How to GET associated ActivityDefinitions for a specific PlanDefinition FHIR v1.9.0

Question

FHIR stu3

tried this: http://fhirtest.uhn.ca/baseDstu3/PlanDefinition/20630?_revinclude=ActivityDefinition based on the example from : http://build.fhir.org/search.html#include but it returned 400 Bad Request

thanks

Answer 1

There are 4 issues with your syntax:

1. _revinclude is a parameter for the search operation. Searches use the "type" endpoint (i.e. [base]/[resource]). Your format is for a read ([base]/[resource]/[id]). Reads only return a single resource, not a bundle and they don't take most parameters (you can do _format, but that's about it)
2. _revinclude needs to identify both the resource and the search parameter. E.g. ActivityDefinition:plandefinition, not just ActivityDefinition
3. The reference in the resources isn't from ActivityDefinition to PlanDefinition, but from PlanDefinition to ActivityDefinition. So you don't actually need a reverse-include. A simple _include is what you need given that your focus is already PlanDefinition
4. There's no standard search parameter on PlanDefinition to search based on ActivityDefinitions - and both _include and _revinclude are based on search parameters (because that's what servers index).

Because of the 4th issue, you're not going to be able to execute this test against any of the public test servers - unless you make special arrangements, they only support core search criteria. However, on your own system, you're free to define your own search criteria. If you were to do that, you ought to be able to make the query work using the following url:

[base]/PlanDefinition?_id=20630&_include=activitydefinition

(Assuming that you've named your custom search criteria having a path of PlanDefinition.activity.activityDefinition as having a name of "activitydefinition")