When you are using Iguana to generate messages from a database, you may notice that your generated messages are blank except for the segment names:

MSH|^~\&|||||||ORM|
PID||
ORC||
OBR|||||
NTE||||
NTE||||

If you are seeing a message such as this, check for the following:

• You might be setting the STATUS field in the status table to W before you have populated your database tables. When you add W to a status field, Iguana attempts to generate a message; if the database tables have not yet been updated, the message that is generated may be empty.
• When you examine the database table that contains your data, you will notice fields named MESSAGE_ID and PARENT_ID. If the table is not part of a table group, the MESSAGE_ID and PARENT_ID fields must contain the same value.

For an example of how to populate database tables to ensure that messages are generated properly, see the Database to HL7 tutorial. In particular, refer to the following pages:

• Basic Database Schema describes a simple table layout.
• Inserting Message Data into the Database describes how to add data to a simple table layout.
• Examining the Database Schema describes a more complicated table structure that includes table groups.
• Populating the Database Tables describes how to populate the tables defined in this table structure.