Using the Network Utility

The network utility built into the HL7 browser lets you send messages to a given hostname and port over TCP/IP or listen on a given port to receive messages over TCP/IP from another machine.

Network Utility Send Mode

The send mode of the network utility is a network client that transmits HL7 information using the MLLP protocol. The information that is sent is taken from the HL7 Browser window that spawned that copy of the network utility. In other words, open up the data you want to send from the browser before you try to send it.

Minimally you need to configure the hostname and port of the machine you want to receive the data. Hostnames will be resolved into IP addresses, so either is fine. Once the connection is established you can choose whether to send the entire data set or just a subset of it. This behavior is toggled by the checkbox that says "send all". With that button turned off, you can alter the range of the records to be sent.

Note that the program does not stop you from loading data or otherwise doing manipulation in the browser window. That may have an unspecified effect on the work utility. It may be good or bad, so just keep that in mind if you are trying to do something fancy.

Network Utility in Receive Mode

Receive mode works much like send mode except the utility acts as a server. Here any data received is forwarded to the HL7 Browser where it is available for immediate display. The view of data is not "expanded" fully until the connection is closed to make things more efficient, but don't let that stop you from having a look at the data.

There are relatively few options related this mode of the network utility. Only a port can be specified, and in the current version (0.7) the ACK cannot be changed from the default.