CacheSegment

Object Method - CacheSegment()

Parent Object - HL7Vendor

Returns - Boolean

Name: CacheSegment(ByVal strSegmentName)

Parameters: 1. strSegmentName (String - The name of the segment to cache, PID, MSH, etc.)

Description: When the objects are used to read and write HL7 messages, the most costly (time wise) internal operations involve retrieving HL7 segment information from the HL7Vendor definition files. As a result of this, whenever a particular segment information is retrieved from disk the first time, it is cached in system memory for future use. Calling this method allows you to 'front-load' your application by making sure that commonly used HL7 segments are cached BEFORE your application starts creating/reading messages. NOTE: calling this function is NOT required, the only benefit derived will be increased performance for the FIRST HL7 message that the vendor object is used to create (from the various child objects, EasyHL7MessageObject, HL7FileAnalyzer, HL7FolderProcessor, etc).

Programming Note: Calling the BlankSegmentXML() method will perform the functional equivalent of this method.

Note From Support: We have been asked why we don't cache the entire HL7 specification into memory (every segment). The answer is simple, that operation would be quite lengthy and probably 9 out of 10 HL7 solutions only deal with a dozen or so HL7 segments in total.