ACK message schema types in BizTalk Server

Acknowledgment message schemas come in two forms:

  • General acknowledgment (ACK). You can use a general acknowledgment (ACK) where the application does not define a special line-of-business application level acknowledgment message or where an error occurred that precludes application processing. You can also use it for accept level acknowledgments. The following table lists the ACK message structure.

    ACK^varies^ACK General acknowledgment Chapter
    MSH Message Header 2
    MSA Message Acknowledgment 2
    [ ERR ] Error 2
  • Delayed acknowledgment (MCF). This message exists only for backward compatibility with HL7 Version 2.1. You use it as part of the protocol that creates a generic form of an asynchronous application level acknowledgment, the MCF message. The following table lists the MCF message structure.

    MCF^varies^ACK Delayed Acknowledgment Chapter
    MSH Message Header 2
    MSA Message Acknowledgment 2
    [ ERR ] Error 2

    Acknowledgment messages have the MSH9 field set as either ACK^<trigger event>^ACK or MCF^<trigger event>^ACK. As a result, the first component of MSH9 is sufficient to determine the ACK schema. The document name that the Microsoft BizTalk Accelerator for HL7 (BTAHL7) pipeline uses always contains HL7 as the namespace. The type name is the contents of the MSH9_1 field, which is ACK or MCF. As a result, as in the example above, the BTAHL7 pipeline looks for a schema with the names HL7.ACK or HL7.MCF, depending on the value of the MSH9_1 field. The schema for the message body is the same for all 2.X version messages.

Note

In a batch in/batch out ACK scenario, the contents of the ACK header is as follows:

  • BTAHL7 sets MSH1, 2, 8 and 15 to what you configure in the user interface.

  • BTAHL7 sets MSH7 to the system time.

  • BTAHL7 sets MSH9 to ACK.

  • BTAHL7 sets MSH12 to 2.4 or 2.5.

See Also

Creating and Processing Acknowledgments Message Acknowledgment Segment Setting Up a Send Port for Receiving ACKs Acknowledgment Error Conditions