Friday, February 23, 2007
HL7 Acknowledgement codes
A question about the acknowledgement codes in the transport wrapper came up. Ack code deals with transmission-level errors and not message processing errors.
So if we are able to parse and process the message, the acknowledgement code is always 'AA' even if the interaction sent back a refusal, i.e. there were issues. AE/AR would only be returned if there were errors being returned in the transport wrapper.
Given that interpretation, the question arose on when an AR would ever be returned. I couldn't think of a scenario where I'd be able to return this code. When would I ever not being to process a message because of content or format? That's what the description for AR says.
>>You are correct in your understanding of the use of ‘AA’. With respect to the use of ‘AE’ and ‘AR’, ‘AE’ is used when there's a problem with the message (e.g. bad XML); ‘AR’ is used when there's a problem with the receiving system (e.g. database down).
From the CeRx forum.
So if we are able to parse and process the message, the acknowledgement code is always 'AA' even if the interaction sent back a refusal, i.e. there were issues. AE/AR would only be returned if there were errors being returned in the transport wrapper.
Given that interpretation, the question arose on when an AR would ever be returned. I couldn't think of a scenario where I'd be able to return this code. When would I ever not being to process a message because of content or format? That's what the description for AR says.
>>You are correct in your understanding of the use of ‘AA’. With respect to the use of ‘AE’ and ‘AR’, ‘AE’ is used when there's a problem with the message (e.g. bad XML); ‘AR’ is used when there's a problem with the receiving system (e.g. database down).
From the CeRx forum.
