Designed entirely on the .Net 8 (Windows) platform. The CORE HL7 TCP/IP Listener is a step into the future of HL7 messaging on the MS Windows operating system.
A TCP/IP Listener is a software component or service that waits for incoming network connections on a specific TCP/IP port. When another system connects and sends data, the listener receives and processes that information according to the application’s protocol rules. TCP/IP Listeners are used throughout the technology industry for many different purposes and there is a world-wide TCP/IP Standard for how they work. Common examples of software that use TCP/IP Listeners include Microsoft SQL Server listening for database connections, Microsoft IIS listening for web traffic, OpenSSH listening for SSH remote login sessions, email servers listening for SMTP email traffic, etc. Any server application that accepts inbound network communication typically uses one or more TCP/IP Listeners.
IMPORTANT: A BASICTCP/IP Listener is not secure and not encrypted.
What is a HL7 TCP/IP Listener?
A HL7 TCP/IP Listener (like the CORE HL7 Listener) is any software that uses a TCP/IP Listener (just like MS SQL Server or IIS) that is "listening" for HL7 messages to arrive on the specific port number it is listening on.
IMPORTANT: There is a world-wide HL7 Standard for HL7 TCP/IP Listener software that dictates that the TCP/IP Listener used must be a BASICTCP/IP Listener. (ie NOT encrypted).
What is a Secure Encrypted TCP/IP Listener?
A Secure Encrypted TCP/IP Listener is a specialized TCP/IP Listener that uses SSL/TLS encryption technology to establish a secure encrypted network connection before any data is exchanged, unlike a BASICTCP/IP Listener, which receives plain unencrypted data. There is also a worldwide TCP/IP Standard for working with a secure encrypted listener. For example web servers will support HTTP:// (unsecure) or HTTPS:// (secure). If you have ever used Microsoft SQL Server you will be familiar with the open connection screen in SQL Management Studio (see below).
MS SQL Server Connect Screen
For MS SQL Server (which is a TCP/IP Listener) you can enable encryption as well.
Why this is Important?
This is important because it means that any Secure Encrypted TCP/IP Listener is, by definition, NOT a HL7 Standard TCP/IP Listener. What we have done with the CORE HL7 TCP/IP Listener is adhered to the worldwide TCP/IP Standard when creating our secure encrypted HL7 TCP/IP Listener. This means that to send HL7 messages to a secure encrypted CORE HL7 Listener (see Using SSL/TLS Encryption), all HL7 TCP/IP Senders must adhere to the worldwide TCP/IP Standard for connecting to and sending secure, encrypted data over TCP/IP.
Starting with version 3.5 of the CORE HL7 Listener you can now attach a X.509 certificate to your listeners to make the connections encrypted from end to end. While this secure encrypted listener is not "HL7 Standard" it does follow the TCP/IP Standard for creating a SSL/TLS enabled TCP/IP Listener.
You can now create Private Windows Services which will run a single Listener profile. See Private Services for more information!
Create a SSL/TLS Encrypted HL7 Listener
Something really special starting with version 2.1! We have added our CORE HL7 C# Script libraries to the CORE HL7 Listener! See CORE HL7 C# Scripting.
