FHIRcast, published by HL7 International / Infrastructure And Messaging. This guide is not an authorized publication; it is the continuous build for version 3.0.0-ballot built by the FHIR (HL7® FHIR® Standard) CI Build. This version is based on the current content of https://github.com/HL7/fhircast-docs/ and changes regularly. See the Directory of published versions

Subscribing to Events

Subscribing and unsubscribing to a topic is how applications establish their connection and determine which events the Hub will distribute to them.

Subscribing consists of different exchanges:

Any content returned from subscription requests SHALL be returned as application/json.

Subscription

Subscription Request

To create a subscription, the subscribing application SHALL perform an HTTP POST to the Hub’s base URL (as specified in hub.url) with the parameters in the table below. Each parameter SHALL appear at most one time; parameters that accept multiple values use a comma-delimited syntax and explicitly state support in their description. This request SHALL have a Content-Type header of application/x-www-form-urlencoded and SHALL use the following parameters in its body, formatted accordingly:

If OAuth 2.0 authentication is used, this POST request SHALL contain the Bearer access token in the HTTP Authorization header.

Hubs SHALL allow subscribers to re-request subscriptions that are already activated. Each subsequent and verified request to a Hub to subscribe or unsubscribe SHALL override the previous subscription state for a specific (hub.topic, hub.channel.endpoint url) combination. For example, a Subscriber MAY modify its subscription by sending a subscription request (hub.mode=subscribe) with a different hub.events value with the same topic and endpoint url, in which case the Hub SHALL replace the subscription’s previous hub.events with the newly provided list of events.

Hubs and Subscribers SHALL be case insensitive for event-names.

The application that creates the subscription might not be the same system as the server connecting to the WSS URL (e.g., a federated authorization model could exist between these two systems). However, in FHIRcast, the Hub assumes that the same authorization and access rights apply to both the Subscriber and the system receiving notifications.

The spec uses GET vs POST to differentiate between the confirmation/denial of the subscription request and delivering the content. While this is not considered "best practice" from a web architecture perspective, it does make implementation of the callback URL simpler. Since the POST body of the content distribution request may be any arbitrary content type and only includes the actual content of the document, using the GET vs POST distinction to switch between handling these two modes makes implementations simpler.

Initial Subscription Request Example

In this example, the subscribing application creates an initial subscription and asks to be notified of the Patient-open and Patient-close events.

POST https://hub.example.com HTTP/1.1
Host: hub.example.com
Authorization: Bearer i8hweunweunweofiwweoijewiwe
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

hub.channel.type=websocket&hub.mode=subscribe&hub.topic=fdb2f928-5546-4f52-87a0-0648e9ded065&hub.events=Patient-open,Patient-close

Subscription Response

Upon receiving subscription or unsubscription requests, the Hub SHALL respond to a subscription request with an appropriate HTTP response.

If a Hub refuses the request or finds any errors in the subscription request, an appropriate HTTP error response code (4xx or 5xx) SHALL be returned. In the event of an error, the Hub SHOULD return a description of the error in the response body as plain text, to be used by the client developer to understand the error. This is not meant to be shown to the end user. Hubs MAY decide to reject some subscription requests based on their own policies, for example, a Hub may require that all applications subscribe to the same set of events.

In the case of an acceptable subscription request, an HTTP 202 “Accepted” response is returned. This indicates that the request was received and will now be verified by the Hub. The HTTP body of the response SHALL consist of a JSON object containing an element name of hub.channel.endpoint and a value for the WSS URL. The WebSocket WSS URL SHALL be cryptographically random, unique, and unguessable.

Subscription Response Example

HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted

{   
 "hub.channel.endpoint": "wss://hub.example.com/ee30d3b9-1558-464f-a299-cbad6f8135de"
}

Subscription Confirmation

To confirm a subscription request, upon the Subscriber establishing a WebSocket connection to the hub.channel.endpoint WSS URL, the Hub SHALL send a confirmation over the WebSocketchannel. This confirmation includes the following elements:

Once the subscription is confirmed, the application is subscribed.

Subscription Confirmation Example

{
  "hub.mode": "subscribe",
  "hub.topic": "fdb2f928-5546-4f52-87a0-0648e9ded065",
  "hub.events": "Patient-open,Patient-close",
  "hub.lease_seconds": 7200
}

Successful Subscription Sequence

1. Subscriber sends subscription request via HTTP/S POST
2. Hub accepts the Subscribe request and responds with the endpoint URL
3. Subscriber connects to the endpoint URL via WebSockets
4. Hub sends the confirmation message over the WebSocket connection
5. (Optional) Hub sends any existing open-context events (e.g., Patient-open)
6. Either Hub or Subscriber send events as they occur

Current context notification upon successful subscription

Implementer feedback on this optional feature is required.

