FHIR
Infrastructure
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This
page
provides
a
quick
an
overview
of
how
the
FHIR
specification
supports
validation
of
resources.
Validating a resource means, checking that the following aspects of the resource are valid:
There are multiple ways to validate resources. This table summarizes the options described in this specification, and which of the aspects above they can validate:
Method | XML | JSON | RDF | Structure | Cardinality | Values | Bindings | Invariants | Profiles | Questionnaires | Business Rules |
XML Schema |
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XML Schema + Schematron |
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JSON Schema |
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ShEx |
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Validator |
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Validation Operation 4 |
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Notes:
Note that all these validation methods are incomplete; they can only validate the computable aspects of conformance. There are always additional rules made in narrative that they are not able to check (e.g. a rule such as "All the clinically important content in the data SHALL be in the narrative", which might be made in an implementation guide, but could never be checked by a conformance tool).
In case of disagreement between these conformance methods, note that:
Also,
note
that
static
testing
of
resource
content
is
not
enough
to
prove
conformance
to
the
specification.
For
further
information,
see
FHIR
Conformance
Testing
.
Servers and clients may be configured to validate content when it is received (e.g. some of the public testing services validate resources on create/update). This can be done both during development and in production use of applications in healthcare processes. While use during the development cycle is highly recommended, use during production might not always be a good idea:
On the other hand, validation during production use may be very important:
Generally,
following
Postel's
law
is
recommended:
An implementation should be conservative in its sending behavior, and liberal in its receiving behavior.
Applications should consider carefully how much validation beyond the security related issues to perform at run-time, and how errors will be handled.
The XML schema can be used to validate XML representations of the resources. When validating a resource, you can nominate one of the following schema:
In addition, the validation schema includes schematron that can be initiated with transform "iso_svrl_for_xslt2.xsl" included in the XML Tools download. Note that XSLT2 is required to run the schematrons.
When running the schematron, use the file "fhir-invariants.sch". This includes all the schematrons. The individual schematron files for each resource are provided to allow implementers to build their own smaller combined file that covers the relevant resource types for them.
The JSON schema can be used with JSON schema validation software. Links:
The
FHIR
Validator
is
a
Java
jar
that
is
provided
as
part
of
the
specification,
and
that
is
used
during
the
publication
process
to
validate
that
all
the
published
examples.
To
execute
the
FHIR
validator,
follow
the
following
steps:
Here
is
an
example
windows
batch
file
that
demonstrates
the
process
(using
the
common
utilities
wget
and
7z
:
):
@ECHO OFF ECHO get the validator and unzip itwget http://hl7.org/fhir/STU3/validator.zip 7z.exe x validator.zip ECHO Get the validation source file (dictionary) wget http://hl7.org/fhir/STU3/definitions.xml.zipwget https://oss.sonatype.org/service/local/artifact/maven/redirect?r=snapshots&g=ca.uhn.hapi.fhir&a=org.hl7.fhir.validation.cli&v=LATEST&e=jar rename *.jar validator.jar ECHO 1. First example shows how to validate against the base spec: ECHO a. get an example to validatewget http://hl7.org/fhir/STU3/patient-example.xml -O pat-ex.xmlwget http://build.fhir.org//patient-example.xml -O pat-ex.xmlECHO b. validate it java -jar org.hl7.fhir.validator.jar pat-ex.xml -defn definitions.xml.zipECHO b. validate it against FHIR R3 java -jar org.hl7.fhir.validator.jar pat-ex.xml -version 3.0 ECHO 2. Second example shows how to validate against a profile in the spec: ECHO a. get an example to validatewget http://hl7.org/fhir/STU3/observation-example-heart-rate.xml -O obs-ex.xmlwget http://build.fhir.org//observation-example-heart-rate.xml -O obs-ex.xml ECHO b. validate itjava -jar org.hl7.fhir.validator.jar obs-ex.xml -defn definitions.xml.zip -profile http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/heartratejava -jar org.hl7.fhir.validator.jar obs-ex.xml -version 4.5.0 -profile http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/heartrate ECHO 3. Third example shows how to validate against a profile in an implementation guide: ECHO a. get an example to validatewget http://hl7.org/fhir/STU3/observation-example-heart-rate.xml -O obs-ex.xmlwget http://build.fhir.org//observation-example-heart-rate.xml -O obs-ex.xml ECHO b. validate it. note that you have to tell the validator where to get the implementation guide informationjava -jar org.hl7.fhir.validator.jar obs-ex.xml -defn definitions.xml.zip -ig http://hl7.org/fhir/us/core -profile http://hl7.org/fhir/us/core/StructureDefinition/us-core-patientjava -jar org.hl7.fhir.validator.jar obs-ex.xml -version 3.0 -ig http://hl7.org/fhir/us/core -profile http://hl7.org/fhir/us/core/StructureDefinition/us-core-patient ECHO Press Any Key to Close pause
Note that it is not necessary to download the resource first; the http address can be supplied directly:
java -jar org.hl7.fhir.validator.jar http://build.fhir.org///patient-example.html -profile http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/Patient
The
validator
requires
an
underlying
terminology
server.
By
default,
this
is
http://fhir3.healthintersections.com.au.
Use
the
parameter
-tx
to
specify
another
server.
For
a
full
list
further
details
of
the
parameters
and
options,
just
run
supported
by
the
validator.jar
without
any
parameters.
validator,
see
Using
the
FHIR
Validator
The operation validate can be used to check whether a resource conforms to a profile. The simplest way to execute this operation is to post the resource to a server:
POST [base]/Observation/$validate?profile=http://hl7.org/fhir/StructureDefinition/heartrate [other HTTP headers] <Observation>... resource to check as the body
The server will return an OperationOutcome resource listing issues found in the resource.
There are several things to consider when using this operation:
Some
servers
expose
the
$validate
functionality
though
through
a
web
page.
For
known
public
implementations,
see
the
FHIR
wiki
Confluence
page