Interfaces

For transmitting data, local and central systems use web services as interfaces for each other to communicate. In the local side, legacy systems in health bureaus may need to update their databases with vaccination records received from central system, so they must provide Update interface. For the service of looking up information about vaccines of medical institutions and health agencies, every legacy system has to provide GetInfo interface, though which central system can get the information.

In the central side, the central system provides Download and Upload interfaces to health bureaus. Health bureaus can get records from central database or transfer new records to central database. However, because of the consideration to personal privacy, contracted medical institutions should not have the authority to directly access to central database, so they can not use the two interfaces. There is another interface, Referral, is provided by central system. When referral procedure is needed, local systems (including any contracted medical institution and health agencies) can use the interface to send new records to central database and also update another local database with the records. The interfaces provided by local systems and central system and the annotations are arranged in the following table 4.

Table 4 Interfaces Provided by Local and Central Systems

*Only systems of Health Bureaus can use the Download and Upload interfaces

Interfaces Annotations Update Update local DB with new records (only

provided by systems of Health Bureaus) Local Web Services

GetInfo Get information about vaccines Download Get records from central DB*

Upload Send new records to central DB*

Central Web Services

Referral Send new records to central DB and also update another local DB with the records

5.3.3 Operations

According to what kind of service is used, the components operate in one of the four different processes.

a. When service of looking up vaccination record is used

Figure 18 Operations of Looking Up Personal Vaccination Records

1. When a general user uses the web pages to look up his vaccination record, the web page send the identity and password of the user to Controller.

2. Controller then calls the Authenticate module to check the identity and password.

3. Authenticate module get the account data that are stored in a XML database to contrast with the inputted password.

4. If the id/password is correct, the Controller then sends the request to central database management portion.

5. Central database management portion return the queried vaccination record to controller.

6. Controller dynamically shows the vaccination record on the web pages.

b. When service of looking up information about vaccines is used

Figure 19 Operations of Looking Up Information about Vaccines

1. When a general user uses the web pages to look up information about vaccines in medical institutions, the web page send the search conditions entered by the user to controller.

2. Controller calls the Discovery module to find the web services provided by the health agencies or medical institutions involved with the requested information

3. Discovery module find the WSDL files of the involved medical institutions, which are stored in the XML database

4. Controller then connects to the local web services according to the descriptions in the WSDL files, and uses the GetInfo interface to sends the request.

5. The local web services send query to data mapping portion.

6. Data mapping portion in local system return the queried data in XML format to the local web service.

7. The local web service transmits the data to Controller.

8. Controller dynamically shows the information on the web pages.

c. When services of accessing central database from local is used

Figure 20 Operations of Accessing Central Database from Local When local system want to upload data to central database

1. The data in XML format produced by data mapping portion is send to proxy of central web services.

2. The proxy of central web services transmits the data to central system through the Upload interface.

3. The central web services pass the data and parameters to controller.

4. Controller then passes the data to the central database management portion for updating.

When local system want to download data to central database

1.~4. Differing from uploading operations, data mapping portion only sends the query command through Download interface but not XML formatted data. Controller passes the query to the central database management portion.

5.~8. The requested data is return by the central database management portion, and transmitted back to local system through the connection established when sending the query command.

d. When service of automatic referral is used

Figure 21 Operations of Referral

1. When the data in legacy system A needs to be transmitted to another legacy system B, the data from data mapping portion is passed to the proxy of central web service.

2. The proxy of central web services transmits the data to central system through the Referral interface.

3. The central web services pass the data and parameters to controller.

4. Controller first passes the data to the central database management portion for updating.

5. Then controller calls the Discovery module to find the web services provided by B 6. Discovery module find the WSDL file of B in the XML database

7. Controller then connects to the local web services according to the descriptions in the WSDL files, and uses the Update interface to send the data.

8. The local web service passes the data to data mapping portion for updating.