Upon the successful creation of a new subscription, the Subscriber will receive notifications for subsequent workflow steps, according to the hub.events specified in the subscription. Any previously established context is unknown to the newly subscribed application. To improve user experience, Hubs SHOULD follow a successful subscription with an event notification informing the new Subscriber of the most recent *-open event per anchor type for which no *-close event has occurred, according to the Subscriber’s subscription. Hubs that implement this feature, SHALL NOT send a Subscriber events to which it is not subscribed.

Although these event notifications are triggered by a successful subscription, they are indistinguishable from a normal, just-occurred workflow event triggered notification, as specified in Event Notification. Note that the timestamp in the event notification is the time at which the event occurred and not the time at which the notification is generated.

Subscription Denial

If (and when) a subscription is denied, the Hub SHALL inform the Subscriber. This can occur when a subscription is requested for a variety of reasons, or it can occur after a subscription had already been accepted because the Hub no longer supports that subscription (e.g. it has expired).

To deny a WebSocket subscription, the Hub sends a JSON object to the Subscriber through the established WebSocket connection holding the fields indicated below.

WebSocket Subscription Denial Example

{
   "hub.mode": "denied",
   "hub.topic": "fba7b1e2-53e9-40aa-883a-2af57ab4e2c",
   "hub.events": "Patient-open,Patient-close",
   "hub.reason": "session unexpectedly stopped"
}

Subscription Denial Sequence

1. Subscriber requests a subscription via HTTP/S POST
2. Hub refuses the Subscribe request via HTTP response
3. Subscriber requests a subscription via HTTP/S POST
4. Hub accepts the Subscribe request and responds with the endpoint URL
5. Subscriber connects to the endpoint URL via WebSockets
6. Hub sends a denial message over the WebSocket connection and closes the connection
7. Subscriber sends subscription request via HTTP/S POST
8. Hub accepts the Subscribe request and responds with the endpoint URL
9. Subscriber connects to the endpoint URL via WebSockets
10. Hub sends the confirmation message over the WebSocket connection
11. The Hub MAY send a denial message at any time and close the connection

Unsubscribe

Once a Subscriber no longer wants to receive event notifications, it SHALL unsubscribe from the session. An unsubscribe cannot alter an existing subscription, only cancel it. Note that the unsubscribe request is performed over HTTP(s), even while subscriptions notifications use WebSockets. Unsubscribes will destroy the WebSocket which cannot be reused. A subsequent subscription SHALL be done over a newly created and communicated WebSocket endpoint.

Unsubscribe Request

To unsubscribe, the Subscriber SHALL perform an HTTP POST to the Hub’s base URL (as specified in hub.url) with the parameters in the table below. Each parameter SHALL appear at most one time; parameters that accept multiple values use a comma-delimited syntax and explicitly state support in their description. This request SHALL have a Content-Type header of application/x-www-form-urlencoded and SHALL use the following parameters in its body, formatted accordingly:

Unsubscribe Request Example

POST https://hub.example.com HTTP/1.1
Host: hub
Authorization: Bearer i8hweunweunweofiwweoijewiwe
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

hub.channel.type=websocket&hub.channel.endpoint=wss%3A%2F%2Fhub.example.com%2Fee30d3b9-1558-464f-a299-cbad6f8135de%0A&hub.mode=unsubscribe&hub.topic=fdb2f928-5546-4f52-87a0-0648e9ded065

Unsubscribe Response

Upon receiving an unsubscribe request, if a Hub encounters any errors or refuses the request, it SHALL return an appropriate HTTP error response code (4xx or 5xx) along with a description of the error in the response body as plain text. This information is intended to be used by the client developer for troubleshooting and is not meant to be shown to the end user. Hubs may choose to reject unsubscribe requests based on their own policies.

When an unsubscribe request is accepted, the Hub SHALL respond with an HTTP 202 “Accepted” response. This indicates that the request has been received and will be processed by the Hub. The response SHALL include a JSON object in the body, containing the key hub.channel.endpoint with the WSS URL value of the WebSocket subscription. Additionally, the Hub SHALL send a Subscription Denial over the WebSocket.

Unsubscribe Response Example

{   
 "hub.channel.endpoint": "wss://hub.example.com/ee30d3b9-1558-464f-a299-cbad6f8135de"
}

Unsubscription Sequence

1. A successful connection is established (see Subscription Confirmation Example)
2. Events are sent by the Hub and/or Subscriber
3. The Subscriber sends an Unsubscribe request via HTTP/S POST
4. Hub accepts the Unsubscribe request and responds with the endpoint URL
5. Hub sends a denial message over the WebSocket connection and closes the connection