Longship.io

Introduction

Authorization takes place at the moment a charger send an OCPP Authorize message to the Longship backend. This message is send when a charge card is presented to the charger. This specific message enables the backend to validate the card. Based on the backend's response, the session will either start charging (Accepted) or be denied charging (Invalid). If your session doesn't start, check here for more info.

Charger configuration

OCPP provides options to skip the Authorize process, but this may impact the ability to send a Charge Detail Record (CDR) to an External Mobility Provider (EMP). The recommended configuration settings for publicly available chargers shared with roaming partners are as follows:

AuthorizationCacheEnabled

A charger can keep track of cards that have been accepted before. This has consequences described in paragraph LocalPreAuthorize.

LocalAuthListEnabled

Many chargers offer the option to add charge cards to a LocalList, a list of cards that are always accepted. This can also affect the LocalPreAuthorize process.

LocalPreAuthorize 

This setting determines what needs to be done when a card is used that is part of the local list. If this setting is set to True, then the Authorize process will be skipped and the session is immediately started. This can cause issue because tokens and charge cards can be revoked at any time by the EMP. If a token is revoked, the CDR can not be roamed anymore and the session can not be billed to anyone.

Change configuration

The Longship portal (and API) offer the ability to change the configuration of a charger. You can navigate to the chargers screen and find the charger. When the charger details are opened, the tab Configuration can retrieve and change configuration settings and enforce the desired behaviour.