How to escape special characters in an HL7 message

Introduction

This question came up in a ticket about how to escape non-ascii 8-bit special characters in an HL7 message. The user had a channel that used an LLP Client destination component, and he had checked the option Escape 8-bit characters (HL7). However it seems that it was not escaping the characters as he expected. It seems likely that the channel was processing 16 bit characters (probably unicode) and therefore they were not escaped.

The best way to approach this is use a Filter component (and choose the Type = Translator). Then you can use the Translator script for complete and exact control of how you escape messages. In this case you would not select the Escape 8-bit characters (HL7) option in the LLP Client. You could then choose to escape 16 bit encoded characters and/or 8 bit encoded characters – you could even choose to encode some (not all) special characters if that was what you needed.

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Issue [top]

How to escape special characters in an HL7 message.

Cause [top]

The LLP Client component the Escape 8-bit characters (HL7) option was working correctly – it only escapes 8 bit special characters. But it was not doing what the user wanted.

Solution [top]

  1. Create a Filter component (and choose the Type = Translator).
  2. Then you can use the Translator script for complete and exact control of how you escape messages.
  3. Do not select the Escape 8-bit characters (HL7) option in the LLP Client  destination component.

 

 

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