The Message Processing Lifecycle

Mirth® Connect by NextGen Healthcare User Guide

Message Pruning Settings

These settings allow you to decide when to prune and archive message data (if at all). Note that pruning does not happen automatically unless you enable the scheduler in the Data Pruner Settings Tab. For more information about message data in general, see About Message Data. Item Name Description A Store indefinitely When selected, message metadata are never pruned. B Prune metadata When selected, this field determines how long to retain message metadata before it is pruned. C Prune when metadata is removed When selected, message content follows the same pruning options set in the Prune metadata field. D Prune content When selected, the field here determines how long to retain message content before it is pruned. E Allow message archiving When checked and the data pruner and archiver are enabled, messages in this channel are archived first before they are pruned. F Prune Errored Messages When checked and the data pruner is enabled, errored messages in this channel are pruned. Parent to

Mirth® Connect by NextGen Healthcare User Guide

Message Storage Settings

Message storage settings enable you to determine how much message data your channel will store, whether to encrypt content, and whether to automatically delete content after messages are finished processing. This section of the Summary Tab enables you to determine how much message data your channel will store, whether to encrypt content, and whether to automatically delete content after messages are finished processing. Changing these settings may affect the availability of certain features, like queuing. Image of the Message Storage section of the Summary tab. Item Name Description A Storage Slider Use this slider bar to change how much data to store as messages process through the channel. The options are: Development: All data will be stored. Production: Everything except Processed Raw, Transformed, Response Transformed, and Processed Response content will be stored. Raw: Only Raw / Source Map content and attachments will be stored. Destination queuing is not supported in this mode,

Mirth® Connect by NextGen Healthcare User Guide

About Message Data

In Mirth® Connect, a message refers to a single overall dispatch of data through the source connector and destination connectors within a channel. Messages are further separated into connector messages which are part of the message that flow through a single connector. For example if your channel has two destinations, then a single message will have three connector messages associated with it as it is processed through the channel: One source connector, and two destination connectors. These connector messages correspond to the rows of data you see in the Metadata Table within the Message Browser. Note that messages do not always correspond 1-to-1 with a file that you read in, or a particular stream of data. As explained in the About Channels and Connectors section, the source connector may contain a batch processor which takes a raw inbound stream of data and splits it into multiple messages. So if you have a single file containing 100 HL7 v2.x messages, your channel could read that in

Mirth® Connect by NextGen Healthcare User Guide

About Filters

The filter is the piece of a connector that decides whether a message should proceed to the next step or not. It is configured on the Edit Filter View within either the Source Tab or Destinations Tab within the Edit Channel View. A filter returns true or false. When the filter returns true, the message is said to have been accepted. When the filter returns false, the message is said to have been filtered. If the source connector filters out a message, it will not flow through the source transformer, and will not be processed by any of the destination connectors. If a destination connector filters out a message, it will not flow through the destination transformer, and will not be dispatched outbound by that destination connector. However other destinations may still process the message. A filter is comprised of multiple rules. Each rule is joined together with an operator, which can be AND or OR. For example a filter may look like this: Accept the message if: Rule 1 returns true OR Rul

Mirth® Connect by NextGen Healthcare User Guide

About Data Types

A data type tells a filter / transformer how to parse a certain format. The inbound data type serializes the incoming raw data into its internal representation. Then the filter / transformer executes, possibly modifying this internal representation, or even completely overwriting it with a different internal representation. Finally, the outbound data type takes this transformed data and deserializes it into the proper outbound format (the encoded data) . For example, the HL7 v2.x data type serializes ER7 data from this: into this: In this case, the internal representation is XML, because, for HL7 v2.x, the message object you use or manipulate in a filter / transformer is an E4X XML object. However not all data types use XML for their internal representation. The JSON data type uses JSON as you might expect, and the object you use in a filter / transformer is a regular JavaScript Object. The Raw data type does no serialization or deserialization, so its internal representation is identi

Mirth® Connect by NextGen Healthcare User Guide

About Channels and Connectors

A Mirth® Connect channel consists of multiple connectors. A connector is a piece of a channel that pulls data into Mirth® Connect (a source connector) , or sends data to an external system (a destination connector). Every channel has exactly one source connector, and at least one destination connector. Because a channel may have multiple destination connectors, think of it as a process that obtains data from a particular source, and sends it out to many different destinations. For example, you may receive data over HTTP, then write the data out to a file, and also insert pieces of the data into your custom database. Channel Components Connector Components Parent topic: The Fundamentals of Mirth Connect

The Message Processing Lifecycle

Recommendations

Message Pruning Settings

Message Storage Settings

About Message Data

About Filters

About Data Types

About Channels and Connectors

The Message Processing Lifecycle

Message Pruning Settings

Message Storage Settings

About Message Data

About Filters

About Data Types

About Channels and Connectors