Introduction

QuickViewHL7 is a HL7 message viewer and editor, which I wrote to assist in development and testing of HL7 communications softare. Features include tree-view based breakdown of message elements, and the ability to edit at any level, e.g a whole segment, a field or component.

If you are a software developer or tester, you may find this a little easier to use than notepad. Context related schema documentation is partly available, and I plan to extend that feature. Embedded macros, using JavaScript, are also available, as I found this to be a useful way to automate repetitive tasks in my daily work. Database access is now also available in the macros.

An example of macro usage is the anonymisation of HL7 messages. The anonymisation macro uses a set of patient identities matching the PMS in my development environment, so I can take a set of HL7 files, switch their PIDs to match the patients I test against, then import the HL7 into our lab results database. This macro reduces a number of repetitive editing steps in this process, so I can move on with my coding and testing.

Feedback

If you find the application useful please register a SourceForge account, which will allow you to post in the discussion forums, create bug reports or request changes.

Documentation

I have tried to keep the app simple. The documentation pages show how to configure and use the HL7 editor. Macro and database interface documentation is minimal so far, mostly existing as comments in the example macro files included in installation.

Licensing

I have put this project on SourceForge under the Academic Free License (AFL) just in case anybody else finds it useful.

Disclaimer

This app was written to assist me in my software testing environment, and has not been tested or approved for use with live data. If you choose to use it with live HL7 messages, please perform thorough testing of the app first to be certain that it is doing what you expect. Bugs can, of course, be reported on the SourceForge project site.