HL7 Outbound (MLLP Sender)
The HL7 Outbound device sends HL7 over the network using the MLLP protocol. This device is fairly well documented within the user interface itself, so this page will provide an overview.
On the Destination tab, set the IP/Hostname and port of the target system. Optionally set additional connection options and the message encoding.
The Heartbeat feature allows you to specify an HL7 message to send periodically to the target system, if that system requires activity to keep the connection alive.
The Ack/Nack Error Condition tab allows you to specify how to handle the Ack/Nack returned from the target system.
By default, Connexion will match the value of the MSA-1 segment to either AE or AR, which are two common error codes set in the HL7 Inbound device. If you use other values, you can specify those instead.
The Logging tab specifies how errors should be logged. By default, every error is logged. This, however, may be too verbose for systems which are expected to be offline during certain periods, or, have flaky networks. In these cases, you can choose to log an error after X send attempts, or, after X minutes has elapsed without a successful send.
You can also enable Debug Logging to stream the contents being sent to the remote system to a log file. You should only enable this when debugging.
You can configure continuation message support in the Continuation Messages tab. Older systems, especially those on mainframe computers, may have limits on the size of files they can process. If the destination of the HL7 Outbound device is such a system, you can determine how to split HL7 messages and create continuations.
Use the SSL Encryption tab to configure client and server certificates. Check the Enable SSL option to enable validation of the server certificate (the certificate published by the downstream system). If the receiver certificate is not self-signed, then it will be automatically validated by the OS. If it is self-signed, then you will need to input the certificate thumbprint into the Receiver Certificate Thumbprint field.
We recommend keeping the Use OS option selected for the protocol. This will ensure that the latest protocols are used whenever possible. You can choose to specify one or more TLS protocols, but keep in mind that TLS 1.0 and 1.1 are no longer industry-standard.
If you want to supply a client certificate to the receiving system (verifying your identity), enable the Provide Client Certificate option. You can choose to Generate a new certificate and subsequently Export it and provide it to the receiving system, or, Import a certificate which the receiving system has provided to you.
Use the Diagnostics tab to view connection attempt output.
The Outbound HL7 device publishes the following event hooks.