The TCP/IP HL7 Listeners
To receive HL7 messages over TCP/IP you need what's known as an HL7 'Listener'. A 'Listener' is a piece of software
which runs on your computer/server and opens up a specified IP 'port' and literally 'listens' for HL7 message data to
be sent to it by another applicatiion's HL7 message sending application (or Router).
In the EasyHL7 product line we have two different stand-alone HL7 Listener products. These lightweight, but robust
MS Windows Service applications accept HL7 messages over TCP/IP, write the messages to a file in a folder designated
by you, and then automatically send a functional HL7 acknowledgement back to the sender (if required) indicating that
the message has been received successfully. In short, they handle all of the TCP/IP overhead for you, leaving you with
pristine, neatly ordered HL7 messages in files on the file system for you to process at your leisure.
The EasyHL7 Monitor
The EasyHL7 Monitor is a free application that provides real-time status data
on any EasyHL7 Listener or Router service.
View on-line help.
1. The TCP/IP HL7 Listener is our standard single-port, single-IP HL7 listener which has been designed
to integrate with the EasyHL7 Application Development components, but is equally compatible with just about any
environment where HL7 messages are transmitted via TCP/IP from other applications. When
used with one of our TCP/IP HL7 Router products and/or
the EasyHL7 Components you can easily create
complete end-to-end TCP/IP HL7 solutions for yourself or your customers.
2. The TCP/IP Multi-port HL7 Listener is like having up to 10 copies of our standard
listener. It can be licensed in different configurations as a 2 - 10 port listener.
With this product you can create up to 10 different Listener 'profiles' and run them as a single service. Each profile has all the
great features of the Standard Listener. You can direct messages received into different folders on the file system or have
all 10 profiles place messages in the same folder.
Features include:
- Easy to configure using the listener configuration utility. Be up
and running minutes after installation.
- Runs as a system service (no logon required), so it can be set to start
automatically when the machine boots.
- Optionally plug-in your own Custom Message Handler
into the Listener process, allowing you to intercept each message
as it is received and perform your own processing. An example of
when you might want to do this is if your solution needs to
respond to real-time QRY messages with the HL7 event 'Q01'.
- Comes with our one-of-a-kind
HL7 Service monitor, that is
freely redistributable across your network. This application allows you to 'monitor' the listener
service in real-time from a local (or remote) workstation, can even be
done from home with a VPN or secure internet connection. Verify that the
service is up and running, view configuration settings, pause the service,
download and view service log files, and much more. You can literally
watch your HL7 data flow.
- User-definable start and end message transmission characters
- Validation can be 'relaxed' when dealing with non-standard messages
- Application Acknowledgements now have three setting: Always, Never and Auto
- The embedded message acknowledgement is now honoured (or can be over-ruled)
- Free HL7 Router Simulator
software is included which allows you to
run tests against an HL7 Listener service by sending HL7 message files. This HL7 simulator is also
freely redistributable and is compatible with other 3rd party TCP/IP HL7
listeners.
Listener Configuration
The EasyHL7 Listener Configuration utility exposes the inner workings of the Listener Service
in a straightforward manner. Default settings are provided wherever possible. Unlike many
Listeners on the market, ours allows you to set both the target IP address
and the
Source IP address simply by picking from the provided lists.
