Packaging VistA - environments
When an office suite is installed on a computer, one expects to type
something like "soffice" and run it because (a) you only need one
instance of it on the computer, (b) it does not need further
configuration to run, and (c) you don't have complex shared editing where
for example two people may be editing a shared word processing document,
with an embedded spreadsheet that one person has read-write access to and
the other has read-only access to, etc. VistA is more like a database
such as PostgreSQL, where after installing the Debian packages, you must
still create and configure separate databases. But unlike PostgreSQL,
VistA environments may be chained and you can have trees of
environments. So, VistA is a little more complex than PostgreSQL.
(You can look at the VistA "SemiVivA" packages that I have packaged and
released over the last several years to see how what I describe here
works in practice - it's all done with a few shell scripts, all under a
page.)
When VistA is installed on a computer, one normally needs multiple
instances. So, a single institution may have a production environment, a
pre-production (staging environment), multiple development environments,
etc. Or, one may want to run multiple production environments, for
Clinic A, Clinic B, etc. Each environment may have its own users and
groups to manage access (there is no need for a system wide "vista" user
or group). After installing vista with apt-get / aptitude, one does not
expect to type "vista" and run VistA. Instead, one expects to type a
command such as "install <directory>" to install a working VistA
environment in <directory>. When creating an environment with a command
such as "install <directory>", each environment usually gets its own
database shared by all the users of that environment. For routines, each
environment gets a search path that finds its (small number of) private
routines first, and then the (large number of) shared routines.
Environments can be chained. In such an environment, you can type
"vista" and run VistA.
Each VistA environment needs configuration before it can do anything
useful. Before you can record a patient visit, you have to create a
provider to see the patient, a location, and a patient. So, after
creating an environment, you would type "vista" to get a tabula rasa to
start configuring.
VistA environments have controlled access. Thus, the VistA installed by
the Debian package would be world readable, but not writable by anyone.
Each environment might have multiple users who are all members of a
group. The database would be read-write by the group.
Regards
-- Bhaskar
--
GT.M - Rock solid. Lightning fast. Secure. No compromises.
o
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