HL7Connect Technical Specifications

HL7Connect is a fully featured HL7 messaging Interface Engine that passes HL7 messages between HL7 compliant applications, removing the need for applications to interface directly.

HL7Connect supports interfacing via several transport protocols and provides support for message translation using Javascript and VBScript.

HL7Connect runs as a service on Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003.
Windows 95/98/ME/NT is not supported.

Data is stored in a SQL compliant database, in a choice of database systems.
Administration and monitoring of HL7Connect is performed via a web browser.

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Technical Summary

.: Transport Layers

• TCP/IP - The HL7 Minimal Lower Layer Protocol (MLLP)
• File - File-based interaction using HL7 messages or Plain Text Files
• HTTP - Encrypted Message exchange using HTTP/1.1 protocol
• Email - Encrypted Message exchange using SMTP/POP
• DLL - Use a custom Windows .dll to provide the message transport

.: Hardware Requirements

The hardware requirements for HL7Connect will vary greatly depending on the throughput of messages, and the interface configuration. Disk storage depends on how many messages are received, and how long messages are stored in the database. The minimum requirements for a small installation of HL7Connect, with few interfaces and low message traffic would be:

• Intel Processor(s)
• 32MB RAM

As the scale on which HL7Connect is being used increases, correspondingly so do it's hardware requirements. If HL7Connect is being installed on a Windows 2000 workstation, as an Enterprise HL7 Interface Engine, then the system should include the following specifications:

• Intel 1000MHz +
• Windows 2000/XP/Sever 2003
• 512 MB RAM

.: Databases

• Microsoft SQL Server - Versions 6.5 – 2000.
• MySQL - Version 4.1.8+
• Interbase - Version 6 (Open source)
• Sybase Enterprise Server - Versions 11.5 – 12
• DBISAM - Inbuilt database when RDBMS not available.

.: Scripting Languages

• JScript - Microsoft Implementation of Javascript
• VBScript - Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications

.: Browsers

• Internet Explorer - Version 4+
• Mozilla Firefox - Version 1.0+
• Netscape Navigator - Version 6+

.: Encryption

TripleDES (3DES) encryption with Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) across messages.

Private

• Internal - Sender and Receiver use a common Secret Key

PKI

• X 509 (Windows) - Sender and Receiver agree on a Microsoft Windows Certificate to use
• PGP - Sender and Receiver agree on a PGP Key pair to use

Microsoft Certificate handling systems or PGP needs to be fully installed to use PKI

SSL

• Support for SSL certificates