Custom Forms Development Tips and Tricks PRESENTED BY
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The content of this presentation represents the views of the
author and presenters. GE, the GE Monogram, Centricity and
Imagination at Work are trademarks of General Electric
Company.
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Ortho NorthEast An Orthopedic practice founded in 1962 12
locations throughout northeast Indiana 26 physicians, 7
anesthesiologists, 13 CRNAs, 24 mid-levels, 14 PT/OT Part ownership
of orthopedic hospital, MRI center, and ambulatory surgery
center
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Presenters Mike Baeske, Software Applications Specialist Team
Leader, Ortho NorthEast Tom Pawlik, Supervisor, Surgical Services /
EMR Workflow & Design Specialist, Ortho NorthEast
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The Two Key Elements of Building Advanced Forms CONFIGURING THE
FORM LAYOUT Controls the flow of the workflow Provides the ability
to make mandatory questions Capable of enforcing data integrity
DEVELOPING MEL CODING Automated events can be triggered based on
data Can enable action buttons to perform multiple tasks Provides
filtering, formatting, and other more sophisticated
functionalities
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Visibility Regions Shows objects based on conditions being
met:
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Visibility Regions
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Conditions Conditions are evaluation statements that return a
Boolean value of true or false (Examples: x>1, y 3, etc) For
multiple conditions, the keywords and and or can be used in
conjunction with parenthesis Example: (x>=1 and x 0
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Visibility Sections Similarly to visibility regions, sections
can be configured to have visibility conditions
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Overlapping Visibility Areas Visibility areas can be placed on
top of other visibility areas Conditions should be mutually
exclusive; otherwise, objects can overlap and behave unintendedly
Visibility sections can contain other visibility sections or
regions, but visibility regions cannot contain visibility
section.
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Opposing Lists If two listboxes have the same values, it is
possible to configure them as opposing lists. Opposing list will
automatically unselect an answer if they get selected on the other
listbox
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Enabling Controls Controls can be enabled / disabled based on
conditions to enforce mandatory data entry:
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Enforcing Data Rules Configuring Data Masks will enforce
certain formatting rules when users fill in the object: MEL coding
can potentially enforce more specific rules with the help of
visibility regions and enabling components
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Page Close Handlers MEL coding can be triggered when a user
tries to navigate away from a page via page close handlers In CPS,
will not catch when a user goes to end an update. Must enable page
close handlers in Visual Form Editor Options
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Control Structures: If Statement If statements test to see if a
condition is true or false and execute the corresponding coding
when appropriate if (modifier "") then modifier = modifier + "|NC"
else modifier = "NC" endif
Slide 17 0 "Left " case match(modifiers,"RT")>0 "Right "
case match(modifiers,"50")>0 "Bilat " else "" endcond">
Control Structures: Case Statement Case statements provide a
concise way to accommodate to coding situations where only one
action should be taken, but there are more than two possible
scenarios to handle cond case match(modifiers,"LT")>0 "Left "
case match(modifiers,"RT")>0 "Right " case
match(modifiers,"50")>0 "Bilat " else "" endcond
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Watcher Statements Automated events can be triggered by watcher
statements, which are control structures with an ! in front of it.
Objects in the condition statement will trigger an evaluation every
time the object is touched Example: {! if (DOCUMENT.DATE_ON_ORDER
== "") then DOCUMENT.DATE_ON_ORDER =
sub(str(DOCUMENT.CLINICALDATE),1,10) else "" endif}
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Chart Text Suppression Blocks Chart Text is generated from the
translation tab of form controls: Suppression blocks can be
configured so that text only shows up when one of the components
between the start and end is modified:
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Navigation Buttons Action buttons can be used to insert new
forms into the document and open ones already present, saving staff
time The Visual Form Editor has a prebuilt connection type: or MEL
coding can be used and potentially perform other actions at the
same time:
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Variables Data can be stored and referenced in objects called
variables Example: X=1 5+X =6 Variables can be pulled into
translation, action buttons, and handouts CAUTION: Once a document
is put on hold, variables are erased. (Coder Note: Type casting is
dynamic, no declaration of type needed.)
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Dynamic Labels Using Variables Labels can dynamically generate
when they are associated with a variable and this configuration is
set: Watcher statements will normally be used to populate the label
variable: ! if (lastobsdate("weight")=="") then
weightLabel="Weight:" else
weightLabel="Weight("+lastobsdate("weight")+"):" endif
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Variable Scope Two types of variables: Global and Local Global
Default scope for variables Shared among all functions, forms, and
handouts Local Must be explicitly called in variable declaration
Can only be referenced within segment of coding
Slide 24 "") then result = sub(PATIENT.MIDDLENAME,1,1) else
result = """>
Local Variable Example { fn returnMiddleInitial(){ local result
if (PATIENT.MIDDLENAME"") then result = sub(PATIENT.MIDDLENAME,1,1)
else result = "" endif return result }}
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Arrays Arrays are custom storage that can contain multiple
elements An array can be built using the array() function Example:
local bodyPartsArray = array("head","shoulder","knee","toe") To
retrieve a value in an array, reference the array name with []
surrounding the position that needs to be retrieved (Example:
bodyPartsArray[1]="head") An element in an array can be a subarray,
so bodyPartsArray[1][1] would retrieve the first element in the
first element of the bodyPartsArray
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Converting Text into Arrays The getfield() function can take
text and convert it into an array based on a delimiting character
The second argument specifies which character denotes a new element
should be made The third argument specifies what should be ignored
as white space Example: local bodyPartsArray =
getfield("head,shoulder,knee,toe", ",", "")
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Loops To process every element in array, there are two forms of
loops in MEL: while and for While Loop For Loop while counterX 0)
then local index for index=1, index
Variable Arguments Example: { fn concatText(){ local
numberOfParameters, result result="" numberOfParameters=getnargs()
if (numberOfParameters>0) then local index for index=1,
index
