If your Iguana channel is communicating with a sending application or server that sends messages only when requested to, you can use the active_llp_producer_plugin plugin to request messages from the sending application or server. This plugin is included with Iguana, and is located in the plugins subdirectory of the directory in which Iguana is installed.

To create a channel that uses active_llp_producer_plugin, do the following:

• In the Dashboard Control Panel, click Add Channel.
• From the Source list box, select From Plugin.
• From the Destination list box, select the destination for your messages. For test purposes, you can select LLP Client as the destination, then use the HL7 Listener to view the messages that are sent.
• Click Configure Channel.
• In the Channel name field, type the name of your channel.
• Click the Source tab.
• Ensure that the Iguana starts executable check box is selected.
• In the Full executable path text field, type or browse for the complete file path and file name of active_llp_producer_plugin. This plugin is normally located in the plugins subdirectory of the directory in which Iguana is installed.
• In the Executable parameters field, type the executable parameters that you want to supply to active_llp_producer_plugin. These are described below, and shown in the following illustration:

Setting Up The Channel To Use active_llp_producer_plugin

	See From Plugin for descriptions of the Startup timeout, Shutdown timeout, Polling time and Plugin timeout fields.

• Click the Destination tab, and supply the information that is needed to specify the destination component of your channel. (If you are using the HL7 Listener to test your connection, you need to supply the host address and port that the HL7 Listener will be listening to.)
• Click Add Channel to create this channel.

The executable parameters that are supplied to active_llp_producer_plugin are, in order:

• The name of the host on which your Iguana server is running;
• The plugin communication port that the Iguana server is using;
• The name of the channel;
• A parameter indicating whether the plugin is communicating with the source or destination component of the channel (in this case, the plugin is always communicating with the source component, so this parameter should always be set to source);
• The remote host on which the sending application is running;
• The port that the sending application is using;
• Optionally, the location (path and filename) of the VMD file that is to be used to create acknowledgment messages. If this parameter is not specified, autoack.vmd is used. (autoack.vmd is normally found in the directory in which Iguana is installed.)

active_llp_producer_plugin also accepts the following flags, which must be specified before any other parameters:

If you are running active_llp_producer_plugin from within Iguana, and you are using the Executable parameters field to specify its parameters, you can use the keywords $hostname$, $port$, $channel$ and $component$ to specify the first four parameters. For example:

$hostname$ $port$ $channel$ $component$ 255.255.255.255 9999

After you have created your channel, you can test your connection to the sending application as follows:

• Start the channel. Iguana starts active_llp_producer_plugin, and this plugin connects to the remote host. (If a connection is not established, active_llp_producer_plugin tries again in 20 seconds.)
• The application on the remote host sends a message to the plugin.
• The plugin receives the message and holds on to it.
• The channel asks the plugin if any messages have been received. The plugin then sends the message to the channel.
• The channel adds the message to its message queue, and the plugin returns an acknowledgment message to the sending application.

If the sent message appears at the channel's destination (for example, if the LLP Listener displays it), the connection to the sending application works properly.

	active_llp_producer_plugin can also accept synchronous messages from the sending application (which are messages that are sent without waiting for an acknowledgment that the last message sent was received properly). In this case, the plugin still sends an acknowledgment to the sending application for each message received.