

Using HL7 Messages with File Systems¶

The Micro Integrator allows messages to be transferred between HL7 and the file system using the HL7 and VFS transports.

Transferring HL7 messages between file systems¶

Let's look at how a proxy service reads HL7 messages stored in a file system and transfers them to another file system.

Synapse configuration¶

Given below is a proxy service that is configured to detect HL7 files (.hl7) in the folder specified by the transport.vfs.FileURI parameter. Note that the VFS content type is set to application/edi-hl7 MIME type with an optional charset encoding. When you save the .hl7 file to the home/user/test/in folder, the proxy service invokes the HL7 builders/formatters and builds the HL7 message into its equivalent XML format. It then forwards the message to the VFS endpoint /tmp/out.

Info

Be sure to replace file directories specified below with actual directories in your own file system.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<proxy xmlns="http://ws.apache.org/ns/synapse" name="FileSystemToFileSystem" transports="vfs">
  <target>
    <inSequence>
      <property name="OUT_ONLY" value="true" scope="default" type="STRING"/>
      <property name="transport.vfs.ReplyFileName" expression="get-property('transport','FILE_NAME')" scope="transport" type="STRING"/>
      <log level="full"/>
      <send>
        <endpoint>
          <address uri="vfs:file:///home/user/test/out"/>
        </endpoint>
      </send>
    </inSequence>
  </target>
  <parameter name="transport.PollInterval">5</parameter>
  <parameter name="transport.vfs.FileURI">file:///home/user/test/in</parameter>
  <parameter name="transport.vfs.FileNamePattern">.*\.hl7</parameter>
  <parameter name="transport.vfs.ContentType">application/edi-hl7;charset="iso-8859-15"</parameter>
  <parameter name="transport.hl7.ValidateMessage">false</parameter>
</proxy>

Build and run¶

Create the artifacts:

Set up ESB Integration Studio.
Create an integration project with an ESB Configs module and an Composite Exporter.
Create the proxy service with the configurations given above.
Configure the HL7 transport in your Micro Integrator.
Deploy the artifacts in your Micro Integrator.

To test this scenario:

Copy the following HL7 message into a text editor and save it with the .hl7 extension inside the directory you specified with the transport.vfs.FileURI parameter in the above example.
```
MSH|^~\&|Abc|Def|Ghi|JKL|20131231000000||ADT^A01|1234567|P|2.6|||NE|NE|CH|
```
See that the files are immediately moved to the folder specified by the endpoint.

Transferring messages from HL7 to file system¶

Now, let's look at how we can receive an HL7 message and transfer it to a file system.

Synapse configuration¶

When the following proxy service runs, an HL7 service will start listening on the port defined by the transport.hl7.Port parameter. When the HL7 message arrives, the proxy will send an ACK back to the client as specified in the HL7_RESULT_MODE property. The HL7 message is then processed and sent to the VFS endpoint, which will save the HL7 message to the given directory.

Info

Be sure to replace file directories specified below with actual directories in your own file system.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<proxy xmlns="http://ws.apache.org/ns/synapse"
     name="HL7ToFileSystem"
     transports="hl7"
     statistics="disable"
     trace="disable"
     startOnLoad="true">
 <target>
    <inSequence>
       <log level="full"/>
       <property name="HL7_RESULT_MODE" value="ACK" scope="axis2"/>
       <property name="OUT_ONLY" value="true"/>
       <property name="transport.vfs.ReplyFileName"
                 expression="fn:concat(get-property('SYSTEM_DATE', 'yyyyMMdd.HHmmssSSS'), '.xml')"
                 scope="transport"/>
       <send>
          <endpoint>
             <address uri="vfs:file:///home/user/test/out"/>
          </endpoint>
       </send>
    </inSequence>
 </target>
 <parameter name="transport.hl7.AutoAck">false</parameter>
 <parameter name="transport.hl7.Port">55555</parameter>
 <parameter name="transport.hl7.ValidateMessage">false</parameter>
 <description/>
</proxy>

Build and run¶

Create the artifacts:

Set up ESB Integration Studio.
Create an integration project with an ESB Configs module and an Composite Exporter.
Create the proxy service with the configurations given above.
Configure the HL7 transport in your Micro Integrator.
Deploy the artifacts in your Micro Integrator.

To test this scenario:

Use an HL7 client (such as HAPI) to send a message to the port specified by the transport.hl7.Port parameter.
See that the message is successfully saved to the file system specified as the endpoint.

Transferring messages from HL7 to FTP¶

The following configuration is similar to the previous example, but it illustrates how to process files between an HL7 endpoint and files accessed through FTP.

Synapse configuration¶

Given below is a proxy service that will detect .hl7 files in the transport.vfs.FileURI directory and send them to the HL7 endpoint.

Info

Be sure to replace file directories specified below with actual directories in your own file system.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<proxy xmlns="http://ws.apache.org/ns/synapse"
       name="SFTPToHL7"
       transports="vfs"
       statistics="disable"
       trace="disable"
       startOnLoad="true">
   <target>
      <inSequence>
         <property name="OUT_ONLY" value="true" scope="default" type="STRING"/>
         <log level="full"/>
         <send>
            <endpoint>
               <address uri="hl7://localhost:9988"/>
            </endpoint>
         </send>
      </inSequence>
      <outSequence>
         <drop/>
      </outSequence>
   </target>
   <parameter name="transport.vfs.ReconnectTimeout">2</parameter>
   <parameter name="transport.vfs.ActionAfterProcess">MOVE</parameter>
   <parameter name="transport.PollInterval">5</parameter>
   <parameter name="transport.hl7.AutoAck">false</parameter>
   <parameter name="transport.vfs.MoveAfterProcess">vfs:sftp://user:pass@localhost/vfs/out</parameter>
   <parameter name="transport.vfs.FileURI">vfs:sftp://user:pass@localhost/vfs/in</parameter>
   <parameter name="transport.vfs.MoveAfterFailure">vfs:sftp://user:pass@localhost/vfs/failed</parameter>
   <parameter name="transport.vfs.FileNamePattern">.*\.hl7</parameter>
   <parameter name="transport.vfs.ContentType">application/edi-hl7;charset="iso-8859-15"</parameter>
   <parameter name="transport.vfs.ActionAfterFailure">MOVE</parameter>
   <parameter name="transport.hl7.ValidateMessage">false</parameter>
   <description/>
</proxy>

Build and run¶

Create the artifacts:

Set up ESB Integration Studio.
Create an integration project with an ESB Configs module and an Composite Exporter.
Create the proxy service with the configurations given above.
Configure the HL7 transport in your Micro Integrator.
Deploy the artifacts in your Micro Integrator.

To test this scenario:

Use an HL7 client (such as HAPI) to receive HL7 messages on the port specified as the endpoint (which is 9988) in the above proxy service.
Place an HL7 message in the transport.vfs.FileURI directory and see that the message passed to the HL7 endpoint in the HL7 client.

Top