[HAPI-devel] RE: HAPI

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

Hi Brian, 
 
Lots of questions!  
 
HAPI is open source, so in theory there are exactly as many developers as
take an interest at any given time.  In practice, the vast majority of the
code to date has been written by myself and Neal Acharya, with about half a
dozen other people making valuable contributions in various forms.  
 
HAPI supports most of what you mentioned, the exceptions being v2.1 (which
should be ready soon -- sorry Jeff, I know you're waiting) and the fact that
it's awkward to use Z-segments.  We're probably looking at October to
resolve the latter.  
 
Certainly we mean for HAPI to be used in enterprise settings, but note that
we're only on version 0.3.  Personally I think HAPI needs a few more months
of work before it's really solid.  If you are considering staking a lot on
it, my advice is as follows: 1) try it out for yourself to see if it
basically meets your functional requirements, 2) load test to see if it can
handle your volumes, 3) mention any shortcomings you find on this mailing
list, 4) arrange a contract with someone who will be accountable to you to
make the required changes as soon as possible (this can be through us or any
third party).  Alternatively you could have a seasoned Java developer from
your team work with us to resolve any problems you find.  
 
We aren't doing anything with HL7 v3, however if you are interested in
version 3, please check out the HL7 Java SIG -- this is their exclusive
focus and they appear to be doing excellent work.  The idea is to produce an
API that is adopted as both an HL7 standard and a Java standard.
 
HL7 allows "technical corrections" to existing standards (usually meant to
allow correction of obvious errors that are discovered a little too late).
This fall we are expecting more of an addendum than a correction.  2.xml
needs names for segment groups, but v2.4 and earlier don't have them.  To
allow encoding of 2.3.1 and 2.4 messages in XML, segment group names are
being defined and added to the existing standards.   
 
Bryan 
-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Flora [mailto:bri...@em...]
Sent: August 29, 2002 10:52 AM
To: hl7...@li...
Cc: bry...@us...
Subject: HAPI


Just curious as to how many developers support this product?   And would you
recommend the use of this product for an enterprise wide system,  that would
support hundreds of hospitals   using various versions of HL7 from 2.1
through 2.xml, customized Z segments as well as sometime non standard
delimiters and encoding characters.   Also just curious as to your adoption
of XML V3.  Also   have all the libraries been tested,  in your
documentation you note that there are some technical corrections to 2.3.1
and 2.4  was that from your programming perspective and when will those be
completed,   The versions of Hl7 have been voted on and approved and are a
standard currently.  What do you mean by pending technical correction?  I am
evaluating HAPI as a potential for a multi million dollar development effort
and wanted some feedback tofind out if you would recommend such a project
with HAPI?
 
 
Thank you,
 
Brian Flora
Br ian Flora
Interface Architect
Emergint Inc,
502 852 1606
bri...@em... <mailto:bri...@em...> 
 
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