The Tackle-Orb integration connects your Orb billing platform to the cloud marketplaces using Tackle. With this integration, Tackle automatically calculates metering usage based on Orb’s invoice amount due and submits that to the AWS Marketplace, Google Cloud Marketplace (GCP), or Microsoft commercial marketplace (Azure).
This article will guide you through installing your Tackle - Orb integration, then show you the next steps to start using Tackle metering data together with your Orb invoices.
Install the Tackle - Orb integration
To set up the Tackle - Orb integration, you'll need to complete four steps:
Create an Orb API key
Create an Orb webhook signing secret
Select a billing dimension for both Tackle and Orb
Create a new subscription in Orb with Tackle metadata
Step 1: Create an Orb API key
Tackle needs access to Orb to look up the total amount due for each subscription and invoice. To do so, we'll create an Orb API key and use it in Tackle to allow access:
Sign in to your Orb account and go to app.withorb.com/api-keys🔗.
Follow the instructions in Orb to create a new API key for Tackle. For more information, consult the documentation from Orb at https://docs.withorb.com/overview#authentication🔗.
Copy the key’s value, then sign in to Tackle and navigate to Integrations > Orb > API Key🔗.
Paste your API key value in the Orb Api Key field, then click Save. Note that the API key's value remains encrypted until it’s in use.
Click Save.
Step 2: Create an Orb webhook and signing secret
Next, we'll create a new webhook in Orb to push data automatically to Tackl whenever a certain event takes place. Tackle listens to several event types to make sure data stays in sync and metering usage is submitted to the marketplace in a timely manner. To create a webhook and signing secret:
Return to your Tackle account and go to Integrations > Orb > Webhook. Copy the Webhook URL, then click "Create your webhook" or go to app.withorb.com/webhooks🔗 to return to your Orb account.
Use the Webhook URL you copied to create a new webhook for Tackle. Your Webhook URL should look something like this:
https://orb.tackle.io/webhooks/{your unique identifier}After you create the webhook, copy the Orb webhook signing secret. Then return to Tackle > Integrations > Orb > Webhook🔗 and paste the secret in the Signing Secret field. Note that the value remains encrypted until it’s in use.
When you're finished, click Save.
Step 3: Select a billing dimension for each product
While Orb recommends🔗 that you “set up a single metric when configuring your offering that represents the total number of cents that you will charge a specific customer for your service,” you can have different dimensions and pricing per unit in Tackle. You will need to select which dimension Tackle should use when submitting metering usage for that product to the cloud marketplace. To select a dimension for each product:
Go to Tackle > Integrations > Orb🔗.
Under the Product to Dimension Configuration section, select a dimension to use for each product. Your selection will influence the price per unit when metering, and as a result, will dictate how much usage to submit to the marketplace based on the amount due from Orb.
Click Save dimension configuration.
Step 4: Set up the integration in Orb
Finally, we'll set up your Orb account to include Tackle metering usage in your billing to your cloud marketplaces. To do so, you'll need to add a reference to Tackle in your Orb subscription metadata. Learn more about adding metadata to a subscription🔗.
If you don't have one already, create a subscription in your Orb account for billing. This is a common step in your buyer registration process.
In your Orb subscription, add new metadata to indicate which marketplace, buyer, and product for which you're tracking usage. You can find this metadata in your Tackle order notifications.
Your metadata must be formatted as follows:
{
tackle_cloud_type: 'aws' | 'azure' | 'gcp',
tackle_cloud_product_id: string,
tackle_cloud_customer_id: string
}After you set up the integration and the information is updated, you can verify if the metadata exists by fetching a subscription🔗.
Next steps
Now that you've successfully set up the integration in Tackle and the subscriptions in Orb include the necessary metadata, Tackle and Orb will start working together automatically. Every time Orb issues a new invoice event events🔗, it will automatically connect with Tackle to submit metering data to the marketplace. It will also calculate the total metering usage based on the invoice’s amount due and the configured price per unit for that listing and dimension.
You can view metered usage in Tackle > Metering🔗.