I want to create a TCP Listener using Kestrel and the System.IO.Pipelines package. The messages I receive will always be HL7 messages. An example message could be
MSH|^~&|MegaReg|XYZHospC|SuperOE|XYZImgCtr|20060529090131-0500||ADT^A01^ADT_A01|01052901|P|2.5 EVN||200605290901||||200605290900 PID|||56782445^^^UAReg^PI||KLEINSAMPLE^BARRY^Q^JR||19620910|M||2028-9^^HL70005^RA99113^^XYZ|260 GOODWIN CREST DRIVE^^BIRMINGHAM^AL^35209^^M~NICKELL’S PICKLES^10000 W 100TH AVE^BIRMINGHAM^AL^35200^^O|||||||0105I30001^^^99DEF^AN PV1||I|W^389^1^UABH^^^^3||||12345^MORGAN^REX^J^^^MD^0010^UAMC^L||67890^GRAINGER^LUCY^X^^^MD^0010^UAMC^L|MED|||||A0||13579^POTTER^SHERMAN^T^^^MD^0010^UAMC^L|||||||||||||||||||||||||||200605290900 OBX|1|NM|^Body Height||1.80|m^Meter^ISO+|||||F OBX|2|NM|^Body Weight||79|kg^Kilogram^ISO+|||||F AL1|1||^ASPIRIN DG1|1||786.50^CHEST PAIN, UNSPECIFIED^I9|||A
The only important thing to note is that each incoming HL7 message starts with a vertical tab character so you know where the message begins. Each HL7 message contains multiple segments so I think I will have to loop through each segment. After processing the request I want to send back a HL7 message as a response. First of all I came up with this
internal class HL7Listener : ConnectionHandler
{
public override async Task OnConnectedAsync(ConnectionContext connection)
{
IDuplexPipe pipe = connection.Transport;
await FillPipe(pipe.Output);
await ReadPipe(pipe.Input);
}
private async Task FillPipe(PipeWriter pipeWriter)
{
const int minimumBufferSize = 512;
while (true)
{
Memory<byte> memory = pipeWriter.GetMemory(minimumBufferSize);
try
{
int bytesRead = 32; // not sure what to do here
if (bytesRead == 0)
{
break;
}
pipeWriter.Advance(bytesRead);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
// ... something failed ...
break;
}
FlushResult result = await pipeWriter.FlushAsync();
if (result.IsCompleted)
{
break;
}
}
pipeWriter.Complete();
}
private async Task ReadPipe(PipeReader pipeReader)
{
while (true)
{
ReadResult result = await pipeReader.ReadAsync();
ReadOnlySequence<byte> buffer = result.Buffer;
SequencePosition? position;
do
{
position = buffer.PositionOf((byte)'\v');
if (position != null)
{
ReadOnlySequence<byte> line = buffer.Slice(0, position.Value);
// ... Process the line ...
buffer = buffer.Slice(buffer.GetPosition(1, position.Value));
}
}
while (position != null);
pipeReader.AdvanceTo(buffer.Start, buffer.End);
if (result.IsCompleted)
{
break;
}
}
pipeReader.Complete();
}
}
Unfortunately I'm struggling with some things:
- The part
int bytesRead = 32;
, how do I get to know how many bytes have been read? Or how to read with the writer instance? - Currently the debugger does not hit the code at
// ... Process the line ...
. Basically I have to extract the whole HL7 message so I can use my HL7 parser to convert the message string. - Where do I have to respond? After calling
await ReadPipe(pipe.Input);
? By usingawait connection.Transport.Output.WriteAsync(/* the HL7 message to send back */);
?