From File

Introduction

Configure the settings for the From File source component.

The From File component processes files from a specified local source directory. It can also download files into the source directory using FTP.

Tip:  For greater control over reading files and ftp we recommend using a From Translator component with the io file functions for reading files and the net file transfer functions for ftp, ftps and sftp.

From here you can choose basic options for working with local files, FTP download options and and specify the format of messages contained in input files.

  • Click the Edit Channel button
  • Enter your settings and click Save Changes

Basic Options [top]

Settings for processing files from a local source directory.

Source directory

  • Select the directory path for the input files
    Note: This directory must already exist

Poll time

  •  Enter the Poll time in milliseconds, with a minimum of 1000 ms

Extension of files to read

  • Enter the file extension of the input files
    • Separate multiple extension types with a comma
    • To read all files in the input directory use *
    • To use no file extension use <none>

Minimum file age

  • Enter the minimum number of seconds that must elapse until a file can be processed (since it was last modified)
    Note: The default is 0 seconds, which means that all input files are processed immediately

    Note: This setting only applies to files from the source directory, it does not affect FTP downloads.

Action to perform on processed files

  • Select Delete processed files to delete input files after processing
  • Select Move processed files to move input files into another directory after processing
  • If you select Move processed files you will need also need to select target directories for processed files and error files:
    Note: These directories must already exist

    Note: In this case error files are usually invalid batch syntax (the From File component does not validate HL7 message syntax).

Tip: If a file permission error occurs with From File or To File, check the following:

  • Does your computer grant the necessary file permissions?
  • Does the file exist?
  • Is the file in use?

Message Options [top]

Settings to specify the format of messages that are contained in the input files.

Input file type

  • Select the input file type from the listbox.
    These are the options available:

    Input File Type Description
    HL7 An HL7 message.
    X12 A message in X12 format.
    Arbitrary Text A message in an arbitrary text format. Iguana assumes one message per input file, and treats the file as binary data.
    Custom Message Header An HL7 message whose first segment is not the MSH segment.
  • If Custom Message Header is chosen, then you will need to enter your message header into the Custom Message Header field that appears:

Ignored segments list

  • Enter a list of the batch segments (such as FHS, BHS, FTS and BTS) that you do not want to process, these segments will be ignored
    Note: Use commas to separate segment names

    Note: This field is not displayed if Input file type is Arbitrary Text.

Replace segment delimiter

  •  Select the message segment separator character(s) from the listbox, you can choose 0x0D (carriage return), 0x0A (new line), or 0x0D 0x0A (carriage return and new line).
    Note: This field is only displayed if Input file type is HL7 or Custom Message Header

Replace message delimiter?

  •  Select from the listbox, choose Yes, with ‘0x0A’ to replace the message delimiter character with 0x0A (new line), or No to leave the delimiter unchanged
    Note: This field is only displayed if Input file type is HL7 or Custom Message Header

Input file encoding

  • From the list box select the encoding that is used in the input file. The Windows default encoding is Western (Windows-1252), on Linux or Mac OS X the default Western (ISO-8859-1). These two encodings are not significantly different.

Hex representation of special EOF character

  • Enter the hexadecimal representation for the end of file character for input files. (For example, the EOF character might be 0x00 or 0x1a.) This character is ignored during parsing, and must be the last character in the file.

FTP Options [top]

Settings for downloading files from an FTP server.

  • Check the Download from FTP to source directory checkbox
  • Select FTP from the FTP protocol listbox
  • Fill in the remaining fields

FTP server

  • Enter the name of the FTP server to use

FTP port

  • Enter the port for the FTP server, for FTP this is usually port 21

FTP username

  • Enter the username for the FTP server

FTP password

  • Enter the password for the FTP server (if required)

FTP path

  • Enter the location of the FTP server download directory (the path is relative to the FTP user’s home directory)

Attempt to reconnect?

  • Select a reconnection option from the droplist:
    • Yes (unlimited) to keep trying
    • Yes, with limit to make a specified number of attempts
    • No to prevent reconnecting
  • If you chose Yes, with limit enter the number of times into the second field

Reconnection interval

  •  Enter the number of milliseconds before trying to reconnect
    Note: This field only appears if you enabled reconnections above

Action to perform on downloaded files

  • Choose the action to take after you have downloaded the file from the FTP server:
    • Delete remote files after downloading will delete the file from the FTP server
    • Move remote files after downloading to another remote directory will move to file to another directory on the FTP server

FTP path for downloaded files

  • Specify the target FTP path to move downloaded files to
    Note: This field only appears if you enabled moving remote files above

FTPS Settings [top]

Settings for downloading files from an FTPS server

  • Check the Download from FTP to source directory checkbox
  • Select FTPS (FTP over SSL) from the FTP protocol listbox
  • Fill in the remaining fields
  • You can use the view certificate link to view the certificate details:

FTP port

  • Enter the port for the FTP server, for FTPS, this is usually port 990

FTP path

  • Enter the location of the FTPS server download directory (the path is relative to the FTPS user’s home directory)

Certificate file

Private key file

 Verify peer

  • Check Verify Peer to verify the server sending you messages

Certificate authority file

SFTP Settings [top]

Settings for downloading files from an SFTP server.

  • Check the Download from FTP to source directory checkbox
  • Select SFTP (Secure Shell FTP) from the FTP protocol listbox
  • Fill in the remaining fields

Authentication

  • Select the authentication type for SFTP from the listbox (Username/Password or Private/Public Key)

Tip: If you have selected Private/Public Key from the Authentication list box, the FTP server’s SSH daemon will need to be configured so that it will not prompt for a password when Iguana is downloading files.

FTP port

  • Enter the port for the FTP server, for SFTP, this is usually port 22

FTP path

  • Enter the location of the SFTP server download directory (the full/absolute path is used for SFTP)

Verify host fingerprint

  • Check this to verify the authenticity of the server that is receiving the messages

Host fingerprint

  • This field contains the host fingerprint a 32-character string created using the MD5 cryptographic hash function
  • If the field is empty click the Get Fingerprint link to obtain the host fingerprint

Private key file

  • Select the Private key file, this must be in PEM format and cannot be password protected

Public key file

  • Select the Public key file, this must be in PEM format and cannot be password protected

 

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