Case-sensitivity for profile query parameter

Daan Meijers

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Oct 19, 2021, 5:31:30 AM10/19/21

to HAPI FHIR

Hi there,

I was wondering about case sensitivity in query parameters, as I have the feeling that the HAPI implementation clashes with the FHIR spec. See my example scenario below.

I recentely came across an Observation resource which was using the profile url:

http://nictiz.nl/fhir/StructureDefinition/ZIB-LivingSituation

However, the actual canonical url of this profile is (see the case of ZIB-):

http://nictiz.nl/fhir/StructureDefinition/zib-LivingSituation

According to the FHIR specification the profile query parameter is a token parameter, and these should be handled case insensitive.

http://hl7.org/fhir/STU3/search.html#profile

http://hl7.org/fhir/STU3/search.html#token

However, it seems that the resource I'm looking for can only be found if the case matches. So when searching for _profile=...zib-LivingSituation, I won't be able to find any resource with profile ...ZIB-LivingSituation.

Is this behavior intentional, or should this be reported as a bug?

I was also able to replicate this on the public HAPI FHIR server.

Cheers,

Daan

Daan Meijers

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Oct 19, 2021, 5:34:57 AM10/19/21

to HAPI FHIR

Note that this information is based on fhir version 3.0.2 on a hapi fhir server version 5.4.2.

And as mentioned above on the public HAPI FHIR server for STU3.

Op dinsdag 19 oktober 2021 om 11:31:30 UTC+2 schreef Daan Meijers:

Keith Boone

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Oct 19, 2021, 3:22:10 PM10/19/21

to Daan Meijers, HAPI FHIR

http://hl7.org/fhir/STU3/search.html#token

For tokens, matches are literal (e.g. not based on subsumption or other code system features), but not case sensitive.

https://hl7.org/fhir/R4/search.html#token

For tokens, matches are literal (e.g. not based on subsumption or other code system features). Match is case sensitive unless the underlying semantics for the context indicate that the token should be interpreted case-insensitively (see, e.g. CodeSystem.caseSensitive). Note that matches on _id are always case sensitive. If the underlying data type is string then the search is not case sensitive.

Is URL Case Sensitive or not? DNS Names are NOT case sensitive. Many systems matching URLs are NOT case sensitive, but SOME are. Uri is indicated in data types as being case sensitive. The real question in my mind is whether this is a bug or a feature, and if the spec needs clarification wrt to token case sensitivity for uri items.

Keith

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