Home/Editor Toolbar
The Home/Editor Toolbar is a convenient way to access commonly used commands. Please see below for labelled close up of the Editor Toolbar.
Table of Contents
File
Open - Open a file containing HL7 Messages
- Clicking the Open button displays the standard Windows Open File Dialog. The Open File Dialog allows you to multi-select files to be opened
- Clicking just under the Open button will display a list of most recently opened files for quick access.
- You can also open files by dragging and dropping files into HL7Spy, or by using the "Open Folder" tool
Tools
Tool Views - Show/Hide the tool windows
- The tool windows that appear at the bottom portion of the application can be shown, or hidden based upon the user's preference. If there are tools you do not use, they can be hidden by deselecting items in the drop-down list.
Options
Editor Options - Change operational characteristics of the editor
- Mask PHI Settings - Controls which fields are masked when Masking is turned on in the editor. See Mask PHI Settings...
- HL7 Keyboard Tips - Turn on/off the tooltip that is displayed when a fields is selected in the editor. Tip: These tooltips are also displayed when you hold the shift key down while hovering the mouse over a field.
- Word Wrap - Turn on/off word wrapping when lines in the editor are longer than the display area
- Whitespace - Show/hide the whitespace within the message
- Line Numbers - Show/hide the line numbers that are displayed in the editor
- Dock Navigation Bar to top - This option allows you to control the location of the message navigation control. By default, the message slider, search box, and navigation controls are docked just below the editor. Some users prefer to have these controls docked on top of the editor.
- Font - Change the font family and size used by the editor.
Mask PHI - Mask Private Health Information
- Turn on/off masking of PHI such as names, birthdays, etc in the HL7 editor.
Mask PHI Settings - Mask Private Health Information Field Settings
- Which fields are masked are control by settings under: "Editor Options\Mask PHI Settings..."
- Default Masking - All fields in segments that are not mentioned in "Fields to Mask" and "Fields to NOT Mask" and "Free Text Fields" are fully masked.
- Fields to Mask - Fields specified in this section will be masked. Other fields in the message will remain unmasked.
- Fields to NOT Mask - Fields specified in this section will NOT be masked. To NOT mask an entire segment, specify just the segment name.
- Free Text Fields - Fields identified here will have PHI text automatically masked. Any text that matches any field that was masked in other parts of the message will be masked.
- Mask Character - Specify the character that will be used to "mask" the PHI.
HL7 Standard Version - Version of HL7 Standard used in the editor
- Specifies the version of HL7 that is being used to display keyboard tooltips, searches, and other tools that rely on knowledge of the HL7 data types and field names.
- When set to "Auto" the version will automatically be chosen based on the value in MSH-12 from the message currently displayed in the editor.
Find
Find - Search messages in the current tab
- Single Path - Find messages where the value of the HL7 Path matches the text specified in the "Search Text" field
- HL7 Path - The location of the field that the match should operate against. For example, MSH-12 is the 12th field in the MSH and represents the HL7 version of the message
- Comparison - The type of comparison that should be made
- Search Text - The text value that will be used to compare against the value from the specified HL7 path
- Find Previous - Find the previous message that matches the specified constraint
- Find Next - Find the next message that matches the specified constraint
- Find All - Create a new Tab and populate it with messages that match the specified constraint
- Cancel - Exit out of this dialog
Highlight - Mark matching fields
- Search and highlight in yellow fields that match the specified text
- Search and highlight in yellow fields where the name of the field as defined by the HL7 Standard matches the specified text
Watch - Track the selected field in the Watch Window
Edit
Cut - Cut the current message
- Deletes the current message and places its contents on the clipboard
Copy - Copy message
- Copies the current message to the clipboard
Paste - Paste message
- Pastes the text in the clipboard into the current message tab
- Multiple messages can be pasted into a tab and HL7Spy will automatically split them into individual messages
- If you paste a message into a non-empty editor, the following dialog will be present that determines how the messages are handled.
Add Before - Add a new message before the current message
- Add an empty message before the message currently displayed in the editor
Add After - Add a new message after the current message
- Add an empty message after the message currently displayed in the editor
Delete - Delete the current message
- Delete the message currently displayed in the editor
Comm - HL7 Communications
Receive HL7 - Receive HL7 Messages over TCP/IP using the MLLP Protocol
- Welcome Port - The Windows Network Port that HL7Spy will listen on for incoming connections.
- Network Interface (to the right of the Welcome Port) - Network Interfaces available on the local machine. By default all interfaces are listened on.
- Inactivity Timeout - Time in minutes before the a connection will be closed due to inactivity
- Max Message Size - The maximum size in KB that HL7Spy will receive. A setting of 0 means there is no size limit.
- Support BHS/FHS Messages - Turn on/off HL7 batch message protocol option
- Acknowledgement - Set the HL7 ACK return code and message send back to the sending party
- Debug Logging - Turn on/off logging of the HL7 protocol. This is good for troubleshooting connectivity issues.
