RxNormRef

Ronaldo Barbachano

Aug. 2011

Users may now query the NDF-Rt database (NUI lookups and semantical browsing) check out public/ndf.php .

This repo was forked from RxNormRef on CFA, that I created earlier this summer. This version runs on rxnix.com.

Goals

Provide a fast, rhobust interface to RxNorm medical terminology database and the NDF-Rt while developing a barebones framework for API-centric web development.

Technical Features

XML/HTML File-based caching

Native JSON Support and Automatic caching storage /retreval via Couchdb

Progressive loading via ob_cacher

Low Memory Use - Usually under a meg

Fast XML Processing with SimpleXMLElement

No Database Required

No 3rd Party Membership or API key needed

Requirements

PHP 5.1 or Greater (5.0 may work?)

CURL (This usually comes installed with php 5.1)

JSON / Couchdb support typically requires PHP 5.2 or greater.

Apache(Not required, but some caching directives are designed for apache)

Quickstart

Edit config.php, create cache directories if desired to reference in config.php.

Each configuration option is explained in detail.

Upload files to web server.

Files in public/ are to be accessed to the public (images,css,basic html).

Take care if these files are moved (update the paths to the lib folder in php files).

Using the App

So the ndf search does not have a spelling suggestion feature, so it makes it very difficult to 'look up' concepts. Because of this I have made it so records that have ingridents will be links to search the NDF database.

Also once you have accesed a valid NDF record you can easily navigate to other ndf and rxnorm records via generated links.

Some json structures differ slightly from the xml stucture, so bear with me while I iron out the inconsistencies (excuse the messy code)...