Build FHIR-Connected Web Apps with Axios and CData Connect AI

Axios is a JavaScript library that allows developers to make HTTP requests to servers from a web browser or Node.js. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get access to live FHIR data for your web apps. This article shows how to connect to FHIR and build web apps in Axios with access to live FHIR data.

Connect to FHIR from Axios

To work with FHIR in Axios, we need to connect to FHIR from Connect AI, provide user access to the connection, and create a Workspace for the FHIR data.

Connect to FHIR from Connect AI

CData Connect AI uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection

2. Select "FHIR" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to FHIR.

   Set URL to the Service Base URL of the FHIR server. This is the address where the resources are defined in the FHIR server you would like to connect to. Set ConnectionType to a supported connection type. Set ContentType to the format of your documents. Set AuthScheme based on the authentication requirements for your FHIR server.

   Generic, Azure-based, AWS-based, and Google-based FHIR server implementations are supported.

   Sample Service Base URLs

   • Generic: http://my_fhir_server/r4b/
   • Azure: https://MY_AZURE_FHIR.azurehealthcareapis.com/
   • AWS: https://healthlake.REGION.amazonaws.com/datastore/DATASTORE_ID/r4/
   • Google: https://healthcare.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/LOCATION/datasets/DATASET_ID/fhirStores/FHIR_STORE_ID/fhir/

   Generic FHIR Instances

   The product supports connections to custom instances of FHIR. Authentication to custom FHIR servers is handled via OAuth (read more about OAuth in the Help documentation. Before you can connect to custom FHIR instances, you must set ConnectionType to Generic.

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add FHIR Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
   
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

Configure FHIR Endpoints for Axios

After connecting to FHIR, create a workspace for your desired table(s).

1. Navigate to the Workspaces page and click Add to create a new Workspace (or select an existing workspace). 👁 The Workspaces page.
   👁 Adding a new Workspace.
   
2. Click Add to add new assets to the Workspace.
3. Select the FHIR connection (e.g. FHIR1) and click Next. 👁 Selecting an Asset (Salesforce is shown).
   
4. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm. 👁 Selecting Tables (Salesforce is shown).
   
5. Make note of the OData Service URL for your workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}

With the connection, PAT, and Workspace configured, you are ready to connect to FHIR data from Axios.

Connect to FHIR Data in Axios Workflows

To establish a connection from Axios to CData Connect AI using the OData protocol, follow these steps.

1. Create a project directory for your web app. For example: ~/connect_cloud/
2. Open a terminal, navigate the the project directory and initialize a node project using the command:

   npm init -y

3. Install the Axios dependency in the project using the following command:

   npm install axios

4. In your project directory, create a file called server.js that contains the following code. Provide your CData Connect AI username (e.g. [email protected]) and PAT (the PAT you created in the prerequisites). You must also provide a query for your data, such as SELECT * FROM FHIR1.SCHEMA.Patient.

   server.js code

    const axios = require('axios')
   
    const user = '[email protected]'
    const pat = '***********************************';
   
    //Your API endpoint
    const url = 'https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}';
   
    //Your data to be sent in the POST request
    const data = {
    "query":"SELECT * FROM {workspace_name}.SCHEMA.Patient"
    };
   
    axios.post(url, data, {
    auth: {
    username: user,
    password: pat
    }
    })
    .then(response => {
    const rows = response.data.results[0].rows;
    const schema = response.data.results[0].schema;
   
    //Create an array of column names
    const columnNames = schema.map(col => col.columnName);
   
    //Loop through each row and log the column name with its value
    rows.forEach(row => {
    const rowObject = {};
    row.forEach((value, index) => {
    const columnName = columnNames[index];
    rowObject[columnName] = value;
    });
    console.log(rowObject);
    })
    })
    .catch(error => {
    console.error('Error:', error);
    });
    

5. In the terminal, execute the following command to run the server:

   node server.js

   The query results will appear:

    { ID: 1, VALUE: -2 }
    { ID: 2, VALUE: 1 }
    { ID: 11, VALUE: null }
    { ID: 3, VALUE: 2 }
    { ID: 4, VALUE: 5 }
    ...

Simplified Access to FHIR Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct connection to live FHIR data from Axios. For more information on gaining simplified access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources in cloud applications like Axios, refer to our Connect AI page.