How To Use The Official HL7 Distributed MIFs
It can't be stressed enough. HL7 Java SIG code is entirely, which means our code is free to use, modify, and redistribute as long as that is complient with our license, and the license terms are here to protect the will of the contributors in making and keeping a high quality open source product.
However, the HL7 specifications are the intellectual property of the HL7 organization, and while the HL7 Java SIG has approval to act as an HL7 committee whilst producting open source software, the Java SIG has no authorization to act as a redistributor of the Intellectual Property of HL7. This means, the HL7 standards are not part of the Java SIG distributions, neither in document form nor in form of the processible files (MIF files) or XML schemas.
While we can't just give away HL7 intellectual property, we have made our software distribution such that you can use and contribute to it as is, the only thing you can't do is regenerate generated codes and mapping files. However, you can go a long way without ever having to regenerate generated code.
Now, if you are an HL7 member, you would be authorized to get this data. However, the Java SIG still doesn't believe our time is well spent acting as an outlet for these HL7 "products", the time it would take to veryfy people who make such requests would be wasted. Good thing is, if you are a member, you are highly likely to also receive the V3 edition CD ROM on a yearly basis, and this CD ROM contains all you need to rebuilt the generated code from scratch and process every HL7 v3 message (or document) defined till the date of your CD ROM release.
The procedure is also very easy.
In the CD ROM there's a file called
Edition2006/processable/mif/mif.zip
which contains all the mif files you need for processing. All you need to do is link this ZIP file into your CLASSPATH and you are done! Presently, if you use ant, you can just drop this file into the lib directory and off you go.
For the code generator to work, you might have to unpack at least the rim.coremif from said ZIP file.
You will also need the vocabulary file
Edition2006/processable/intermediatexml/Vocabulary.xml
And put it in some location. If you run any tests relating to schemas, you will need the schemas as well. They are in
Edition2006/processable/multicacheschemas
If you don't have the Edition2006 CD, you can obtain the rim files including Vocabulary.xml and schemas from http://hl7projects.hl7.nscee.edu/projects/design-repos/ version 2.19.0, March 22, 2008.
I will rewire some of the ant build.xml files to make it really easy to just drop in the CD ROM, refer to it, and run the rebuild or install the files needed for CD-less operations.
With things being that easy, there is really no need for Java SIG to keep track of the MIF files in our source code repositories and I will entirely delete these files (which had restricted access anyway.)
If you really are a hungry developer who doesn't have HL7 v3 MIFs, and who does not want to be an HL7 member, you can still use our software to do cool things. There is a MIF included in the package, called UUDD_MT999999.mif, which you can use to get all the RIM data in and out that you wish. That's the one I use and it is the most unrestricted access to the power of semantic interoperability with the HL7 RIM.
Enjoy -Gunther Schadow
