Using Vanya
There are three key sections in Vanya.
- The FHIR server list
This is where you connect to a server, add and configure a new server and manage server groups. This page is easily accessible by clicking the “Home” button on the Vanya toolbar.
- The recently updated resources screen
Here you select a resource type and paginate through all resources in the FHIR server of that type, sorted in reverse order with the most recently updated resources first. From this screen you can select individual resources to see all elements and attributes and view the raw JSON if required. You can also click links to view connected resources.
- The FHIR search query page
One of the most important screens in Vanya, here you can enter a full search query and view the results in a hierarchical grid. You can save lists of queries to run later and quickly switch FHIR servers to run the same queries on different servers. Click here for the search query documentation.
The FHIR Server List
This is the Home page of Vanya as it would look the first time you open it. Three default servers have been configured for you to begin testing straight away. Let’s look at each part of the server list page in more detail.
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1. Configured servers list
A list of all the FHIR servers you have configured. The server name is defined by you. The URL beneath the name is the complete FHIR server URL. For very long server URLs — as are common on AWS and Google Cloud — this value may appear truncated. A yellow star will appear next to the currently active server. In the screenshot above that’s the “Firely Test Server.”
2. Connect to server button
Clicking this button will connect to the specified server making it the Active Server. You can only view data for the currently active server. When trying to connect to the server, Vanya makes a call to get the server’s CapabilityStatement. If this is not available, it attempts to make a GET request to fetch some resources. Any errors during the connection process will be displayed in a message at the bottom of the screen. Connection errors are common when you are setting up a new server, as details such as passwords or API keys are easy to get wrong.
3. Edit server button
Opens the Server Details dialog where you can change some of the server details in Vanya. Examples might be to change the Server name as it appears in Vanya or change some of the authentication details. Editing a server does not make any changes to the server itself, it only changes how that server is configured and appears in Vanya.
4. Active Server
Displays the name of the server that is currently active. This should always be the same as the server in the server list that has a yellow star before its name and is a very quick way to double check which server’s data you are looking at. You will look at this value a lot.
5. Add New Server button
This button opens the Server Details dialog where you can enter details for a new server you want to connect to. On this dialog you have options to enter authentication details, specific request headers and to assign the server to one or more groups. Learn more about configuring a server here.
6. Manage Server Groups button
Opens the server groups page. Server groups are defined by you and allow you to assign servers to one or more groups. Examples of groups you might want to create are “Dev”, “Staging”, “Production” and “Demos”. Learn more about server groups here.
7. Home and Search Query buttons
The “Home” button will always bring you back to this page, listing all of the available servers. It’s common to click this button when you want to change the active server or find a server so that you can make changes to it. The “FHIR Search Query” button opens the search query page in Vanya. This is a separate screen where you can write and run search queries, and save lists of queries to be run later.
8. Other buttons
The “Info” button tells you which beta version of Vanya you are using and when some functionality in that beta will expire. The “Help” button takes you to the Documentation page on the Vanya website, and the “Forum” button takes you to our support forum where you can ask a question or report a bug.
The Recently Updated Resources Screen
The recently updated resources screen is one of the most important and frequently used screens in Vanya. It’s commonly used to quickly view specific resources that have just been updated, often in response to code being run by a developer when building an app. At its heart is a grid that displays a specific resource type sorted in reverse update order, with the ability to drill down into an individual resource’s elements for more detail.
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1. All resources list
All 145 resources in FHIR R4 are listed here. Selecting any one of them will make a GET request to the FHIR server to load the most recently updated resources of that type. The search box at the top of the list allows you to quickly filter the list so that you can find the resource type you are looking for. This is the query that runs each time you select a resource type:
RESOURCE_TYPE?_sort=-_lastUpdated&_count=20&_total=accurate
2. Recent resources list
The recent list contains the 10 most recently accessed resource types. Every time you select a resource type from the complete resources list, that resource type moves to the top of the “Recent” list. Most users working with FHIR will use only a small subset of the available resource types. The recent list allows you to view your most commonly accessed resource types quickly, without needing to search for the resource type in the fuller list of 145 resource types.
