Cloverleaf - The Swiss Army Knife for Data Conversions

With Cloverleaf's easy to use tools, data conversion is no longer a nightmare. This article provides a detailed product description, as well as administration tips.

Questions regarding this article should be directed to the author at christa54@aol.com .

What is Cloverleaf?

Cloverleaf is a graphical-data integration tool that allows information in the form of messages, records, or transactions to be exchanged, routed, and translated between dissimilar systems and applications.

The tool is very popular in the health care industry because it supports healthcare data standards HL7, X12 and EDIFACT. However, use of Cloverleaf is not limited to those in the health care industry. Cloverleaf's features are suitable for any business or organization.

The Cloverleaf Integration tool is available on the following hardware platforms/operating systems:

IBM/AIX
DEC/Digital UNIX
HP/HP-UX
Sun/SunOS
Sun/Solaris
Intel/Windows NT

Cloverleaf is a product of HCI - Healthcare Communications Inc.
For more information contact HCI at:

Healthcare Communications, Inc.
15301 Dallas Parkway
Dallas, TX.  75248-4605
Voi
ce: 1-214-851-7033
Fax:   1-214-851-7045
EMail: info@healthcare.com
Web:   
http://www.healthcare.com

Healthcare Communications Inc. provides Cloverleaf users with 24-hour phone support and online documentation that can is accessed through the integration tool's GUI interface.

The integration tool is packaged with an installation guide, a user's guide and programmer's guide. These books are very well written with step-by-step procedures for installing and operating Cloverleaf as well as writing Tcl procedures. These documents can also be found within the online documentation.

For more information about HCI support visit their Support Web page .

Product Features

GUI and command-line interfaces

The Cloverleaf System can be accessed through either an X Window System/Motif GUI interface or the Unix shell c ommand line.

All Cloverleaf commands begin with the string ``hci'' so their names won't conflict Unix operating system commands. For example the command hcistartengine sample_engine will start the specified engine ``sample_engine.''

Command-line access is more efficient if an administrator needs to access the Cloverleaf server via modem because the Cloverleaf GUI interface is very slow over phone lines. With the ability to access Cloverleaf at a Unix shell prompt, administrators can do a majority of the Cloverleaf tasks without using the GUI interface. All Cloverleaf configuration files are stored in plain ASCII text, so conversion interfaces can be modified using the command-line interface.

The GUI Interface is invoked by specifying the shell-level hciaccess command at a terminal screen provided by the Xterm application in an X Window System environment. This program will bring up a main menu with icons to access all aspects of the Cloverleaf system.

Online and Batch Processing

Cloverleaf supports ``real time'' and batch processing conversion of files as well as powerful on-line transactions. The Cloverleaf engine can connect to other servers to acquire files, process the files on the Cloverleaf server, and return them to the original server. It supports TCP/IP, DECNet, Numfile, LU2, LU3, LU 6.2 APPC, and Link Async.

Maintaining different ``Sites'' on one server

Cloverleaf allows users to build and maintain different sites, where ``sites'' are separate environments. It is like having more than one Cloverleaf server on one machine, with the ability to run sites simultaneously. This is particularly helpful if administrators would like to isolate test interfaces from ``live'' interfaces or have a large number of interfaces.

Tool Command Language (Tcl)

Tcl is a non-proprietary, full-featured language for controlling and extending applications. Tcl provides generic programming facilities, such as variabl es, loops and procedures. You can learn some of the Tcl basics from this UnixWorld Online tutorial article, entitled ``An Introduction to Tcl and Tk'' .

Cloverleaf supports use of Tcl in the building of complex data interfaces and provides a tool to test Tcl scripts.

Administration Tips

Year 2000 issues

Cloverleaf stores dates internally in a data structure that supports centuries so all versions of Cloverleaf are year 2000 compliant.

There are issues that arise pertaining to Cloverleaf's ability to perform date conversions for software systems that would otherwise be unable to share data. If all the data being processed through Cloverleaf uses four digit dates (both the century and year) there are no issues with the date conversions Cloverleaf performs. However, if the data sent to Cloverleaf contains a two digit date, Cloverleaf adds the current century to the year given. For exa mple, 01/01/97 becomes 01/01/1997.

Scripting Batch Operations

The ability to access the system through the operating system shell makes scripting processes very easy. It allows you to use both Cloverleaf commands and Unix commands together. This is particularly helpful, say, when writing scripts to start and stop batch processing. Administrators can use the Unix cron facility to schedule processes to run at night, when users are off the system and system load is often light.

Cloverleaf Daemons

There are three daemons that must be running on the Unix server in order for the Cloverleaf engine to process files:

`lockmgr`	Controls access to the error and recovery database
`hcistatusd`	Monitors the status of all Cloverleaf processes
`hcialertd`	Watches the site' s conditions and sends alerts if problems arise.

From my experiences with the latest version of Cloverleaf for the AIX operating system, these daemons have a tendency to ``die.'' If an interface is not running properly a good thing to investigate first are the daemons. The daemons can be restarted through the GUI interface or on the command line by using the hcisitectl command.

Level 1 Cloverleaf Training

The Cloverleaf Technical Training Level 1 class is a one-week course dealing with the topics: interfacing technology, methods and application training. Attendees will learn to create and test flat-record layouts, create translations, configure an example network and run the Cloverleaf engine.

The final day of class is a one half-day certification exam. Upon successful completion of the exam attendees will be certified as Cloverleaf Technicians.

Prerequisites:
Knowledge of Unix and basic Unix commands. Visit HCI's prerequisite list for more details.

Level 2 Cloverleaf Training

The Cloverleaf Technical Training Level 2 class is also a one-week course, but deals with more advanced topics, such as configuring a Cloverleaf network, monitoring message flow, writing Tcl procedures and the use of database routines.

The final day of class is a one half-day certification exam. Upon successful completion of the exam attendees will be certified as Cloverleaf Analysts.

Prerequisites:
Attendees must be certified as Cloverleaf Technicians and have a good understanding of Tcl programming.

For more information about these and other Cloverleaf classes visit HCI's Training Web page .

Summary on Cloverleaf

Cloverleaf is possibly the most technically advanced integration engine available. It incorporates user-friendly GUI-based, object-oriented development, testing and monitoring tools. Cloverleaf is reliable and provides users with easy to use tools and is essential for managing large and highly integrated database information.

HCI's training, documentation, and 24-hour support provider Cloverleaf users with great information resources to help administer Cloverleaf.

Author Biography

Christa McHugh is a recent graduate of Saint Joseph's University .
She is currently working as a Computer Associate for CIBER Inc. in Tampa, Florida.
Christa is a Certified Cloverleaf Technician.