Base64 encoding in an xlate

[RICK L. PRITCHETT]

Is there any way to do base64 ending in an xlate?  If I remember correctly there is a package required to do this.

Topic

[Jeff Dinsmore]

I’ve never done this specifically, but you could try something like this in an Xlate copy Tcl snippet:

package require base64

set str [lindex $xlateInVals 0]
set xlateOutVals

]

Jeff Dinsmore
Chesapeake Regional Healthcare

[Peter Heggie]

yes there is a package

ex: package require base64

This would un-encode a base64 value:

set code [catch {base64::decode “$base64string”} output1]

 

Are you un-encoding a base64 string in OBX.5 ?

Peter Heggie

[Jim Kosloskey]

Yes, you can and like Jeff indicates you need to require the base64 package.

I do the following (using Jeff’s example):

set msg_data_encoded [base64::encode $str]

set xlateOutVals [lreplace $xlateOutVals 0 0 $msg_data_encoded]

BUT – if you are encoding the data in sructured message (HL/7, X12, etc.), what if encoding characters (HL/7 ‘| ^ ~, etc’) are in the data to be encoded? It is possible the inbound may not parse out correctly.

Jim

 

email: jim.kosloskey@jim-kosloskey.com 29+ years Cloverleaf, 59 years IT - old fart.

[Jeff Dinsmore]

Wow, re-reading my post, I see I did a pretty bad job checking my work…

It should read something like this:

package require base64

set str [lindex $xlateInVals 0]
set xlateOutVals

]

 

Jeff Dinsmore
Chesapeake Regional Healthcare

[Jeff Dinsmore]

… and now I see that it wasn’t me…  seems my coding confused the editor somehow.

my response was substantially like Jim’s, so we’ll just leave it at that.

 

 

 

Jeff Dinsmore
Chesapeake Regional Healthcare

[Jim Kosloskey]

Jeff, I bet it is your keyboard. For over 55 years I have not had one keyboard that can spell or convey my thoughts properly 🙂

 

email: jim.kosloskey@jim-kosloskey.com 29+ years Cloverleaf, 59 years IT - old fart.

[Jeff Dinsmore]

Yep, it’s definitely busted.

It’s also getting more apathetic as it gets older.

I’ll requisition a new one.

Jeff Dinsmore
Chesapeake Regional Healthcare

[Robert Kersemakers]

Regarding possible (HL7) encoding characters in base64.
Base64 encodes into a-z, A-Z, 0-9, “+” and “/”. So no HL7 encoding characters, which means you can safely use a base64 encoded string inside a (normal) HL7 message.

EDIFact would have problems with this as + is a reserved character. Other structered messages may have problems with this as well.

Zuyderland Medisch Centrum; Heerlen/Sittard; The Netherlands

[Author]

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