HL7 MLLP Connector - CData Arc Documentation

Health Level-7 is a set of standards for the transfer of clinical data used by hospitals and other healthcare providers. HL7 MLLP connectors support generating and parsing HL7 documents in conjunction with MLLP as the transport protocol.

Key Capabilities

Healthcare data exchange using HL7 over MLLP (Minimal Lower Layer Protocol) transport
Embedded MLLP server functionality with SSL/TLS encryption support
Bidirectional HL7 document translation between HL7 and XML formats
MSH header validation with configurable application and facility identifiers
Automatic acknowledgment handling with retry and resend capabilities for reliable delivery

Overview

HL7 MLLP connectors provide two sets of functionality:

File transfer over the MLLP transport protocol
EDI document parsing and generation according to the HL7 EDI standard

An HL7 MLLP connection is configured in two places. Configure the HL7 MLLP Profiles page with the settings that identify Arc as an HL7 and MLLP entity. Then configure individual HL7 MLLP connectors with the HL7 and MLLP details for each trading partner. When an HL7 MLLP connector receives an inbound message from a trading partner, it verifies the HL7 identification details to confirm that the document was sent from and to the expected parties. Then it translates the document into XML for further processing in a Arc flow. When an HL7 MLLP connector sends files to a trading partner:

XML files are translated to HL7 before being sent
HL7 documents are sent as-is

CData strongly recommends that you use the HL7 MLLP connector in conjunction with the XML Map connector to ensure that input and output XML is formatted correctly. See Use with the XML Map Connector for more information.

Profile Configuration

The HL7 MLLP Profile must be configured before connections can be established with individual HL7 MLLP connectors. Click Profiles on the navbar, then click the HL7 MLLP tab.

HL7 MLLP Profile Tab

Server Configuration

Settings for hosting a local MLLP server.

Setting	Description
Port	The port on which to listen for incoming MLLP connections.
Use SSL/TLS	Whether to require incoming connections to use SSL/TLS encryption for transport security.
TLS Server Certificate	The public key certificate used to verify the identity of a TLS/SSL server. If the target server uses TLS/SSL, set this field to the certificate that identifies the server. If the server’s certificate is not available, you can leave this setting blank to allow the underlying OS/JVM to perform certificate validation, or set it to `Any Certificate` to implicitly trust the server’s identity. (This field only appears if you check Use SSL/TLS.)

HL7 Personal Ids

Setting	Description
Application Namespace Id (MSH3.1)	The application Id that identifies the local namespace for the HL7 protocol exchange.
Application Universal Id (MSH3.2)	The local application universal Id for the HL7 protocol exchange.
Application Universal Id Type (MSH3.3)	A type qualifier to provide context to the local application universal Id.
Facility Namespace Id (MSH4.1)	The facility Id that identifies the local namespace for the HL7 protocol exchange.
Facility Universal Id (MSH4.2)	The local facility universal Id for the HL7 protocol exchange.
Facility Universal Id Type (MSH4.3)	A type qualifier to provide context to the local facility universal Id.

Other Settings

Settings that rarely need to be modified.

Setting	Description
Inactivity Timeout	The amount of time (in seconds) that the server allows clients to remain inactive before the connection is terminated.

Logging

Settings that govern the creation and storage of logs.

Setting	Description
Log Level	The verbosity of logs generated by the connector. When you request support, set this to Debug.
Log Rotate Interval	The number of days to wait before creating a new log file.
Log Delete Interval	The number of days to wait before deleting old log files.

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous settings are for specific use cases.

Setting	Description
Other Settings	Enables you to configure hidden connector settings in a semicolon-separated list (for example, `setting1=value1;setting2=value2`). Normal connector use cases and functionality should not require the use of these settings.

Connector Configuration

Once you configure the global HL7 MLLP profile settings, create and configure individual HL7 MLLP connectors for each trading partner on the Flows page.

Settings Tab

Configuration

Setting	Description
Connector Id	The static, unique identifier for the connector.
Connector Type	Displays the connector name and a description of what it does.
Connector Description	An optional field to provide a free-form description of the connector and its role in the flow.

Connector Settings

Server Status

The current state of the connector's underlying service. The following statuses are available:

Status	Description
Active	The service is running.
Inactive	The service is configured but is not currently running.
Not Configured	The underlying profile or service has not been set up.

Depending on whether you have already created the HL7 MLLP profile, click the Configure HL7 MLLP Profile or View HL7 MLLP Profile links to open the profile in a new tab. Settings related to the core operation of the connector.

