MWB Validation Server

 

The MWB validation server is activated via the tools menu as illustrated by the cut away image of the MWB below.

 

 

 

The Validation Service opens a socket on a user-defined socket and receives HL7 Minimum Lower Layer protocol framed messages (MLLP) encoded either as ER7 or HL7 2.xml. It performs validation of each message received against the currently loaded message profile and produces a validation report. Optionally the user may elect to automatically save all messages and validation reports received during a validation session for later analysis. The validation server will also optionally pass any messages received onto another socket.

 

The illustration below shows the MWB Validation Server screen with numbers superimposed adjacent to the important  controls and indicators. A detail discussion of each of these elements follows the illustration.

 

MWB Validation Server Screen

 

  1. This is the Service port over which the MWB will receive messages. This port may be defined as a default on the Maint\Options General page from the Main Menu. If the default is set, the MWB Validation Server is automatically activated when invoked from the Tools Menu. If the default is not set, then the service port must be entered, and the listener Toggle (3) clicked to initiate each Validation session.
  2. The service IP reports the IP of the local system. It cannot be changed, and is provided simply as a convenience for reporting to the client user at the initiation of the session. The client participant need to know both the Service port and the IP in order to establish a connection socket with the Validation Service.
  3. The listener Toggle opens and closes the socket connection given a valid Service port and IP. As mentioned above, the user may not need to toggle it if a default service port is established in the MWB options. Ordinarily it is not necessary to use the toggle once a session is initiated, but in some circumstances it may be necessary to toggle the connection off and on.

    The ‘led’ button gives a visual clue as to the state of the connection, which is reinforced by the adjacent text description of the state. The ‘led’ is green if the socket is connected, and red otherwise.
  4. If a session is established (see 6), the reports will be saved in a session specific folder. The button with the ellipsis will navigate to the session folder that is shown adjacent to it. The session report folders are subfolders of the ‘—MsgValSessions’ folder, which in turn is a subfolder of the \Projects folder in the MWB root directory.

    The numbered ‘ValidationsSession’ folders contain 3 types of text files. There is one validation report file for each message received. There is a single file that contains the raw text of each message received, and finally another file that reports the processing statistics (e.g. message length) for each message received during the session. The later 2 file types are not available for examination until the session is concluded.
  5. The row of text windows at this location report the name message type and event type of the currently loaded profile, which the received massages are being validated against.
  6. The check boxes at this location represent various session options. Check the ‘Save session files’ box to initiate a session folder and storage location for the artifacts associated with a particular validation session.

    The ACK Return box if checked will cause the MWB to send an HL7 ACK message for each message received. Note that the content of the ACK returned follows the HL7 2.5 format for that message regardless of the HL7 version of the profile loaded or the message received. The v2.5 ACK content was chosen because it is much more expressive in terms of reporting errors.

    Check the No Validation check box to preclude validation of each message. Each message received however will be saved to the session file if a session is established, and may be validated at a later time. This permits the interface to run much faster and may be of particular value when being run in conjunction with the Pass Through option (7) as a ‘sniffer’ on a network.
  7. The Pass Through Port and Pass Through IP define a socket to which the MWB will pass any messages that it receives.
  8. The Connect and Disconnect buttons control the status of the Pass Through connection.
  9. The # Sent and #ACK text windows show the number of messages passed on to the Pass Through client, and the number of ACKs received from the Pass Through client respectively. Currently no action is taken on the ACKs returned by the Pass Through client.
  10. The grid reports the parameters of each message that has been received, including the result of the validation. Double click on a particular validation report result to view the MWB Remediation List view of validation failure (see illustration below).