verification
Process flow for Issue Reporting
fulfillment state
ONDC error codes
utility Compliance
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Policy Implementation
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Step 5B: Policy Implementation | What is the ONDC Policy Framework?
ONDC Network Policy defines the framework for governance of ONDC and Network Participants> Prior to reading the Network Policy Documents, we recommend you go over the following:
Introduction to ONDC Network Policies
ONDC Network Policies includes the following:
Chapter 1: Onboarding, compliance requirements and certification requirements
Chapter 2: Business Rules
Chapter 3: Commercial Model
Chapter 4: Code of Conduct and Ethics Chapter 5: Branding Guidelines
Chapter 6: Issue and Grievance Management Policy
Chapter 7: Network Data Governance Policy Chapter 8: Network Technology Governance Chapter 9: Termination and Suspension Policy
Annexure A: Governance structure for Network Policies
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Step 5B: Policy Implementation | How do I sign the Network Agreement?
To integrate with ONDC an NP must sign the Network Agreement. The Agreement is provided below:
Refer to the following documents for instructions on how to sign the Network Agreement:
How to acquire a DSC?
Assenting to Network Agreement will indicate agreement to all Network Policy Documents under ONDC Network Policy.
Policy Compliance is necessary for going live on the network.
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Operational Readiness
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Step 5C: Go-Live Planning | Who and what do you want to enable on ONDC?
As you begin your implementation, you need to decide what part of your e-commerce universe you want to enable on ONDC?
We will require the following details from you: 1. No. of Sellers/Buyers your team will bring to ONDC 2. Category of goods your team will enable
3. Cities where you will be operational
4. Pin-codes for Go-Live (If you are a logistics firm) 5. Planned dates for milestones
We request you to share this information with us on the Implementation Plan itself as it helps us plan for expansion of ONDC.
Note – Not all these fields may be applicable to you
YOUR E
COMMERCE
UNIVERSE
GO-LIVE:
What you
bring to
ONDC for
testing
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Step 5C: Operational Readiness | How to enable ONDC transactions on ground? Simultaneously, your teams must also work on operational preparedness required for ONDC Integration:
Customer Support Implementation (GRM) Reconciliation and Payment Settlement Support to Delivery Agents
Process for Monitoring of KPIs & SLAs Additionally, for seller applications
Sharing Seller Profiles with ONDC
MVP Use Cases for Testing
Checking seller preparedness. Refer to this questionnaire we prepared for checking seller readiness
Refer to the Operational Readiness Checklist for a detailed view on operational preparedness 23
Community
Engagement
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Implementation Resources | Community Engagement ONDC Team uses the following channels to communicate with early stage participants:
ONDC Slack
• You can download slack using this link • Network Participants can use Slack to interact with one another and collaborate on integration or testing
• Slack acts like a repository of all queries and questions that have been raised by various NPs in the past
• The SPOCs mentioned in the NP Profile form will be added to the Slack channel by the ONDC Team
Community Calls
• Community Calls are organised to provide Network Participants an opportunity to interact with the ONDC Team
• The recordings and presentations from previous calls can be found on this
document
• Community Calls provide a great forum to get your queries answered
Call Details – Tuesday 4.30 – 5.30 PM, Meeting Link
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Staging
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Step 6: Testing on Staging | What are the steps for entry to Staging Environment?
Now that you have the resources for Implementation, your team is ready to start building and testing. What is Staging?
ONDC Team has created a sandbox environment where all early stage NPs can test end-to end transactions.
The process for entry to staging can be found in the following document:
Manual Entry to Staging
Form for Entry to Staging
An NP has to complete their technology development while on staging. This can be summarized as: 1. Test end-to-end transaction flow based on the following checklists
2. You can use the following Buyer Reference Application for testing
3. Identify fellow early stage NPs on Slack for end to end testing by making a post 27
Pre-Production
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Step 8: Testing on Pre-Production | How do we enter the Pre-Prod Environment?
After completion of technological development and tech compliance, you can move to Pre-Production Environment. (Currently, an approval based on the demo is needed for entry to Pre-Prod)
Form for Demo
What is Pre-Production?
