Socket Programming - HL7 Data to Win2k server

Using the Scott Klement tutorial and the 'Sorcerer RPG'  Redbook, I've
learned to do iSeries to iSeries socket programming. In my proof of concept
and coding, the programs communicated between the iSeries without problems,
and that is because I controlled the data and the end of file processing.

Now my challenge is to get my RPGIV client program talking to a Win2k server
that's using Biztalk and Microsoft Message Queuing.

My client program sends HL7 messages (from an EBCDIC DB2 file) that gets
translated to ASCII (the translation works fine and is not the problem), as
the variable length socket data field.

So far my program connects to the server and sends the data, but after I
send the data I'm not getting any reply from the server. My program hangs
there, waiting for a response from the server (as it's supposed to do).

We think it's because I'm not sending 'start block' and 'carriage
return/line feed' data with my message - which is something the server is
expecting.

So at the request of the vendor, I modified the message I'm sending to send
a 'start block' at the beginning of my HL7 message, and then a Carriage
Return and Line Feed at the end of the HL7 message. So for the carriage
return and line feed I'm sending the following hex equivalents:

D Carriage_Ret      C                   CONST(x'0D')
D Line_Feed         C                   CONST(x'25')

And for the start block this:

D Start_Block       C                   CONST(x'0B')

Is this correct for the 'start block'? Could this be a new line character or
something similar?

The vendor does see some kind of activity but I'm not sure what to send for
the 'Start Block' and hex 0B was her recommendation, but she's not sure
since she's not familiar with DB2, RPG or EBCDIC.

Comments anyone?


Regards,

Gerald Kern
IBM Certified AS/400 RPG IV Developer & RPG IV Programmer
MIS Project Leader, Lotus Notes/Domino Administrator
The Toledo Clinic, Inc.