Repeating Fields

[David Harrison]

I need to produce OUL^R21 messages from a formatted output file from our Pathology system. Each line of the file is prefixed with a two digit number ( 02

Topic

[Ryan Spires]

David,

If I am understanding correctly, the message is not HL7, but has some common characteristcs such as segment headers and field delimeters.  Optional segments and groups.

I did something similar for ASTM.

Basically I created an inbound proc that preceeded the segment id’s with a Z…

So your segments would be Z02 Z23, etc.

In addition you will need to “create” the MSH as the engine requires this to process the message as an HL7.

You may also want to create a new event or just hardcode the OUL^R21 in you message type of the MSH segment (Make it an argument, and pass it in if you may have other message types that need similar conversions in the future)

So after your message has been “pre-converted” to an “HL7-like” message, you could create a variant that matches the specs of the messages you are dealing with.  Your variant would look like one MSH with all your Z## segments to follow.  You can make them optional repeating grouped… etc. just like your true HL7 variants.  Then you could use the Xlate to map to whatever the receiving systems need.

P.S.  I have tried the HRL tool for ASTM and found that the repeating and optional segs and groups was much to cumbersome and I never really got it working with the HRL, quite possibly this was just my inexperience with using HRL’s.

Hope this points you in the right direction.

Thanks,

Ryan

[David Harrison]

Ryan,

That

[Jim Kosloskey]

David,

You use %gx where x is a number of your choosing (I start with %g1 for the first group iteration, %g2 for the second, etc. – if multiple repeating groups or nested repeating groups exist).

For segments you would use %sx, fields %fx, and list %lx.

Once you use an iteration counter in the basis definition you cannot use it for another iteration (you might be able to define it but it probably won’t work right).

Don’t forget to use the iteration counter you define within the address path of the inbound fields as you apply Xlate Actions to them or you will always get just the first repetition. Depending on what you intend to do with the inbound field, you probably will also need to use the iteration counter in the outbound field address path in the Xlate Actions.

Jim Kosloskey

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

[David Harrison]

Jim,

Thanks for the info – I have now got it working. Perhaps Quo Vadx should ask for your help in revamping the documentation.

Dave

[Jim Kosloskey]

Dave,

I am glad you got it working and glad I could help.

Jim Kosloskey

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

[Jason Melton]

Hi David,

Ive just found this post and it looks exactly like  what I’m trying to do with a gp links2 file.

The documentation on HRLs’ seems to be little more than screen grabs of the GUI.

Any chance that you could share the HRL with me?

Kind Regards,

Jason

[David Harrison]

Jason,

Not back in the office until Monday.  I was trying to process the GP links files to produce HL7 messages. I got it working ok but the project fizzled out.

I’ll dig it all out for you next week.

Dave

[David Harrison]

Jason,

I’ve checked on my stuff. I didn’t use a hrl but created HL7 Z segments to map to the file format.

If you email me I will let you have anything useful or you can ring me if you want to discuss it.

Dave

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