OCPP in Rust: seven open source libraries

1. 01

   Install the server

   cargo install downloads the source from crates.io and builds it on your machine, which takes a few minutes. The server needs OpenSSL. If you don't have it, the vendored-openssl feature builds it along with everything else.

   cargo install codetics-ocpp-service
   
   # No OpenSSL on this machine? Build it from source instead:
   cargo install codetics-ocpp-service --features vendored-openssl

2. 02

   Create the database

   The server keeps everything in PostgreSQL. createdb makes an empty database, and DATABASE_URL tells the server where to find it. You don't have any tables to create: the first start takes care of that, and that's when it needs the pg_trgm and unaccent extensions.

   createdb ocpp
   export DATABASE_URL=postgres://localhost/ocpp

3. 03

   Start the server

   The server is now listening in two places: port 9000 for chargers, and 127.0.0.1:8080 for the HTTP API, the one your own tools call. Leave it running and open a second terminal. If /health comes back with status ok and database true, everything's hooked up.

   codetics-ocpp-service
   
   # In another terminal:
   curl http://127.0.0.1:8080/health

   {"connections":0,"database":true,"node":"my-machine","status":"ok"}

4. 04

   Register the station

   An unknown station gets refused with an HTTP 404, which is why you register it first. DEMO-01 is the identity the simulated charger will present when it connects.

   curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8080/api/v1/stations \
     -H 'content-type: application/json' \
     -d '{"ocpp_identity":"DEMO-01","name":"My first charger"}'

5. 05

   Connect a simulated charger

   This small program plays the charger. Put it in src/main.rs and run cargo run. It connects to port 9000 at /ocpp/DEMO-01, offers the ocpp1.6 subprotocol, then sends a BootNotification, the message a charger uses to introduce itself. The first reply may catch you off guard, because it's a TriggerMessage(BootNotification): this station has never booted, so the server asks it to introduce itself. A real charger would answer that, and our simulator just prints it. The next line answers your message with Accepted, and your server has just accepted its first station.

   cargo new station && cd station
   cargo add codetics-ocpp-ws
   cargo add tokio -F rt-multi-thread,macros

   use codetics_ocpp_ws::Message;
   use codetics_ocpp_ws::client::{ClientOptions, connect};
   
   #[tokio::main]
   async fn main() {
       let options = ClientOptions {
           addr: "127.0.0.1:9000",
           path: "/ocpp/DEMO-01",
           subprotocols: &["ocpp1.6"],
           deflate: false,
           basic_auth: None,
       };
       let mut station = connect(&options).await.expect("connection refused");
       println!("connected, protocol: {:?}", station.subprotocol);
   
       let boot = r#"[2,"1","BootNotification",{"chargePointVendor":"Demo","chargePointModel":"Simulator"}]"#;
       station.writer.send_text(boot).await.unwrap();
   
       while let Ok(Some(message)) = station.reader.recv().await {
           if let Message::Text(reply) = message {
               println!("server replied: {reply}");
               if reply.contains(r#""1""#) {
                   break;
               }
           }
       }
   }

   connected, protocol: Some("ocpp1.6")
   server replied: [2,"64da928f-...","TriggerMessage",{"requestedMessage":"BootNotification"}]
   server replied: [3,"1",{"currentTime":"2026-11-05T16:51:20.306Z","interval":300,"status":"Accepted"}]

This tutorial is for a local trial, over an unencrypted connection. For real use, set up TLS (OCPP_TLS_LISTEN, certificates, security profiles) and API_TOKEN, and give each charger a password.

• Two separate programs

  EV Supervision Lite runs on Kotlin, speaks OCPP 1.6 JSON and doesn't use these libraries.

• Two different licenses

  These libraries are open source, under Apache-2.0. EV Supervision Lite's code is public under the Codetics Attribution License 1.0, which isn't an open source license.

• Outside the €3,000 excl. VAT offer

  That offer covers configuring and deploying EV Supervision Lite. These libraries aren't part of it.

• With Codetics, on quote

  They're free to use and you don't need us for that. If you want to integrate them into your system or build on them with us, that's work on quote.