You can use the HL7 Simulator, a tool packaged with Chameleon, to test the application. The HL7 Simulator reads messages from a file and sends them to a specified port.

To use the HL7 Simulator to test the application:

• Save a copy of this test message file somewhere on your system.
• Start the HL7 Simulator.
• In the Port field, set the port to 5123 (or whatever port your server is listening to).
• In the Message File field, type the location of the test message file, or click the ... button to locate it.
• Leave all other fields unchanged.

The HL7 Simulator

The test message file contains four HL7 messages. Three of the messages are of type ADT^A04 (Register Patient); your application will recognize these. The fourth message is of type ADT^A03, which your VMD file is not configured to process; this message will throw an exception.

	The next section of this tutorial discusses how to remove exceptions.

When the HL7 Simulator is correctly configured, click Start Listening on the server, and then click Start on the Simulator. The following events happen:

• The HL7 Simulator displays the messages sent, and displays an ACK (acknowledgement) message for each message.
• The Server application displays each received message and a printout of the data extracted from each message. It then displays an exception, indicating that it could not process the ADT^A03 message.

Here is the exact sequence of events when an ADT^A04 message is sent:

• The message is sent from the Simulator to the server.
• The server invokes the message parser, which classifies the message, extracts the data, and invokes the message handler.
• The handler prints the extracted data.
• The server sends an ACK message back to the Simulator, where it is received and displayed.

When the ADT^A03 message is sent, the server's message parser is not able to process it. The server throws an exception and displays a hex dump of the message.

The next section of this tutorial shows how you can improve your VMD file so that it gracefully handles unrecognized messages.