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Question 1]
When checking the reference implementation example at : http://fhirtest.uhn.ca

I see that the search for http://fhirtest.uhn.ca/baseDstu2/Patient?namE=Meier returns and error message like:

{
    "resourceType":"OperationOutcome",
    "issue":[
        {
            "severity":"error",
            "diagnostics":"Invalid request: The FHIR endpoint on this server does not know how to handle GET operation[Patient] with parameters [[namE]]"
        }
    ]
}

Is this defined in the Fhir specification or is it up to the server how to deal with this?

(I found some question/response for REST API here: Should a REST API be case sensitive or non case sensitive?)


Question 2]
What about camel-cased properties like "referencedOrganization", should the query parameter also be lower-cased and look like : http://fhirtest.uhn.ca/baseDstu2/Patient?referencedorganization=abc

Community
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Stef Heyenrath
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2 Answers2

1

  1. parameters are specified to be case sensitive though since servers can choose to support their own additional parameters, servers can choose not to enforce case sensitivity

  2. the query parameter doesn't have be the same as a property name. The list of parameter names that are defined in the standard comes after the resource (e.g. here: http://hl7.org/fhir/patient.html#search)

Grahame Grieve
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  • About 1 : Do you have a link to Fhir specification which defines that it should be case sensitive. And what do you advice ? – Stef Heyenrath Sep 25 '15 at 13:15
  • About 2: The property name was just an example, I was just wondering how to deal with parameters with a 'long name' and would normally use camel-casing? Because on the example server I see only 'short' property names. – Stef Heyenrath Sep 25 '15 at 13:17
1

Link is here: http://hl7.org/fhir/dstu2/search.html#conformance "Servers are not required to enforce case sensitivity on parameter names, though the names are case sensitive (and URLs are generally case-sensitive)."

Longer names can be separated with dashes.

Lloyd McKenzie
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  • Longer names CAN or SHOULD be separated by dashes? What's your advice ? – Stef Heyenrath Sep 25 '15 at 13:46
  • fhir internal naming standard is to separate with dashes, though we don't always follow it. You wouldn't be non-conformant if you don't separate, but you'll be less readable. (On the other hand, you'll be using a couple fewer bytes and some implementers seem to really care about that . . .) – Lloyd McKenzie Sep 25 '15 at 18:38