A local-first HL7 v2 message viewer and editor for VS Code and VSCodium, with structured field inspection and safe document editing.
HL7 Viewer
The Viewer includes a one-click Text Editor action modelled on Markdown-PDF-Creator. It switches the current custom editor to a clean, full-height HL7 source editor while retaining a persistent toolbar with Return to HL7 Viewer. Source edits stay synchronised with the same VS Code text document, including dirty state, Undo, and Save. The editor-title actions and Shift+Cmd+V on macOS or Shift+Ctrl+V elsewhere remain available for explicitly reopening the document with VSCodium's native editor.
The HL7 Types tab lists 379 fixed HL7 v2 trigger events with searchable message and event pairs, such as ADT^A28 and ORU^R01. Search by message code, full pair, event, or purpose. It includes the legacy ORU^R03 variant documented in HL7 v2.1. The event catalog follows HL7 Terminology Table 0003; availability depends on the HL7 version.
HL7 message viewer
Opening an .hl7 file uses an editable custom editor containing the full HL7 Parser Syntax interface. Changes made in either the CodeMirror input or structured breakdown update the VS Code text document, including normal dirty-state, Undo, and Save handling.
- Local CodeMirror syntax colouring, word wrap, font controls, cursor-to-field highlighting, and hover details
- HL7 2.3/2.4 metadata selection, field descriptions, unsupported-field warnings, and path-aware search
- Editable field, repeat, component, and subcomponent breakdown with add/remove controls
- InterSystems
doc.GetValueAt(...) field/component copy helpers
- Bundled and user-saved samples
- Configurable PID anonymisation with restore-original support
- HTTP POST sender with content type, timeout, response, and error reporting
- Resizable/focusable panes, responsive tabs, themes, display settings, saved state, and contextual help
Use Reopen Editor With… if you want to switch between the toolkit viewer and VS Code's normal text editor.
Supported field paths
- Field:
PID-8
- Component:
PID-3.1
- Subcomponent:
PID-3.4.1
PID.3.1 input is accepted and normalised to PID-3.1.
Privacy and limits
Message rendering and editing are local. Clinical data leaves the editor only when you explicitly use the HTTP sender. The viewer supports delimiter-led HL7 v2 ER7 content. The bundled field metadata currently targets commonly used HL7 2.3 and 2.4 structures; unknown fields still display their raw values.
Acknowledgements
The message viewer reuses and adapts field metadata and interaction ideas from the local HL7 Parser Syntax project, which is MIT licensed.
