To: Greed Is Good who wrote (2843 ) 8/20/1998 1:18:00 PM From: Emec Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 15094
I think this was posted before. From IBM site Cloverleaf interface engine functions What does the Cloverleaf interface engine do, and how? In a business sense, using a Cloverleaf interface engine promises to save the complex healthcare institution a great deal of money and effort, and provide more reliable, low-risk interfaces, increase productivity and enable flexibility and confidence in the selection and uptake of new systems. In a functional sense, using a Cloverleaf interface engine requires the defining of only one interface for every connected system 3 systems = 3 interfaces, not 6. 4 systems = 4 interfaces, not 12 ! Cloverleaf does these things by putting an intelligent, programmable, purpose-designed interface manager in a box that sits, conceptually, in the middle of all the to-be-connected information systems. Its centricity is logical and conceptual rather than physical, since in most cases these systems are members of a network (LAN) rather than joined to each other simply by wires. Interfaces are defined for each system - what data does it have available?, what does it need to ship out?, in what form?, how often?...... and that is done, once. The Cloverleaf interface engine software permits this outbound data to be stored and forwarded to one or many systems that need to be fed by this data stream. But, it does more than simply send the data. On the way, it can: Reformat data (such as turn "11/09/95" into "Sept 9, 1995") Parse, sub-string analsyse and rebuild strings (such as turn "gsmith0045" into "45 Smith G") Perform code substitutions (such as "x123-151" may become "scalpel") Using a simple point-and-click no-programming-required GUI interaction with the user, an interface can be built literally in minutes. And if it needs to be changed, that can be just as quick and simple.