Setting	Description
Remote Host	The hostname or IP address of your remote host.
Port	The port on which to listen for incoming MLLP connections.
Version	The version of MLLP being used.
Connection Timeout	The length of time (in seconds) the connector waits for a connection response before throwing a timeout error.
Use SSL/TLS	Whether to require incoming connections to use SSL/TLS encryption for transport security.

HL7 Configuration

Settings related to the message headers. When converting HL7 documents into XML, the document headers are validated against these settings; when generating HL7 documents from XML, these settings are used to generate document headers.

Setting	Description
Application Namespace Id (MSH5.1)	In conjunction with the other 5.X elements, identifies the application on the remote side of the HL7 exchange.
Application Universal Id (MSH5.2)	In conjunction with the other 5.X elements, identifies the application on the remote side of the HL7 exchange.
Application Universal Id Type (MSH5.3)	In conjunction with the other 5.X elements, identifies the application on the remote side of the HL7 exchange.
Facility Namespace Id (MSH6.1)	In conjunction with the other 6.X elements, identifies the facility on the remote side of the HL7 exchange.
Facility Universal Id (MSH6.2)	In conjunction with the other 6.X elements, identifies the facility on the remote side of the HL7 exchange.
Facility Universal Id Type (MSH6.3)	In conjunction with the other 6.X elements, identifies the facility on the remote side of the HL7 exchange.

Acknowledgments

Settings related to generating and requesting acknowledgments.

Setting	Description
Acknowledgment Type	Whether or not acknowledgments should be generated and requested.

Sample Files Tab

Advanced Tab

EDI Delimiters

Settings that specify which characters separate elements, segments, and so on.

Setting	Description
Data Element Separator	The character that separates individual data elements in the document.
Component Element Separator	The character that separates elements within a composite data structure in the document.
Segment Terminator	The character that indicates the end of a segment in the document.
Release Char	The character that releases (escapes) the next character, overriding its usual meaning. This allows reserved characters to appear as data within documents, as long as they are preceded by the Release Char.
Repetition Char	The character that indicates repetition of element values.
Suffix	Appended to the Segment Terminator to distinguish segments.

Proxy Settings

These are a collection of settings that identify and authenticate to the proxy through which the connection should be routed. By default, this section uses the global settings on the Proxy Settings portion of the Security Settings page. Clear the checkbox to supply settings specific to your connector.

Setting	Description
Proxy Type	The protocol used by a proxy-based firewall.
Proxy Host	The name or IP address of a proxy-based firewall.
Proxy Port	The TCP port for a proxy-based firewall.
Proxy User	The user name to use to authenticate with a proxy-based firewall.
Proxy Password	A password used to authenticate to a proxy-based firewall.
Authentication Scheme	Leave the default None or choose from one of the following authentication schemes: Basic, Digest, Proprietary, or NTLM.

Advanced Settings

Settings not included in the previous categories.

Setting	Description
Generate Description As	When translating HL7 into XML, descriptions of the HL7 segments and elements can be provided as context for the HL7 data. Use this dropdown to choose whether to add this context as an XML comment or as XML attributes.
Processing Delay	The amount of time (in seconds) by which the processing of files placed in the Transactions tab is delayed. This is a legacy setting. Best practice is to use a File connector to manage local file systems instead of this setting.
Strict Schema Validation	Whether the connector should Ignore, Warn, or Fail when the following are detected: repeat counts above the allowed number, missing required elements or segments, invalid qualifier and code values, disallowed element lengths, and invalid element values.
Local File Scheme	A scheme for assigning filenames to messages that are output by the connector. You can use macros in your filenames dynamically to include information such as identifiers and timestamps. For more information, see Macros.
TLS Enabled Protocols	The list of TLS/SSL protocols supported when establishing outgoing connections. Best practice is to only use TLS protocols. SSL v2 and SSL v3 are considered vulnerable and should only be used if your partner does not support higher versions. Keep in mind that TLS v1.3 is not universally adopted, and might be refused if the destination server does not support it.
Validate Identifiers	When checked, the connector ensures that the identifiers in the translated document match the identifiers specified in the connector configuration.
Duplicate File Action	How the connector should behave when it receives a message with a control number that the connector has seen before (a duplicate). When set to `Ignore`, the connector silently skips the duplicate and continues processing. When set to `Warn`, the connector processes the file but returns a warning. When set to `Fail`, the connector does not accept the file and returns an error.
Upload Schema	Use this to upload a schema and install it in the connector’s Schema folder. If a schema already exists, you are asked if you want to overwrite it.
Reset State	EDI connectors keep track of control numbers that have been used and increment that number to ensure that future runs do not duplicate data. Use this button to reset the counter to its initial state without changing any of the configured settings.

