Purpose
The HL7 To Tabular Converter handler converts data elements in a HL7 message to a row of tabular (“CSV”) data, subsequentially converts multiple HL7 messages into a CSV table or a report. All this is done through a one-line config in with this handler.
Each column of the tabular output is a familiar HL7 data element address, e.g. PID-3. Optionally, the addressed element can also define in-line filtering, e.g. as ‘PID-8==M’, so to limit the output data range.
Once converted into the tabular format, the data can be further processed by the other tabular data-processing handlers such as filtering, data transforming, adding or removing or re-arranging columns; or can be consumed (much easier than HL7 encoded data) by various CSV “consumer” handlers such as the Data Generator, Email Sender, Database Table Writer, CSV File Writer, etc.
Parameters
The following three parameters can be configured through the handler’s config file.
| Name | Values | Remark |
| csv-column-hl7-elements | Foldda expression | Each column of the tabular output is a familiar HL7 data element address, e.g. PID-3. |
Config Example
In the HL7ToTabularConverter handler’s config in this example, it outputs 4 data elements (MSH-10, PID-8, PID-5.1, and PID-19) of an HL7 message into one table row, with 4 columns accordingly.
The ‘PID-8==M’ defines an in-line filter, which results no data output if data element’s value at PID-8 is not ‘M’.
<Handler>HL7ToTabularConverter</Handler>
<Parameters>
<Parameter>
<Name>csv-column-hl7-elements</Name>
<Value>MSH-10~PID-8==M~PID-5.1~PID-19</Value>
</Parameter>
</Parameters>See Also
The HL7 Net Sender handler.