3. Resource and result page counter
This header text tells you what you are looking at in the grid below. The example in the above screenshot makes it clear that you are viewing the first 20 Procedure resources out of a total of 316 resources. The contents of this header may vary depending on the FHIR server you are accessing. For example, not all FHIR servers support the “_total=accurate” parameter, which means the total count of 316 resources might not appear for those servers.
4. Pagination links
Next and Previous links allow you to move through the pages of results. This is a useful way to see recently updated resources beyond the first page of results, but is not effective for more detailed browsing or searching for individual resources, as the number of resources in a particular server might be very high. For this, you need to write search queries on the “FHIR Search Query” page. Learn more about running search queries in Vanya here.
5. Id and Identifier search box
After you load results for a specific resource type, the search box at the top left of the screen lefts you perform a quick FHIR search based on either a resource ID or a resource Identifier. Examples of permitted FHIR searches in this input box are:
- 7a884c64-d9fd-41d7-88cf-c9c2b3512865
A logical ID for a patient resource in the Vanya test server.
- http://hl7.org/fhir/sid/us-ssn|999-70-3833
A complete system and value Identifier on the same server.
- 999-70-3833
An identifier value from the same server.
A search using the logical ID should return no more than one result, while an identifier search may return multiple results as Identifier is not a unique value for a FHIR resource type.
6. Selected Procedure & JSON tabs
The resource that is selected in the grid view is expanded in the right section of the screen. The two available views are the “Selected” and the “JSON” views. “Selected” will display every common element in the resource in a human readable way, including links to resources linked via resource references. It will not display contained resources or the meta element. The JSON view will show you the complete raw JSON for the resource, and is useful when you want to see what is actually returned by the FHIR server — including the meta element and any contained resources.
7. Connected resources
Connected resources are clickable links and always appear as blue text. If the resource had been given a “display” value in the FHIR reference element, that display value will appear in the text. Otherwise the resource type — “Patient”, “Encounter” — will appear. Clicking on the link will open a new page that displays full details of the connected resource. If a resource reference is not rendering as a clickable link, it may be because the reference is linking to another FHIR server or because the underlying data in incorrectly constructed.
8. Last updated date
Your local time when the resource was updated. This may differ from the value in the resource’s meta section as displayed in the JSON tab, as the JSON view shows the raw data unconverted to local time.
9. CodeableConcept examples
When a CodeableConcept is displayed in the grid view, it is not completely rendered. If a “text” element is present in the CodeableConcept, that value is displayed first. If no “text” is present, Coding “display” values are used. If no Coding “display” values exist, the code itself is displayed. Selecting the resource in the grid and viewing it in the JSON tab will always show you the complete data for the resource, including every attribute of every CodeableConcept.
10. Conformance checkbox
Switched on by default, the conformance checker will validate all resources and elements against the R4 specification. If any errors are found in a resource, a warning icon will appear in the grid next to the resource and a detailed message explaining the error will be displayed in the Selected resource section to the right. Learn more about Conformance errors.
Connected Resources Screen with JSON
When you click on a resource reference link inside Vanya’s result grid, a new page opens showing you full details of that individual resource. You can view the resource details and raw JSON just as you can for a full grid of resources.
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1. Return button
Clicking the return button will always bring you back to the same page of results you were on previously. If you had been viewing a search query result set, the previous page of results will open in the same hierarchical state you left it — any open rows in the grid will be open again.
2. Copy JSON button
This button copies the contents of the JSON tab to your clipboard, with JSON formatting. This is a very useful way to copy a resource prior to updating it in Postman or another API client, or prior to creating a new resource similar to the existing one.
3. Raw JSON
The JSON content of the resource as it was passed back from the FHIR API. If there is ever any doubt about what was returned from the FHIR server, this is where you should look, as the result grid and the “Selected” tab are often incomplete. While the raw JSON tab is rarely used during a business demo, it is commonly used by developers working with FHIR who need to see exactly what was returned by the server.