Developer launchpad

The most fundamental concept to first grasp is what Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) are. From the FHIR specification:

Following the RESTful architectural style, the FHIR specification centres on a number of resources it defines in the healthcare domain and the operations associated with those resources.

Before continuing, if you aren't comfortable with the concept of what FHIR is there's an introduction for developers in the FHIR specification, or watch this FHIR Introduction video from DevDays 2019.

FHIR defines specific resources and operations for terminologies, as well as a number of detailed specifications on how to represent well known terminologies and code systems in FHIR, this is known as the FHIR Terminology Service. The FHIR Terminology Service builds upon the fundamentals of FHIR and its RESTful approach, so these are a good background to have when learning about the FHIR Terminology server. To ease into the FHIR Terminology service, it is worth watching the videos

• How and when to use FHIR Terminology Service APIs
• FHIR Terminology Resources– Found under Developer Launchpad – Videos and Exercise
• FHIR Terminology Services Operations – Found under Developer Launchpad – Videos and Exercise

These videos give an excellent overview of the relevant resources and operations, and the use cases they address.

One of the best ways to learn about an API is by examining some example requests. On the Ontoserver website there's a link to a Postman collection aimed at helping developers understand how to use the terminology API by example. The Australian National Clinical Terminology Service also maintain a Postman collection you can freely access which contains a further set of examples. While these are directed at their server by default, the accompanying Postman environment can be pointed easily at another server and these examples adapted to different use cases.

A number of example applications that use the FHIR Terminology Service APIs extensively exist. These can be used for ideas on how to use the APIs, with some exemplar implementations intended to be pulled apart for that purpose.

 The accompanying exercise can be found under the how and when to use FHIR Terminology Service APIs training exercise.  

As a day to day reference, the FHIR Terminology Module and its sub-pages provide an overview and all the details on FHIR's terminology resources and operations.

Ontoserver's online documentation covers technical details of Ontoserver in depth. It provides a section specifically on Ontoserver's FHIR terminology API implementation including constraints and extensions.

You can get help a number of ways.

Firstly, there's the FHIR chat which is an open and inclusive community chat that welcomes requests for help regardless of whether you are just getting started and have a simple problem, or have considerable experience and have a detailed and complex question. Often just searching the chat history can help you find an answer. However don't be afraid to post a question. The most relevant area is the terminology stream but look for sub-streams relevant to your question or problem.

For more Ontoserver and associated tool such as Snapper, Shrimp, Ontocloa (Administration Console) specific questions, there's an Ontoserver Slack space you're welcome to join where the terminology product developers and content experts are available to answer questions. If possible, posting these questions in the public channels which can be seen by other users is useful to help others who may have similar problems or may benefit from understanding what you are doing. To join, send an email to [email protected].