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Over-reliance on a simplified recurrence model #11

Description

@oughnic

Summary

The current schedule model is too simplified, causing data loss when importing or exporting schedules.

Evidence

The schema keeps only dtstart, freq, interval, byday, and bymonthday while dropping broader RRULE semantics.

Impact

Technical: round-tripping between ORUK, iCal, and HSDS becomes lossy and requires custom transformation code.
Business: increases engineering cost, reduces interoperability, and undermines trust in service availability data.

Expected behaviour

ORUK should preserve schedule meaning end-to-end, without forcing data loss for standard recurrence cases.

Suggested resolution

Reintroduce the full RRULE model or define a lossless canonical schedule structure with explicit transformation rules.

Severity

Critical

Versioning note

These defects affect the core data model and likely require a breaking change (ORUK v4) to resolve fully. Backward compatibility may be maintained via transformation layers, but not within the current schema design.

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    Gov Open StandardsIssues related to government open standards and iCal calendar interoperabilityiCalAffects iCalendar / RFC5545 compatibility

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