add arch decision of computation of course-user discount

openedx/features/discounts/docs/decisions/0001-determining-discount-location.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+Course + User Discounts
+-----------------------------
+
+Status
+======
+
+Accepted
+
+Context
+=======
+
+We are implementing platform-wide discounts that are determined using a combination of course and user. The
+data used in this determination lives in the LMS. The discount will be messaged in the LMS, and then autoapplied
+on the basket page of Ecommerce. See the table below for information on how this new discount differs from our
+current discounting schemes.
+
++-------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+------------------------------------+ 
+| Discounts                           | Coupons                             | Enterprise Offers                  | 
++=====================================+=====================================+====================================+ 
+| Permanent                           | Temporary                           | Permanent                          | 
++-------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+------------------------------------+ 
+| Applies to all -- certain combos of | Applies to a specific subset of     | Applies to enterprise users        |
+| of user and course exempted         | users and/or courses                |                                    |
++-------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+------------------------------------+ 
+| Messaged in specific places in the  | Sometimes messaged on the marketing | Messaged in integration            |
+| LMS                                 | site (specific promotions)          |                                    |
++-------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+------------------------------------+
+| Currently calculated in the LMS     | Calculated in Ecommerce             | Calculated in Ecommerce            |
++-------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+------------------------------------+
+ 
+
+Decisions
+=========
+
+#. **The location of the calculation of discount applicability/eligibility**
+
+   a. We want *one* service to contain the logic for whether a discount can be applied/can be communicated to the 
+      user. This way, upkeep is much simpler: if/when the logic changes, it only needs to change in one place.
+      Additionally, if we duplicated the logic, we would either need to duplicate the data, ask for the data, or
+      have slightly different logic (which would present cases in which the outcome is different depending on the
+      service). We are unhappy with all of those implementations.
+
+   b. We will calculate applicability/eligibility in the LMS. All of the data that we need currently resides in 
+      the LMS. In order to get the information to make the determination in Ecommerce, we would need to ask LMS
+      for the data. If the ultimate destination of that data was the LMS (to decide whether to message the 
+      discount), we would have excess communication and more failure points. See below for a diagram of what we
+      don't want:
+
+::
+
+      LMS -asks for discount applicability------------------> Ecommerce
+      LMS <-----------asks for data to dermine applicability- Ecommerce
+      LMS -sends back data----------------------------------> Ecommerce
+      LMS <-------------------------sends back applicability- Ecommerce
+
+#. **Communication of discount applicability**
+
+   a. Within the LMS, when we need to get the applicability of a discount for a user and course, we can just
+      import the function and call it.
+
+   b. Outside of the LMS, we need a way to get this information in a validated fashion. We have added a rest 
+      endpoint for that communication. Because we want to be able to use the information both on the front-end
+      and back-end without risk of the user creating their own discounts, we are sending it as a jwt, which is
+      signed. See C for more information on how specifically it will be used on the Ecommerce front-end.
+
+   c. We do not want to make a synchronous call from the Ecommerce backend to the LMS every time the basket 
+      page is loaded. See this decision record link for more information: 
+      https://github.com/edx/Ecommerce/blob/master/docs/decisions/0002-no-synchronous-calls.rst  However, 
+      we are happy to make an ajax call from the front-end.
+      The basket page needs this information for two reasons: 1) So that the correct price is shown to the user,
+      and the user is informed that they are recieving a discount. 2) So that the correct price is charged to 
+      the user during payment.  We will handle both by making the ajax call, updating the ui on the page, and
+      also updating the data that is sent to the server during the payment step. Because we are using a JWT, we
+      can verify that the discount is correct. Right now, another team is working on adding a MFE to Ecommerce. 
+      Rather than have to implement the front-end code in Ecommerce to do this twice, we will write the code
+      to make the ajax call, and if there is a discount, reload the page passing the JWT as a parameter. See
+      diagram below for current (interum) state of the communication of the discount:
+
+::
+
+      LMS <--asks about discount applicability- Ecom Frontend                                      Ecom Backend
+      LMS -sends applicability as JWT---------> Ecom Frontend
+      -----IF APPLICABLE----
+      LMS                                       Ecom Frontend -Reloads the page w/ JWT as param--> Ecom Backend