Drag & Drop, Endpoints (v15)

Version 15 adds three related features:

• The ability to drag & drop between related inbound and outbound devices (for example, remote agent communication devices, and secure sender devices).
• The automatic and manual creation of device endpoints. Endpoints provide the ability to quickly navigate between devices which exchange messages, as well as the ability to perform a specific action when an endpoint is clicked. For example, a branch device exposes the endpoints of each target queue, allowing for quick navigation between related channels.
• 'Side-by-Side' mode - the ability to quick launch and tile a second Connexion UI - making it easy to work across systems, groups, and tabs.

Side-by-side

Side-by-side mode launches a second UI window* and tiles the existing and new window beside each other. To launch the side-by-side mode, simply click the side-by-side icon in the main window. Note that once side-by-side mode is active, this icon becomes deactivated. Side-by-side mode makes it much easier to use the drag & drop and endpoint navigation features.

* A separate application is not launched, just a second copy of the main window.

Drag & Drop

Drag & drop has been enabled for the secure sender and queue device within Connexion. Open Connexion and then launch side-by-side mode. In one window, navigate to a secure sender device, and in the other navigate to a queue device. On the queue device, select the settings tab followed by the external access tab. Make sure the 'enable external access' checkbox is enabled. Ensure both channels are locked for editing. In the secure sender device, click and drag the device icon inside the grey box (at the bottom of the secure sender UI) over to the queue device UI in the other window. The drop rectangle on the queue will change to green if the drag information is valid, and both devices will exchange information once the drop is complete. Both devices are now fully configured and the channels can be saved.

Drag and drop has also been enabled between the remote agent sender and receiver devices. Open one instance of Connexion and navigate to a remote agent sender device. Open the remote integrator manager application and navigate to a remote agent receiver device. Tile the windows side-by-side to make drag and drop easier (Window Key + left or right arrow). Ensure both channels are locked for editing, and Drag and drop the icon in the remote agent sender device across to the remote agent receiver device. The receiver box should turn green if the drag data is valid, and the devices should exchange data (and the route should be automatically set). This operation is valid regardless of whether the source is connexion or the remote agent manager.

Endpoints

Connexion version 15 has a concept of 'endpoints'. An endpoint is any point at which data is ingested into or sent from Connexion. For example, an MLLP socket on an HL7 Inbound device is an inbound endpoint, and an MLLP socket on an HL7 Outbound device is and outbound endpoint. Other endpoints could be the file system, FTP, network sockets, branch devices etc. Many built-in devices define endpoints, and these endpoints can be used to navigate to other channels involved in a particular message's workflow. For example, if you have an Outbound HL7 device sending to an Inbound HL7 device in the same system, the UI will display an endpoint icon to allow you to quickly jump to the linked channel.

When the Connexion UI loads, it parses all the endpoint data for the system and attempts find a matching endpoint in another channel. If it cannot find a match, then it will simply call the OS shell command with the device-defined endpoint. For example, the file writer device may publish and file or ftp endpoint, in which case the file explorer or default ftp client may be launched.

In some cases, instead of the UI dynamically matching endpoints, endpoints are stored with a device's configuration. For example, when performing the drag/drop operations describe in the previous section, an endpoint is generated and stored in each device. This allows the endpoint icon to point to channels in other Connexion or Gateway systems. Endpoints of remote systems typically have a more verbose format which includes all of the information required to launch a separate instance of either Connexion of the Gateway.

You also have the option of defining your own hard-coded endpoints. For example, if you want to associate a particular website with a device (for example, a customer portal or help link), then you can right-click on the device icon and choose the 'Edit Endpoints' option.

Click the 'Add' button and either choose to link to an existing device in Connexion, or choose to link to an external resource (such as a web page)

Start typing in the blank row to enter the name of your resource. Since we simply call the operating system with whatever string you provide, it will be opened by whatever installed program is registered for that string.

Your manual endpoint is now displayed on the given device.