Clarification needed: Handling of required numeric (float) and date-time fields when values are not available

[martinfrenzel]

While implementing the ProvideChargingInformationRequest according to VDV 463, we identified an ambiguity regarding required numeric (number) and date-time fields defined in the JSON Schema.

According to JSON Schema rules, fields listed as required must be present in the payload and must contain a value conforming to their declared type.

For fields with type: "number", this means that a valid numeric value must be provided, unless the schema explicitly allows null. For fields with type: "date-time" similar.

The VDV 463 specification and the corresponding JSON Schemas do not clearly state how implementations should handle situations in which a required numeric value is temporarily not available (e.g. due to missing measurement data e.g. for ChargingPower ) or date-time values could not be calculated by the system.

The following fields are defined as required:

ChargingInformation:

1. ElectricData->ChargingPower
2. ChargingPredictionDataFinalSoc->predictedFinalSoc
3. ChargingPredictionDataFinalSoc->predictedTime
4. ChargingPredictionDataMinSoc->predictedFinalSoc
5. ChargingPredictionDataMinSoc->predictedTime
6. ChargingPredictionDataDepartureTime->predictedDepartureTimeSoc
7. ChargingPredictionDataDepartureTime->predictedTime

ChargingRequest:

1. ChargingRequestData->minTargetSoc
2. ChargingRequestData->maxTargetSoc

We should discuss how we like to handle this, IMHO we have the following choices:

• Define the field as nullable "type": ["number","null"],
• Change the field to optional.