Pre-Production is the environment where NPs test their development to receive certification to move to ONDC Production Environment.
The process for entry to pre-production can be found in the following document:
Entry to Pre-Production
You can use the following for support on testing in Pre-Production:
Link for Buyer reference
application
Link for Seller reference application User Manual for Seller Application29
Step 8: Testing on Pre-Production | How does ONDC Team support NPs on Pre-Prod?
Once NPs are on Pre-Production, ONDC Team supports them in the following ways:
1. Slack is the primary channel for communicating issues
2. Issue logging and tracking is done through Jira
ONDC Tech team will share further details on issue resolution upon your entry to Pre-Production
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Step 9: Final Checklist Verification | What steps does a NP have to execute on Pre-Prod to Go-Live on Production Environment?
The following checklist provides the steps under technical, operational and regulatory compliance that must be completed to qualify to move into Production environment. These are:
Final Compliance Checklist
Note:
• An NP must meet all the requirements provided in the document and obtain a go-ahead from ONDC Tech and Ops team for move to Production
• In addition to the compliances captured in the checklist an NP may also be required to go through functional testing with the ONDC team
• The checklist provided above is evolving and ONDC may update the same as per any contingent requirement in the future
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Production
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Step 10: Go-Live on Production | How do we enter the Production Environment?
Successfully surpassing the threshold for functional testing and complying with the final checklist on Pre Prod will enable an NP to move to Production environment
What is the Production environment ?
Production is the live environment where live transactions take place with transfer of goods and services. Your team must have met the compliance requirements for moving to Production.
The process for entry to Production can be found in the following document:
Entry to Production
Probationary Period
Entry to Production
All Network Participants moving to Production will be on probation for a period of 2 weeks. Only upon fulfillment of threshold for successful transactions completed will the move to Production be made official or else participants will be moved back to Pre
production where ample support will be provided to ensure their success on Production. 33
Step 10: Go-Live on Production | What is the probationary period on ONDC?
Probationary Period
All Network Participants moving to Production will be on probation for a period of 2 weeks maximum. Only upon clearing validation for Ops processes will the move to Production be made official.
If the thresholds are not met, participants will be moved back to Pre-production where ample support will be provided to ensure their success on Production.
This is to ensure that the sanctity of the Production environment is maintained.
Detailed on moving from Pre-Production
to Production
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Annexure 1
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List of Documents (1)
| No. | Name of Document |
| 1 | ONDC Website |
| 2 | ONDC Strategy Paper |
| 3 | ONDC Business Briefing Presentation |
| 4 | ONDC Technical Briefing Presentation |
| 5 | Network Participant Agreement |
| 6 | Regulatory Requirements for NPs |
| 7 | Taxation Obligations for NPs |
| 8 | Implementation Briefing Presentation |
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List of Documents (2)
| No. | Name of Document |
| 9 | Tech Quick-start Guide |
| 10 | Recordings of Community Calls with Tech Discussions |
| 11 | Protocol Specification |
| 12 | Retail MVP |
| 13 | Logistics MVP |
| 14 | Recordings of Community Calls with MVP Discussion |
| 15 | Retail Transaction Contracts |
| 16 | Logistics Transaction Contracts |
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List of Documents (3)
| No. | Name of Document |
| 17 | Process flow for Order Cancellation, returns & replacements |
| 18 | Process flow for Issue Reporting |
| 19 | Order state & fulfillment state |
| 20 | Error Handling & ONDC error codes |
| 21 | Signing & verification utility |
| 22 | Compliance |
| 23 | Introduction to ONDC Network Policies |
| 24 | ONDC Network Policies |
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List of Documents (4)
| No. | Name of Document |
| 25 | Network Participant Agreement |
| 26 | NP Agreement FAQs |
| 27 | How to acquire a DSC? |
| 28 | Operational Readiness Checklist |
| 29 | Manual Entry to Staging |
| 30 | MVP Use Cases Checklist |
| 31 | Technical Compliance Checklist |
| 32 | Entry to Pre-Production |
| 33 | Detailed on moving from Pre-Production to Production |
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