- File Path - The location that will be used to store the incoming messages
- Delete File on Close - When selected, the file containing the messages will automatically be deleted when the tab is closed
- Exclusive Access - Turn on/off sharing of the file
Send HL7 - Transfer HL7 messages via TCP/IP over MLLP
- Destination drop-down - See Manage Destinations
- All - Send all messages from index 1 to the end to the selected destination
- Current - Send all messages from the current index to the end to the selected destination
- Single - Send the currently selected message to the selected destination, and advance to the next message if it is sent successfully
- Batch - Send messages as an HL7 message batch
- Limit # - Stop sending messages after the specified number of messages have been sent. Setting 0, specifies not to stop
- Repeat - Send the HL7 messages once, then repeat the number of times specified in the field
- Index - Index of message currently being sent
- AA - Application Accept count
- AE - Application Error count
- AR - Application Reject count
- Message Area - Error messages are displayed in the text area at the bottom
Manage Destinations - Select/Add/Edit HL7 destinations
- The Manage Destinations dialog displays a list of currently configured HL7 Send Destinations
- Refresh - Re-read the configuration from the disk
- + - Add a new destination
- x - Delete the currently selected destination
- Name - User defined name of the destination
- Category - User defined grouping of destinations
- Host - Host name or IP address of the destination
- Port - The communications port that communications with the receiving party will initiated over
- Timeout - The number of seconds before operations send/receive operations timeout
- KeepAlive - Low level TCP/IP setting on the socket to keep the communications link between the sender and receiver active
- NoDelay - Low level TCP/IP socket that controls the use of Nagle's algorithm
- DontLinger - Low level TCP/IP socket option that affects the behavior of the socet when close is called
- Send Delay - Introduces a delay between messages being sent, the default is 0, or no delay
- Retry on Error - Automatically reconnect and retry when a failure occurs during a transfer
- Frame Start - The byte sequence that indicates the start of an HL7 message
- Frame End - The byte sequence that indicates the end of an HL7 message
Statistics
Subcomp Stats - Sub-component Statistics
Comp Stats - Component Statistics
Field Stats - Field Statistics
Other - Repeated Field Statistics and Advanced Statistics
- Displays statistics for field under the cursor for all messages in the current tab
- Not Null - The number of messages where the field is not missing, or empty
- Null - The number of messages where the field is missing, or empty
- Unique - The number of unique values found for this field
- No SEG - The number of messages where the segment containing the requested field is missing
- All - Create a new Tab and place a copy of all messages containing the selected value into this Tab
- Left Arrow - Go to the previous message containing the selected value
- Right Arrow - Go to the next message containing the selected value
- Value Column - All values found in the specified field
- Decoded Column - For fields defined by HL7 this column shows the full name of the decoded value
- # Column - The number of messages that contained the value from the Value column
- % Column - The percentage of time the value was found in the current Tab
- Len Column - The length of value
Compare
To Left Compare - Send to Compare Tool
To Right Compare - Send to Compare Tool
Messsage Tools
Set Field - Set the value of a field
View Hex - View Hex Editor
Eport Xml - Export the contents of the Editor to Xml
- Version of Xml that should be generated
- Message Range - Allows you to select a subset of messages to export
- Generated File Name - Determine what is used to generate the file name of the Xml document
- Directory - Where the Xml files should be written
- Sample Message - Shows what the current message in the editor converts to in Xml
Sort - Sort Messages
- Allows messages within a Message Collection to be sorted by one or more HL7 fields, or by message size/offset.
- Changing the order of the messages in the Message Collection affects the order in which messages are used in other parts of the application such as HL7 Send, the Message Editor, etc. See Sort Messages for more details.
Merge Tabs - Message one or more tabs together
- Messages from multiple tabs can be merged together into a single tab using the “Merge Messages” dialog
- In the example below the messages from the 2 selected Tabs will be combined into a single new tab
- Sort Order - This option will sort the messages in the new tab
Split Message Collections
- Break messages out from one message collection into separate files or messages collections. See Split Messages for more details.
Clean-up Messages - Clean-up messages in the current Tab
- The “Clean-up Messages Dialog” provides options to remove duplicate messages, remove ACKs, or messages that match a user defined specification, from the current message collection.
10. Send HL7 - Allows one or more messages in a Message Collection to be sent to another HL7 system using the Minimal Lower Layer Protocol (MLLP) protocol as defined in the HL7 2.x standard. You can also send messages between message tabs within HL7Spy. See Send HL7 (MLLP) for more details.
11. Receive HL7 - Sets up HL7Spy as a HL7 Receiver using the Minimal Lower Layer Protocol (MLLP) protocol as defined in the HL7 2.x standard. You can also receive messages from another messages tab within HL7Spy. See Receive HL7 (MLLP) for more details.
12. Sub-Component Statistics - Provides statistics for a specific HL7 sub-component for all messages in a Message Collection. This is a very powerful feature of HL7Spy because it gives you the distribution of all values found in a given field. This functionality can also be accessed by holding down the Control key and double-clicking on a sub-component in the Message Editor, by right-clicking a field in the Message Editor and selecting the “Sub-Component Statistics” menu option, or by selecting “Tools/Calculate Subcomponent Statistics” from the main menu. See Toolbar Statistics for more details.
