Autumn 2023

What schemas are we working with today?

Today in the Planx ecosystem, “schema” might mean a loose variety of things:

• The variables used to build service automations (eg proposal.projectType)
• The internal store’s “passport” generated as you navigated through a service and its’ “shape”
• The payload we send to third-party consumers (eg OneApp XML, BOPS JSON)
• The Digital Planning Schemas spreadsheet describing all possible variables across services

As Planx matures and aims to scale integrations across both the number of councils and number of application types, its an opportune time to formalise and document our data specifications for digital planning services into a single, version-controlled, source of truth.

What are we proposing?

OSL developers have built a JSON Schema document which encapsulates the variables and rules used to build Planx services. While we’ve set up the initial tooling and definitions, we very much envision that this data specification will grow through community contributions and be governed by Open Digital Planning (ODP) and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

• https://github.com/theopensystemslab/digital-planning-data-schemas
• https://theopensystemslab.github.io/digital-planning-data-schemas/v0.4.1/schema.json

Proposed data structure

We’ve intentionally designed a schema definition that draws from the same variables and logic rules currently used to build Planx services, as content editors and planners are already familiar with these definitions and will be a main user group regularly interacting with the schema.

The Digital Planning Data schema proposes a planning application structured as follows:

• data Structured information provided throughout the responses of this application
  • application Details about the application type, fee, declarations, pre-application
  • user The role of the user applying for themself or on behalf of someone else
  • applicant Details about the applicant, their agent if applicable, owners, site visit contact
  • property Details about the property as it exists now, including the site address and any applicable constraints
  • proposal Details about the works being proposed and changes to the property
• responses A list of the questions and answers provided by the user, including all applicable policy references and metadata
• preAssessment An assessment of this application, determined by flags picked up by answers. Pre-assessment is based on the user’s responses only, and is pending validation by a planning officer who will issue a formal decision.
• files A labeled list of files uploaded by the user to support this application
• metadata Information about the session, digital planning service, and schema version associated with this payload