Logging

Settings that govern the creation and storage of logs.

Setting	Description
Log Level	The verbosity of logs generated by the connector. When you request support, set this to Debug.
Log Subfolder Scheme	Instructs the connector to group files in the Logs folder according to the selected interval. The Weekly option (which is the default) instructs the connector to create a new subfolder each week and store all logs for the week in that folder. Leaving this setting blank tells the connector to save all logs directly in the Logs folder. For connectors that process many transactions, using subfolders helps keep logs organized and improves performance.
Log Messages	Check this to have the log entry for a processed file include a copy of the file itself. If you disable this, you might not be able to download a copy of the file from the Transactions tab.

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous settings are for specific use cases.

Setting	Description
Other Settings	Enables you to configure hidden connector settings in a semicolon-separated list (for example, `setting1=value1;setting2=value2`). Normal connector use cases and functionality should not require the use of these settings.

Automation Tab

Automation Settings

Settings related to the automatic processing of files by the connector.

Setting	Description
Send	Whether files arriving at the connector are automatically sent as HL7 or XML messages.
Retry Interval	The number of minutes before a failed send is retried. A retry is triggered when the server does not respond to a send attempt, or responds negatively to communicate that the file was not received.
Max Attempts	The maximum number of times the connector processes the input file. Success is based on a successful server acknowledgement and validation of the receipt (when requested synchronously). If you set this to 0, the connector retries the file indefinitely.
Resend Interval	The number of minutes before unacknowledged messages are resent. A resend is triggered when the server receives the file, but an asynchronous MDN receipt is not provided within the expected timeframe.
Max Attempts (async)	The maximum number of times the connector processes the input file when asynchronous receipts are requested. Success is based on the return of an asynchronous receipt within the Resend Interval after a successful server acknowledgement. If a successful server acknowledgement is not returned, Max Attempts is applied instead. If this is set to 0, the connector resends the file indefinitely.

Performance

Settings related to the allocation of resources to the connector.

Setting	Description
Max Workers	The maximum number of worker threads consumed from the threadpool to process files on this connector. If set, this overrides the default setting on the Performance Settings portion of the Advanced Settings page.
Max Files	The maximum number of files sent by each thread assigned to the connector. If set, this overrides the default setting on the Performance Settings portion of the Advanced Settings page.

Alerts Tab

SLAs Tab

Generating HL7 Documents

When generating HL7 files from XML, the connector applies transaction headers based on the HL7 Personal Ids on the HL7 MLLP Profile tab, and the HL7 Configuration in the connector. The remaining data comes from XML input files. See Use with the XML Map Connector for more information on generating the appropriate XML input files. Files that arrive in the Transactions tab for the connector are packaged into HL7 documents and sent out over MLLP. Files can arrive in the Transactions tab either by dropping the file directly into the folder path on disk, or by connecting another Arc connector to the HL7 MLLP connector in the flow.

HL7 to XML

When converting HL7 documents into XML, the application verifies the interchange headings from the inbound document against the HL7 Personal Ids on the HL7 MLLP Profile tab, and the HL7 Configuration in the connector. The XML generated from the HL7 document is placed in the Transactions tab to be passed along in the flow for further processing. See Use with the XML Map Connector for more information on processing the translated XML.

​Key Capabilities

​Overview

​Profile Configuration

​HL7 MLLP Profile Tab

​Server Configuration

​HL7 Personal Ids

​Other Settings

​Logging

​Miscellaneous

​Connector Configuration

​Settings Tab

​Configuration

​Connector Settings

Server Status

​HL7 Configuration

​Acknowledgments

​Sample Files Tab

​Advanced Tab

​EDI Delimiters

​Proxy Settings

​Advanced Settings

​Logging

​Miscellaneous

​Automation Tab

​Automation Settings

​Performance

​Alerts Tab

​SLAs Tab

​Generating HL7 Documents

​HL7 to XML

​Use With the XML Map Connector

​Upload Test File

​Macros

​Examples

Key Capabilities

Overview

Profile Configuration

HL7 MLLP Profile Tab

Server Configuration

HL7 Personal Ids

Other Settings

Logging

Miscellaneous

Connector Configuration

Settings Tab

Configuration

Connector Settings

HL7 Configuration

Acknowledgments

Sample Files Tab

Advanced Tab

EDI Delimiters

Proxy Settings

Advanced Settings

Logging

Miscellaneous

Automation Tab

Automation Settings

Performance

Alerts Tab

SLAs Tab

Generating HL7 Documents

HL7 to XML

Use With the XML Map Connector

Upload Test File

Macros

Examples