13. Component Statistics - Provides the same functionality as Sub-Component Statistics, except the statistics are at the Component level instead of the Sub-Component level. This functionality can also be accessed by double-clicking on a Component in the Message Editor, by right-clicking a Component in the Message Editor and selecting the “Component Statistics” menu option, or by selecting “Tools/Calculate Components Statistics” from the main menu. See Toolbar Statistics for more details.
14. Repeat Statistics - Provides the same functionality as Sub-Component Statistics, except the statistics are at the Repetition separator level instead of the Sub-Component level. This functionality can also be accessed by double-clicking on a Repetition separated section in the Message Editor, or by right-clicking a Repetition separated section in the Message Editor and selecting the “Repeat Statistics” menu option. See Toolbar Statistics for more details.
15. Field Statistics - Provides the same functionality as Sub-Component Statistics, except the statistics are at the Field level instead of the Sub-Component level. This functionality can also be accessed by double-clicking on a Field in the Message Editor, by right-clicking a Field in the Message Editor and selecting the “Field Statistics” menu option, or by selecting “Tools/Calculate Field Statistics” from the main menu. See Toolbar Statistics for more details.
16. Advanced Statistics - Allows you to be a bit more granular with your statistic results. You are given the option of the four above (Sub-Component, Component, Repeat, or Field) and further filter options. See Toolbar Statistics for more details.
17. Add Watch - This button adds the field currently selected in the Message Editor window to the active Watch List. See Watch Window for more details.
18. Highlight Fields by Field Name - Use this feature to highlight a particular field by the name of the field. For instance, typing in “doctor” in the pop-up dialog will highlight all the doctor fields in the message, e.g. Attending Doctor, Referring Doctor, etc.
19. Field Tooltips - By default, tooltips are displayed when you move the cursor around, or click on fields, in the Message Editor. Tooltips can be disabled by clicking on this button.
20. Change Character Encoding - Use this option to change the character set that HL7Spy uses to display messages.
21. Change Message Framing - Messages within a stream, such as a file, are identified with a start signature, and an end signature. In HL7Spy this is called Message Framing. This option allows control over how HL7Spy interprets the start and end of a message. See Message Framing for more details.
22. Message Properties/Hex Editor - Displays a hexadecimal display of the current message in the Message Editor as well as some information about it's character encoding, the file the message belongs to, the message offset and size, and whether it has been modified or not. See Message Properties for more details.
23a. Show Messages Using Standard Encoding - HL7 allows messages to be encoded using characters other than the beloved |^~\& characters found in most HL7 Messages. Why anyone would use characters other than these is beyond understanding, however; the standard permits it. If you are used to seeing messages using the standard encoding characters, your brain gets used to viewing and automatically parsing this format. Switch the encoding characters and your brain suddenly has a very difficult time processing what it sees. Enabling this feature (the default), automatically displays any message using the default encoding. It does not change how the message is sent stored on disk, or how it is sent out via MLLP, just how it is displayed in the Message Editor.
23b. Mask Private Health Information 
- Turn on/off whether or not the fields specified in "Options/Mask PHI Fields Settings..." are used to hide fields within the HL7 Editor.
"Fields to Mask" - Identify specific fields that will be masked in the HL7 message.
"Fields to NOT Mask" - All fields in the HL7 segment that are not identified here will be masked
"Fields to Mask" - Fields identified here will have PHI found in the "Fields to Mask" and "Fields to NOT Mask" sections masked.
"Mask Character" - Specify the character that will be used to "mask" the PHI.
24. Specify HL7 Message Version - This allows you to specify the version of HL7 you are using, versions 2.1-2.7 are supported. You may also opt to have HL7Spy automatically detect the version for you.
25. Cut Current Message - Cuts the currently displayed message in the Message Editor, to the clipboard.
26. Copy Message To Clipboard - Copies the currently displayed message in the Message Editor, to the clipboard.
27. Paste Message - Pastes the message currently in the clipboard into the current Message Collection. When “Paste Message” is selected, a dialog pops up and asks whether the message should be 1) inserted before the current message, 2) inserted after the current message, or 3) overwrite the current message.
28. Delete Current Message - Removes the current message from the active Message Editor.
Note: the message data on disk is not removed, it is just removed from the visible Message Collection. However, saving the file will remove the message.
29. Insert New Message Before - Inserts a new, empty HL7 Message. The new message is placed before the current message in the Message Editor.
30. Insert New Message After - Inserts a new, empty HL7 Message. The new message is placed after the current message in the Message Editor.
31. Send Current Message to Left Compare Window - Sends the current message to compare window on the left to find the differences between it and the message in the right compare window. See HL7 Compare for more details.
32. Send Current Message to Right Compare Window - Sends the current message to compare window on the right to find the differences between it and the message in the left compare window. See HL7 Compare for more details.
33. Show/Hide MainMenu - Allows you to show or hide the MainMenu shown to the right. 
34. Auto/Manual Message Load - This feature tries to automatically detect new messages every five seconds and load them into the Message Editor.