How to Integrate Data from Mirth Connect to Laravel

Mirth Connect is an open-source healthcare integration engine that enables healthcare providers to exchange and process health information across different systems. Laravel is a popular PHP framework for building web applications. In this blog post, we’ll guide you through the steps to integrate data from Mirth Connect into your Laravel application.

Procedure

Step 1: Get API Credentials

• To access Mirth Connect’s API, you’ll need to obtain API credentials such as an API key, username, password, or any other necessary authentication parameters. You can obtain these credentials from your Mirth Connect administrator.

Step 2: Install GuzzleHttp Package

• To make HTTP requests to Mirth Connect’s API, we’ll use the GuzzleHttp package. You can install it in your Laravel project by running the following command in your terminal:

#Bash
composer require guzzlehttp/guzzle

Step 3: Create a New Laravel Controller

• In your Laravel project, create a new controller by running the following command:

#go
php artisan make:controller MirthConnectController

• This will create a new controller named MirthConnectController.php in the app/Http/Controllers directory.

Step 4: Import GuzzleHttp Package

• In the newly created controller, import the GuzzleHttp package at the top of the file by adding the following line:

#arduino
use GuzzleHttp\Client;

Step 5: Connect to Mirth Connect API

• Create a new function in MirthConnectController to connect to Mirth Connect API, fetch data, and process it. For example, you can create a function named getData like this:

#Php
public function getData()
{
    $client = new Client(['base_uri' => 'http://localhost:8001/api']);
    $response = $client->request('GET', '/data', [
        'auth' => [env('MIRTH_CONNECT_USERNAME'), env('MIRTH_CONNECT_PASSWORD')],
        'headers' => [
            'Accept' => 'application/json'
        ]
    ]);
    $data = json_decode($response->getBody()->getContents(), true);

    // Process the data as per your requirements
}

• In this example, we are using GuzzleHttp’s Client to send a GET request to the /data the endpoint of Mirth Connect API, passing the username and password in the authentication header. We then retrieve the response body and process it as needed.

Step 6: Create a Route

• Finally, create a route to access this controller function. For example, you can add the following line to your routes/web.php file:

#Arduino
Route::get('/mirth-connect', [MirthConnectController::class, 'getData']);

• This will create a route at /mirth-connect that will trigger the getData function in your MirthConnectController when accessed.

Conclusion

In this blog post, we walked you through the steps to integrate data from Mirth Connect to your Laravel application. By following these steps, you can access and process health information from Mirth Connect’s API in your Laravel application. Remember to add error handling and validation as necessary to ensure a robust integration. Happy coding!