Can Mirth process HL7 through to flat files?

[bobergj]

Hi All,

We currently support a live-data middleware system that requires flat-file inputs to load its DBs. We're currently using another tool to accomplish transfers, but we want to expand and improve it; Mirth looks like a good candidate.

Is there a way to configure Mirth to take MLLP-HL7, wrap each received message in a text flat-file with a unique name-timestamp, and forward that file via FTP or file share to another location? That is the one specific thing we need this tool to do.

I see within the v1.5 GUI that there are similar channel options for PDF/RTF/XML, and options for dumping the received HL7 into one defined single file, but no apparent means to accomplish the message-to-flatfile, 1:1 throughput that our dependent systems require. I have found no direct mention of any configuration like this in the Mirth documentation I have reviewed so far.

Can anyone either walk me through how to configure that, or perhaps steer me towards what coding might need to be added to accomplish this?

Thanks in advance,
JB

[chrisl]

Re:Can Mirth process HL7 through to flat files?

This can be done easily with Mirth. You would setup an LLP listener to receive your messages. Next you setup your File Writer on the destination connector. Here you can include whatever you'd like in the template to format your data. You have access to a full Velocity template engine, so you can include complex logic and looping in your file template.

[bobergj]

Re:Can Mirth process HL7 through to flat files?

Thanks Chris-- I figured it out.

Still stuck in old-school thinking, the piece I was missing was: "drag and drop".
That the mapping properties in the Channel Destination list [ul]are[/ul] the GUI objects to use to build the template is not patently obvious to those of us who regularly deal only with config files.

I did have to export the Channel, edit it, and re-import it to get it to pass HL7 v2 without errors. The GUI seems to lock the output destinations to V3 only, which rejected the v2 message forwarding. The GUI selector there is greyed out; why?

The only thing remaining is: now that the message payloads are successfully transferring to the new files, how do you get it to retain the start-message and end-message hex characters in the new file?

When forwarding, Mirth strips them off, and the external parser requires that they be within the message file. I tried entering the values in the template, but they print as literals into the new files. Any suggestions?

Thanks again,
JB

[bobergj]

Re:Can Mirth process HL7 through to flat files?

BTW, I suspect this tool is going to be a big part of our projects from now on.

JB

Post edited by: bobergj, at: 06/04/2007 22:17

[chrisl]

Re:Can Mirth process HL7 through to flat files?

Go into the transformer, inbound and outbound templates and make sure all are set to v2.

If you need the characters in the output, you can paste them in (copy the actual ascii characters) or you can append them in the transformer. Check the forum - there is another thread here that shows what unicode characters to use in the Javascript.

Glad Mirth will be useful! Keep WebReach in mind for support and engineering (and we're always open to contributions!).