Newsletter: June 2006
Chameleon Enhancement: Python Functionality
iNTERFACEWARE continues to deliver advanced features for its core Chameleon HL7 messaging engine.
Development effort in early 2006 has been directed towards Chameleon and Iguana features which enhance operations and maintenance. This improvement to Chameleon answers the question:
How can I see where all my Python script is, and how it will be executed in my VMD mapping project files? What benefits are there for this?
Among the latest features in Chameleon is that there is a new menu option called "Global Python Overview" which collects and displays all Python script contained in the current VMD project file.
- If you right-click on a message definition it displays Python code associated specifically with the message.
- Look carefully at the header information which will show what settings were active when the report was generated. This notes whether the report shows comments that are specific to a message definition or that are global, and whether PassThru mapping is enabled.
- The comments at the top of each Python code segment will document whether it is for PassThru, Global InBound, Outbound Pre or Post processing, Segments In/Out, or Tables In/Out.
- The order of presentation is intended to follow the order of execution for mapping.
- Inbound: global in, segment in, table in.
- Outbound: Pre-process, outbound PassThru, table out, segment out, Post-process.
- If PassThru is enabled then the code is commented for special situations.
- e.g. "Note: Not executed during passthru mapping" and "Note: Only executed in passthru if apply_transform()"
- A FIND feature has been added. In a Global Python Overview window you can access the Find and Find Next via CTRL-F or right click in the window.
What uses might you have for this feature?
Having the ability to extract a summary of all the Python script used in a VMD project file is very useful for interface testing and maintenance.
Over time, the original author for a project may change, or recollection of the methods used may be forgotten so this feature can be used as a resource to analyze the execution strategy for a mapping project. You may also wish to use the editor's capabilities to make changes and then paste these back into a modified VMD project.