HL7Kit 1.0.0.0 - a new HL7 Software

HL7Kit is a continuation of the HL7Sender that was released almost a month ago. This package is a subset of our upcoming HL7 Interface Development Suite and Integration Services carrying the same name (with optional Pro/Enterprise edition).
The current package can be downloaded  [update 24 March 2023: latest HRZ ZiKiT Server can be found on HRZ website - www.hrzkit.com]  from our web site and includes two applications for validating, editing, sending, receiving and processing HL7 v2.x messages.


The first application, HL7Sender, is an improved version with message editing area featuring Synchronized Structure and Content views of the HL7 Message and a save as XML option (from File/Save As menu item) for creating comprehensive and very useful representation of HL7 v2.x messages as HL7 XML. Clicking a node on the left panel tree view highlights the corresponding text in the right panel text box and vice versa. HL7Sender is currently a freeware.


The second application, HL7Reciever, is a powerful brand new application for receiving, validating and processing HL7 messages over TCP/IP connections. HL7Reciver runs a network listener and waits for incoming connections. When a message is received it can be saved automatically either as HL7 or as XML file (or both). In addition, you can configure HL7Reciever to start a new process and pass the saved message as a parameter (by default, the message is saved in XML format and opened using internet explorer). The behavior of HL7Reciver is controlled by no less than 6 Checkboxes! But don’t worry, it is rather straight forward and the tooltips explains it all. HL7Reciever can save logs to text files and has an event log as well that can be used for monitoring and auditing (Vista users, when running HL7Reciver for the first time, run it as administrator so it can create the event log).
As you can read, HL7Reciever is a very handy tool with lots of useful options. This package includes a 30 days fully functional free trial version that requires online registration. The licensed software is currently sold online for $150 USD. For purchase please follow this link.

One last note about the message structure. Check this post for a short explanation of how to modify the message structure definition files. Note also that the XML hierarchical structure is defined by this configuration. The field names in the XML are defined in the segment definition file and can be modified as well.


As already mentioned above, HL7Kit is a subset of HL7 Integration Suite that is coming very soon. Check this blog for updates or reigster for the feed to get updates on this product, how to use it and more.

Editing the message rules used by HL7Kit

The message rules configuration file msgRules.251 is using a similar notation to the one used in the HL7 Standard documentation.
Every line in the file represents one message definition.
The first element is the event type.
When the event type is followed by a semicolon and another event type that means that the structure of the message is defined by the event type on the left is identical to the one with event type on the right. In the example above ADT^A03 is defined to have an identical structure as ADT^A02.
When the event type is followed by a colon, a list of segment names and special grouping characters follow.
The special grouping characters are:




Aliases
Elements that are not special characters or a valid segment names are regarded as aliases. Aliases are used to group segments into entities. For example, in the ADT^A01 an alias called ‘patient’ is defined. Note that the alias name comes AFTER the segments group.

Regsitering RZDCX on Vista

To register RZDCX on vista:
run cmd as administrator
cd to the directory where you unpacjed rzdcx.dll
regsvr32 rzdcx.dll

If you are using Vista x64, register the x64 version of rzdcx.