Text capture program design

[KaptainKirk]

This is what I am hoping to do. I have to deal with several different proprietary programs which are designed to send text and data by dial-in and/or Internet. The data that is being sent follows roughly the same format in each case. It's just that it goes to many different companies, each with its own software. But even though the data is in roughly the same format in each case, because there are so many types of software, (one for each company,) our employees make mistakes on a lot of little variances between the companies. So I am hoping that I can capture the data as it leaves their application and be able to interact with it, in order to provide pop-up helps to our users, to show them what they need to do differently. Then it could be forwarded on when appropriate. Like a proxy.

But the data always gets encrypted. So it would need to be captured in the application layer before being encrypted, I guess. Or else, would have to be decrypted and then re-encrypted. Or maybe I should be thinking differently. I am not sure what the best approach is, or what can be done? I need an experienced programmer to help me think thru this.

 

[chiph]

I would write a piece of code to act as an adapter for each format you have to deal with. It would take data from your internal format, and translate it into what the client expects.

I would write any encryption and/or compression as their own libraries, so that your adapters could call them (or not) as each client requires.

The trick is going to be knowing which adapter to call for which client, which is a two-step answer. First bit would be to store the configuration in a database of some kind: Client X needs to call Invoice adapter 2, and then call encryption module B before sending it out.

The second trick is that you'll need to call these adapters by name, using the System.Activator method. So leave room in the database for the name of the adapter.

Chip H.

 

[KaptainKirk]

chiph,

Thanks a million for responding. I appreciate your help. And I see that you have already put a good bit of thought into this. Unfortunately I realize that I did not communicate quite as clearly as I should have.

From your answer it seems like you understood that we have an "internal format." But we don't. This whole thing is dealing with insurance companies, eligibility, claims, etc. And there is a very general standard for the data which is sent, in the sense that certain information must be contained in the submission. But in fact each insurance company has their own variation of it. And compound that by the fact that the communication to them is going thru companies which are sort of like data brokers. The data brokers have proprietary software which we have to use in certain situations in order to deal with the insurance companies. So in fact, we don't really have our own internal format at all. We do not have our own software which is trying to communicate with the other companies. Instead, it is they who each have their own proprietary software which we are using. It is from several different companies. So it is not a matter of adapting our software to interact with theirs. (We have to work with their software.) Instead we need to write programs which will intercept what their software is already doing.

The same is true for the encryption. These are their encryption schemes within their various programs. So I don't have libraries for working with them.

And these companies are large and we are small and not worth spending much time on, in their eyes. So they are not too keen to help us or cooperate with us in accomplishing this. We have to work around that.

So then, what you said about calling a different adapter seems right. But because it is not our program, but the programs of a bunch of other companies, I can't just go in and change the code. I need a universal way of seeing what data is being sent by those various programs. It seems to me that it would be best to capture it before it is encrypted, if possible, since there are different encryption schemes.

If I can intercept it in the application level, before it is encrypted, then I can see clear text. Once my program sees the data, then I get responses from XML files or database to tell the user what he needs to do differently for that particular insurance company in the particular type of form he is trying to submit.

Is what I am thinking actually possible?