Properties and methods¶

Properties¶

All the properties are valid for the duration of a Servoy session, meaning that you usually set them once for a particular server.
You can override them on a call by call basis though. Just make sure the values are set before calling the sendAndRetrieve() method.

server¶

A String: it is a mandatory property, meaning that until set, you will not be able to use the sendAndRetrieve() method.
You can use a name (domain name or network name) or an IP.
No default for this property.

port¶

An Integer: also mandatory property, until it is set you will not be able to use the sendAndRetrieve() method.
No default for this property

startPattern¶

A String: the pattern used by the protocol to start a message. This is added before the String received as parameter to the sendAndRetrieve() method when sending a message to the server.
Default value = \t - as defined by default for HL7 communications.

endingPattern¶

A String: the pattern used by the protocol to end a message. This is added after the String received as parameter to the sendAndRetrieve() method when sending a message to the server.
This is also the pattern which is waited for by the plugin to decide whether a message received is finished, close the communication and return the response.
Default value = char [13,28,13] or String.formChar( 13, 28, 13 ) - as defined by default for HL7 communications.

timeout¶

An Integer: the number of milliseconds to wait for a server to respond before spilling an I/O Exception
Default: 10000 - as defined by default for HL7 communications.

retries¶

An Integer: the number of attempts made by the plugin to send and retrieve a message.
Default: 3

Methods¶

sendAndRetrieve¶

You use this method to send a message to a server, and retrieve his response.

You can use it either synchronously, with this signature:

String sendAndRetrieve( String message )

or asynchronously, with this signature:

void sendAndRetrieve( String message, Function callback )

Syncrhonously, the method will be a blocking call, meaning the client will be blocked until a response is retrieved from the server (and sent back to the calling Servoy client), or an Exception happened during the process (and after a certain number of retry attempts). Typically you will use it like this:
var answer = plugins.hl7.sendAndRetrieve(hl7Message);

Asyncrhonously, the method will not block the client. The call will return immediately (without any response), but will call a callback Function when the response is retrieved from the server. Typically, you will use it like this:

function sendMessage( hl7Message ) {
    try {
        plugins.hl7.sendAndRetrieve( hl7Message, hl7Callback );
    } catch (e) {
        application.output( e );
    }
}

function hl7Callback( msg, exception ) {
    if ( msg ) {
       // do something with the message here
    } else {
       // treat the exception (log, display the error, etc.)
       // the exception has 2 methods available:
       application.output( exception.getMessage() );
       application.output( exception.getStackTrace() );
    }
}

getVersion¶

A convenience method to get the exact version used by the client, returns the plugin version as a String.

application.output( 'HL7 Plugin v.' + plugins.hl7.getVersion() );