X12 Schemas and Available Tools

Loading X12 Schemas into InterSystems IRIS

To load an X12 schema into InterSystems IRIS from the Schema Structures page, click Import and select your file. You can load either SEF or XSD files.

For suggestions on where to find SEF files (X12 schemas) to import, see “Standard Exchange Format (SEF) Files,” in the first chapter.

Viewing a Document Structure

To view the internal organization of a document structure, select its name from the DocType Structures tab on the Interoperability > Interoperate > ASC X12 > ASC X12 Schema Structures page. InterSystems IRIS displays the segment structure of the document using the system of visual cues explained below. The following example shows the HIPAA_4010:820 document structure on this page. On the Interoperability > Interoperate > ASC X12 > ASC X12 Schema Structures page, select HIPAA_4010 in the left part of the page and select 820 in the right part. This displays the X12 Document Structure page.

Raw Definition

To see the document structure in a raw text format, click Show Raw Definition Text. The raw definition of the HIPAA_4010:820 document structure is as follows:

Note:

Loops in X12 can have custom names. Note in the above raw definition sample for HIPAA_4010:820 that loop titles directly follow open bracket characters “[,{,(” unlike segment names, which are separated from bracket characters by a tilde “~”. To use a custom loop name, type in your custom name in the place of the default loop name within the schema file prior to importing the schema into InterSystems IRIS.

Viewing a Segment Structure

To view the structure of a document segment, click on its name in any page similar to the example shown in the previous section. InterSystems IRIS displays a table that lists all the fields in that segment. This is the Schema Segment Structure page.

For example, if you click on the PER segment in the HIPAA_4010:276 document structure, InterSystems IRIS displays the following page.

The columns are as follows:

• Elem — the number to use to access the element within the segment (if you prefer numbers).

• Description — a short description of the element.

• Data Type — a one to two letter symbol representing the element data type. See the table below for details.

  

• Required — displays R for required, O for optional.

• Length — the number of characters that can be in the element. If only one number is present, it represents the maximum number of characters. If two numbers are separated by a hyphen, it is the range of characters that can be in the associated element (minimum-maximum).

• Max Repeats — the maximum number of times the element can repeat.

• Alternate Description — a second, longer description of the element.

You can use this information, particularly the Property Name column, to build virtual property paths for InterSystems IRIS in the format segment:elem. The following are examples of virtual property paths involving simple elem values from the PER segment in the HIPAA_4010:276 document structure. The () shortcut syntax indicates all available instances of a repeating field, whereas (1) indicates the first instance:

loop2000A().loop2100A().PER:ContactFunctionCode
loop2000A().loop2100A(1).PER:ContactFunctionCode
loop2000A().loop2100A(2).PER:ContactFunctionCode
loop2000A().loop2100A(x).PER:ContactFunctionCode
loop2000A().loop2100A().PER:Name

Viewing a Composite Structure

When you select a name in the Composite Structure column, InterSystems IRIS displays all the elements in that data structure. This is the Composite Structure page. The column values are identical to those of the previous section.

Choosing a Different Category

It is a feature of the X12 standard that a document structure can differ by X12 version, even when the structure has the same name and number. For example, both X12 HIPAA_4010 and X12 HIPAA_5010 define a document structure called 277, but these definitions contain some differences in segments and segment repetitions. InterSystems IRIS provides the document structure definitions HIPAA_4010:277 and HIPAA_5010:277. The X12 Document Structure page makes it easy to see the differences between the two definitions, as the following two figures show.

Selecting Options

To specify the document to display:

1. For Document Source, select File, Message Header ID, or Message Body ID.

2. Specify the document to display:

   • If you selected File, use Browse to choose a file. For Document Number in File, type the number of the document to display.

   • If you selected Message Header ID or Message Body ID, type the ID of the message header or message body to display.

3. Specify how to parse the document. To do so, select one of the following options for Document Structure or Schema:

   • As received by a Business Service — Use the schema as assigned by a business service. If you select this, select a business service from the drop-down list.

     This option enables you to determine the DocType to which a particular business service would assign this document.

   • Use a specific Schema Category/Version — Choose a document category from the drop-down list.

   • Use a specific DocType — Enter the name of an document structure (<MessageStructure>) in the format category:structure. The parser uses this document structure.

   • Use content-declared Version:Name — Use the document structure associated with the document type declared in the document.

   • Use object's stored DocType — Use the DocType as declared in the document body object. (This option does not apply to documents loaded from a file.)

   • None — Do not use any DocType to parse the document. Instead, display the raw segment without showing any of them as links.

   This option enables you to try interpreting documents from a particular data source as different schema category types to determine which DocType is the right one to use when handling documents from that source. There are a variety of reasons why you might need to do this. For example, you might find when you update an external application that it has changed the actual version of the documents it sends, but has neglected to update the type declaration that it sends in these documents. It is also useful in determining which of the built-in categories to use as a schema base, when a document uses a custom document structure.

4. Optionally click Transform Document? and specify the transformation details. See Testing a Transformation.

5. Click OK.

Parsing the Document

To parse the document, set the options described above and click OK. The Document Viewer displays the following on the right side of the screen:

• A summary of the document which contains following basic information:

  • The Data Transformation applied, if applicable

  • The Document ID

  • The DocType

  • The DocType description, if available

  • The number of segments

  • The Document ID of parent documents, if applicable

• The document data, which has one row for each segment in the document structure. Each row contains:

  • Segment number

  • Segment name, such as ISA or DN1

  • Element contents and separators, as contained in the document

If the document matches the schema you have selected, segments and elements appear as links to the relevant structure page.

Displaying the Segment Address

To display a segment address, hover the cursor over a segment name in the shaded column. The tooltip displays the following:

• Segment address to use in a virtual property path

• Descriptive name of this segment

Displaying the Element Address

To display the Element address, hover the cursor over a field within the document structure. The tooltip displays the following:

• The element address to use in a virtual property path (as a number)

• The element address to use in a virtual property path (as a name)

Viewing X12 Interchanges

When viewing Transaction Sets nested in Groups and Interchanges the Interoperability > Interoperate > ASC X12 > ASC X12 Document Viewer page allows you to walk through the document structure one level at a time.

The following display is the result of using the X12 document viewer to view a 4010:Interchange document.

The Document Viewer assigns the group document the identifier <38>.

When you click on a group document link in an X12 Interchange document display, a new browser window opens to display the group document. The document Viewer window, with the top-level parent, remains open in the original browser window.

The next display is the result of clicking the link to Group document <38>.

Note:

If there are more than 10 Groups in an Interchange or more than 10 Transaction Sets in a Group, the Document Viewer displays links to the first five and last five documents. Between the lists is a text field, into which you can enter any identifier number between the first and last numbers. After you enter a number, click Other. A new browser window opens to display the document.

The next display is the result of clicking the Transaction Set <39>. You can return to either the Group or the Interchange by clicking their respective Document ID number links.

When you are done viewing documents in the batch document hierarchy, you can close all the pop-up browser windows until the top-level parent document remains in the original document Viewer window. From here, you may return to other Management Portal activities.

Testing a Transformation

To test a transformation:

1. Check Transform Document?.

2. For Choose Data Transformation, select a data transformation.

3. For Choose Display Option, select one of the following:

   • Transformation Result Only — Display only the transformed document.

   • Original Message and Result Together — Display both the original document and the transformed document.

4. Now do either or both of the following:

   • Click OK to display the transformed document.

   • Click Save Result To File? to save the transformed document to a file. In this case, also specify a path and filename.

     The default directory is the management directory for the active namespace.