Subscriptions

Aidbox subscriptions module is a way to subscribe and get notifications about updating resources on the server. It is a common denominator of FHIR R4/R5 subscriptions specification with some extensions.
This module introduces two new resources into Aidbox:
SubsSubscription — meta-resource which binds events (create/update/delete resource) with a communication channel through which subscriber is notified about changes.
SubsNotification — resource which represents notification with its status (sent or not).
Aidbox doesn't delete SubsNotification resources by itself. Simple way to implement retention policy is creating a cron job. Let us know if there is more clear way.
See tutorial "Subscribe to new Patient resource"​
Your service can register subscription by POST SubsSubscription resource:
POST /SubsSubscription
​
id: myservice-subs
​
status: active # 'active' is default, if 'off' - subscription is disabled
# Subscribe to all changes of Patient and Person resources
trigger:
  # resource type
  Patient: 
    event: ['all'] # can be all | create | update | delete
    # collection of filters
    filter:
    # use matcho engine to filter resources
    - matcho: { active: true }
  Person:
    event: ['all']
​
# how to deliver notifications
channel:
  type: rest-hook 
  # url to send hook
  endpoint: https://myservice/subs/patient
  # headers to add to request (for consistency use lowercase names)
  headers:
    Authorization: Bearer <......>
  # recomended timeout for web hook in ms, server may use it's own
  timeout:  1000
  payload:
    # this is default value, you can use id-only
    content: full-resource # full-resource | id-only
    # means aidbox format, or fhir+json to get resource in FHIR format
    contentType: json # json | fhir+json
   
​
Trigger format
Subscription.trigger is a key-value object, where key is resource type and each value can contain a collection of events (values can be 'all', 'create', 'update', 'delete') and .filter collection. For now filter support matcho engine (FHIRPath and FHIR Search filters are coming soon):
trigger:
 Encounter:
   filter:
     - matcho: { class: {code: 'inpatient'} }
     - matcho: { type: { coding: [{code: 'Sometype'}]}
Filter matches if at least one of item in the collection matches, i.e. collection has or semantic.
Protocol
After you registered subscription, Aidbox sends on channel.endpoint handshake notification in json format. It's good if your service responds with status: 200
POST https://myservice/subs/patient
Content-Type: application/json
... channel.headers ...
​
{
   "type": "handshake",
   "subscription": { ...SubsSubscription resource content... }
}
On every trigger event Aidbox will send a notification to your service endpoint. Your service has to respond with status: 200 and optional json body.
POST https://myservice/subs/patient
Content-Type: application/json
... channel.headers ...
​
{
   "id": <unique-id>,
   "type": "notification",
   "event": "create", # update | delete
   "resource":  {"resourceType": "Patient", ..... }
}
Results of all notifications are logged into SubsNotification resource:
GET /SubsNotification
​
---
id: <unique-id>
subscription: { id: 'myservice-subs', resourceType: SubsSubscription }
duration: 23 # hook duration in ms
status: success # fail
notification: <notification content>
response: <response content if present>
SubsSubscription/<id>/$handshake
You can force a handshake notification for the specific subscription with:
POST /SubsSubscription/<sub-id>/$handshake
​
# response
​
resourceType: SubsNotification
notification:
  type: handshake
  debug: true
  subscription: ...
subscription: {resourceType: SubsSubscription, id: <sub-id>}
duration: 1
status: failed
error: {message: Connection refused}
SubsSubscription/<id>/$debug
To debug subscription notifications, you can send debug messages with:
POST /SubsSubscription/<sub-id>/$debug
​
id: notif-id
event: create
type: notification
resource: 
  resourceType: Patient
  id: pt-1
​
# response
​
resourceType: SubsNotification
notification:
  type: notification
  resource: {id: pt-1, resourceType: Patient}
  debug: true
subscription: {resourceType: SubsSubscription, id: <sub-id>}
duration: 1
status: failed
error: {message: Connection refused}
SubsNotification/$notify (not implemented yet)
Or you can send a list of notifications by providing a list of search params:
POST /SubsNotification/$notify?_id=id-1,id-2,id-3
SubsNotification/<id>/$notify
You can resend the specific notification with
POST /SubsNotification/<notif-id>/$notify
​
# response
​
status: ...
duration: ...
notification: ....
response: ...
/subs/webhook (not implemented yet)
You can subscribe one instance of Aidbox to notifications from another instance and replicate data between boxes by using /subs/webhook/<source-id> endpoint:
POST /SubsSubscription
​
id: box-replication
status: active
trigger:
  Patient: { event: ['all'] }
channel:
  type: rest-hook
  endpoint: <other-box-url>/subs/webhook/box-1
  headers:
    Authorization: Bearer <token>
​
Changes API
FHIR R4/Subscriptions
Last updated 6 months ago