[HAPI-devel] HL7 approves release of standard message library for HAPI

[Tripp, B. <Bry...@uh...>]

Some of you have been waiting to find out whether we can release the source
code for all the standard HL7 messages with HAPI.  This has been an open
question for several months.  The decision rested with those who hold the
copyright for the database that HAPI uses to generate the source code
(namely HL7 and HL7 Germany).  

A favorable decision was reached on Sunday.  This means that purchasing the
database is no longer a prerequisite for serious use of HAPI.  Hopefully
this will encourage people to use it and correspondingly increase the
developer base, resulting in higher quality code.  I should point out that
the HL7 database remains a useful tool for many other reasons, the most
compelling of which, in the context of HAPI, is that it contains the
standard code tables.   

In terms of releasing this code, I suggest that we release a new version of
HAPI in early June, including the full message library.  This should allow
enough time to include several other features that are currently in progress
(e.g. support for the XML encoding), and hopefully to incorporate the new
segment group names that are supposed to be available from HL7 any time now.
If you need the library in the mean time let me know and I will send it to
you (without the new segment group names).  

A big "thank you" to all those to participated in these disussions,
particularly Laura Sato from HL7 Canada who represented our interests in the
Atlanta meeting, Frank Oemig and Joachim Dudeck from HL7 Germany, and Wes
Rishel and Karen VanHentenryck from HL7 HQ for their interest and support.  

Bryan