Import Real-Time FHIR Data in ColdFusion to Build Applications


Use CData ODBC drivers to import and use FHIR data in ColdFusion.

Adobe ColdFusion is a web and mobile application development platform. It uses its own scripting language, ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML), to create data-driven websites as well as generate remote services, such as REST. When ColdFusion is paired with the CData ODBC Driver for FHIR, you can link your ColdFusion web and mobile applications to operational FHIR data. This allows for your applications to be more robust and complete. This article details how to use the ODBC driver to create a table populated with FHIR data from within a ColdFusion markup file.

To follow along with this tutorial, you need to install the CData ODBC Driver for FHIR and Adobe ColdFusion.

Configuring the Connection

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (Data Source Name). This is the last step of the driver installation process. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Set URL to the Service Base URL of the FHIR server. This is the address where the resources are defined in the FHIR server you would like to connect to. Set ConnectionType to a supported connection type. Set ContentType to the format of your documents. Set AuthScheme based on the authentication requirements for your FHIR server.

Generic, Azure-based, AWS-based, and Google-based FHIR server implementations are supported.

Sample Service Base URLs

  • Generic: http://my_fhir_server/r4b/
  • Azure: https://MY_AZURE_FHIR.azurehealthcareapis.com/
  • AWS: https://healthlake.REGION.amazonaws.com/datastore/DATASTORE_ID/r4/
  • Google: https://healthcare.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/LOCATION/datasets/DATASET_ID/fhirStores/FHIR_STORE_ID/fhir/

Generic FHIR Instances

The product supports connections to custom instances of FHIR. Authentication to custom FHIR servers is handled via OAuth (read more about OAuth in the Help documentation. Before you can connect to custom FHIR instances, you must set ConnectionType to Generic.

Adding a Data Source and Creating a Table

After creating a DSN, follow the steps below to add a new data source, test our connection to it, create a ColdFusion markup file, and, finally, import FHIR FHIR data and display it in a table in ColdFusion:

  1. From the ColdFusion administrator interface, choose Data & Services.
  2. Here, click "Add New Data Source". The data source name can be any name, provided it conforms to the ColdFusion variable naming conventions. For our ODBC driver, choose "ODBC Socket", then click the "Add" button.
  3. From the ODBC DSN Dropdown menu select CData FHIR Sys. Under the Advanced Settings section, leave the Connection String blank. Note that any properties specified in this input field will override the ones specified in the DSN Configuration.
  4. Now, test the connection by pressing the check mark to the left of the CDataFHIRODBC data source you just created. When the data source reports an "OK" status, it is ready for use.
  5. Next, create a new ColdFusion Markup file (.cfm) and place it in the wwwroot directory ("C:\ColdFusion2021\cfusion\wwwroot") for ColdFusion.

    The following code queries the data source: 

                
        <cfquery name="FHIRQuery" dataSource="CDataFHIRODBC"> 
          SELECT * FROM Patient 
        </cfquery>
    And a CFTable can be used to quickly output the table in HTML: 
                
          <cftable  
          query = "FHIRQuery" 
          border = "1" 
          colHeaders 
          colSpacing = "2" 
          headerLines = "2" 
          HTMLTable 
          maxRows = "500" 
          startRow = "1"> 

          <cfcol header="<b>Id</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="Id"/> 

          <cfcol header="<b>[name-use]</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="[name-use]"/> 

          ...

        </cftable>
    Full code, including the HTML portion is available below: 
                
        <html> 
        <head><title>CData Software | FHIR Patient Table Demo </title></head> 
        <body> 
        <cfoutput>#ucase("FHIR Patient Table Demo")#</cfoutput> 
        <cfquery name="FHIRQuery" dataSource="CDataFHIRODBC"> 

          SELECT * FROM Patient 

        </cfquery> 
        <cftable  
          query = "FHIRQuery" 
          border = "1" 
          colHeaders 
          colSpacing = "2" 
          headerLines = "2" 
          HTMLTable 
          maxRows = "500" 
          startRow = "1"> 
          <cfcol header="<b>Id</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="Id"/> 

          <cfcol header="<b>[name-use]</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="[name-use]"/> 

          ...

        </cftable> 
        </body> 

        </html>
  6. Finally, run the code in a browser. It produces a table populated with FHIR data!

As a note, the CData ODBC Drivers also support parameterized queries using the cfqueryparam element. For example: SELECT * FROM Account WHERE name =

Get Started Today

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData ODBC Driver for FHIR and start building FHIR-connected applications with Adobe ColdFusion. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the FHIR ODBC Driver to get started:

 Download Now

Learn more:

FHIR Icon FHIR ODBC Driver

The FHIR ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from FHIR, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access FHIR data like you would a database - read, write, and update FHIR 0, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

In this article

Related articles