Testing Your Plugin Channel |
If you have created a channel that specifies From Plugin as a source component or To Plugin as a destination component, you can use the client_exe application to test your channel. client_exe is included with your installation of Iguana, and is located in the plugins subdirectory of the directory that contains the Iguana executable (for example, C:\Program Files\iNTERFACEWARE\Iguana\plugins).
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Note that the client_exe application is intended solely for testing purposes. If this application is connected to a From Plugin source component, it produces the same dummy message over and over again. If it is connected to a To Plugin destination component, it writes the messages to the standard output without processing them. This application is not useful for processing live HL7 messages. To use client_exe, you must ensure that it can access the Iguana Communication Library, IGC.dll. See Resolving Iguana Communication Library (IGC.dll) Errors for more information. | ||
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To run client_exe:
- Open a Command Prompt window (if running Windows) or a shell window (if running Unix, Linux or Mac OS X).
- Set the current directory to be the directory containing client_exe.
- In Iguana, modify your channel to not automatically start the plugin when the channel is started. (See From Plugin or To Plugin for details on how to do this.)
- From the Iguana dashboard, start your channel.
- Return to the Command Prompt window or shell and start client_exe. The syntax for client_exe is:
client_exe [<options>] <hostname> <port> <channelname> <component> |
The table below lists the parameters that must be specified when you run client_exe:
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| hostname | The host name of the Iguana server (for example, localhost). |
| port | The plugin communication port used by the Iguana server. This is usually 6123. (See Plugin Settings for information on how to determine the plugin communication port that your Iguana server is using.) |
| channelname | The name of the channel to which client_exe is connecting. |
| component | The channel component to which client_exe is being connected. This must be either source or destination. Set component to source if client_exe is connecting to the channel's From Plugin source component. In this case, client_exe repeatedly sends copies of a test message until the channel is stopped. Set component to destination if client_exe is connecting to the channel's To Plugin destination component. |
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If you want to use client_exe but do not want to supply these parameters, you can have the Iguana channel start client_exe for you and use the default macros that are supplied with the From Plugin and To Plugin channel components. These macros are named $hostname$, $port$, $channel$ and $component$. For more information on these macros, see:
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You can also supply one or more options to client_exe, described in the table below. These options appear before the parameters listed above, and can be in any order.
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| --version | Display the version number for client_exe and exit. |
| --igc_dll <filepath> | Specify the location of the IGC dynamic library. If this option is not specified, client_exe searches for the IGC dynamic library in one or more of the following locations, depending on the platform you are using:
(See the note below for details on whether the directory containing client_exe is searched.) filepath must be a complete directory path and file name. For more information on the IGC dynamic library (IGC.dll on Windows, or libIGC.so or libIGC.dylib on Unix, Linux or Mac OS X), see The Iguana Communication Libraries. |
| --output_file <filepath> | Write all output from client_exe to the file specified by filepath. filepath can be a file name or a complete directory path and file name. |
| --debug_file <filepath> | Write all diagnostic output to the file specified by filepath. filepath can be a file name or a complete directory path and file name. |
| --message_generation_delay <time> | The amound of time to wait, in milliseconds, before sending the next message to Iguana. If this option is not provided, a default delay time of 1000 milliseconds is assumed. |
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If you are using client_exe on a Unix, Linux or Mac OS X environment, your system may not automatically search the directory in which Iguana is installed for the shared libraries that it needs. If this is the case on your system, do one of the following:
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When you start client_exe as a message source (with component set to source), the Command Prompt window displays a notification every time a test message is sent:
C:\Program Files\iNTERFACEWARE\Iguana>client_exe localhost 6123 mychannel source Version: 4.1.0-release Source DateTime: 2009-05-25 13:00:03 UTC Build_ID: winbuild/2009-05-25_09-00.main igc_dll=..\IGC.DLL Loaded: D:\ifware_test\iNTERFACEWARE-Iguana\IGC.DLL hostname=localhost port=6127 channel=plugin1 component=source debug_file= message_generation_delay=1000 Message MESSAGE_CONTROL_ID_1 was processed correctly. Message MESSAGE_CONTROL_ID_2 was processed correctly. Message MESSAGE_CONTROL_ID_3 was processed correctly. Message MESSAGE_CONTROL_ID_4 was processed correctly. Message MESSAGE_CONTROL_ID_5 was processed correctly. |
When you start client_exe as a message destination (with component set to destination), the Command Prompt window displays the messages that are sent through the channel:
C:\Program Files\iNTERFACEWARE\Iguana>client_exe localhost 6123 mychannel destination Version: 4.1.0-release Source DateTime: 2009-05-25 13:00:03 UTC Build_ID: winbuild/2009-05-25_09-00.main igc_dll=..\IGC.DLL Loaded: D:\ifware_test\iNTERFACEWARE-Iguana\IGC.DLL hostname=localhost port=6127 channel=plugin2 component=destination debug_file= MSH|^~\&|MESA_ADT|XYZ_ADMITTING|MESA_IS|XYZ_HOSPITAL|||ADT^A04|101102|P|2.5||||| PID|||583020^^^ADT1||WHITE^CHARLES||19980704|M||AI|7616 STANFORD AVE^^ST. LOUIS^ PV1||E||||||5101^NELL^FREDERICK^P^^DR|||||||||||V1002^^^ADT1|||||||||||||||||||| |||||200004210950|||||||| Iguana disconnected: Connection closed by Iguana. |
To stop client_exe, stop the channel that it is connected to.