overview (1K)

The VistaWeb XML Site Files
VistaWeb can acquire its site information from either one or two XML files. The first governs what login and patient lookup sites will be available, the second governs what sites data will be acquired from. Typically, the second file is the complete list of VHA sites.

VhaVisnTable
This is the root element. It contains a variable number of VhaVisn elements.

VhaVisn
This element holds VISN information. It has two attributes, name and ID. ID is the VISN number. Each VhaVisn element contains a variable number of VhaSite elements.

VhaSite
This element holds site information. It has three required attributes, name, ID and moniker. ID is the site code, moniker is the 3 character designation typically found in a site's computer machine name. An optional attribute is displayname, which is shown to the user. If displayname is missing, name is used instead. Each VisnSite element contains a variable number of DataSource elements.

DataSource
This element holds the information necessary to communicate with a data source. The required attributes are modality, protocol, source and status. Possible values for modality include HIS, ECG, RADIOLOGY, CARDIOLOGY. Possible values for protocol include VISTA, HDR, HL7, DICOM, ODBC. Modality tells MDO what kind of data to expect, protocol tells MDO what method to use to acquire it. At this time, all VHA sites have at least one data source with modality HIS and protocol VISTA. The source attribute tells MDO where to get the data. This could be a hostname, an IP address, a file name (as in an XML file). The port attribute is used when the data source is using some port other than the default for that modality. Other attributes include vendor, version, description and provider.