Typically, this module will be paired with a FHIR Endpoint module in order to provide a REST API that can be used to interact with the repository. It is even possible to pair multiple FHIR Endpoint modules with a single FHIR Storage module, for example if you had different security or validation needs for different modules.

Feature Comparison Summary

Comparison tables for Smile CDR's support for MongoDB versus Relational (RDBMS) are below. Broader support for MongoDB will be available in future releases.

Features

Feature	Mongo	RDBMS	Notes
DSTU 2		✔
DSTU 3		✔
R4	✔	✔
R5		✔
Search	✔	✔	Mongo does not support search or validation of canonical references. Mongo does not support Document and Message SearchParameters
Subscriptions	✔	✔
Security	✔	✔
Hybrid Provider	✔	✔
Gateway	✔	✔
Clustering	✔	✔
HL7 V2	✔	✔
CDA		✔
ETL Import	✔	✔
Bulk Export	✔	✔	Mongo currently only supports system level export, and does not support mdm
JSON Admin	✔	✔
LiveBundle		✔	DSTU 3+ only
MDM/EMPI	✔	✔	DSTU 3+ only, Mongo persistence currently does not support mdm expansion search
MDM Link History		✔	DSTU 3+ only, Mongo persistence currently does not support mdm link history search
MDM Expansion		✔	Mongo persistence currently does not support mdm expansion
Terminology Service		✔
Pagination	✔	✔
Partitioning		✔
Referential Integrity on Delete		✔	See Validating References And Referential Integrity
Validating References	✔	✔	See Validating References And Referential Integrity
Custom Resource Types	✔	✔
System-to-System Data Exchange		✔

FHIR Operations

Operation / Level	Mongo	RDBMS	Notes
Read / Instance	✔	✔
VRead / Instance	✔	✔
Search / Type	✔	✔
Search / Server
History / Instance	✔	✔
History / Type	✔	✔
History / Server		✔	In MongoDB, server history is stored but not yet accessible by API
Create / Type	✔	✔
Update / Instance	✔	✔
Transaction / Server	✔	✔
Batch / Server	✔	✔
$reindex / Server	✔	✔	Reindexing on MongoDB must be type specific.
$reindex / Instance		✔
$reindex-dryrun / Instance		✔
$everything / Instance / Type	✔	✔
$everything / Instance / Type	✔	✔
$delete-expunge / Type	✔	✔	Cascading deletes are not supported on MongoDB.
$trigger-subscription		✔

Search Parameters

Parameters for all resources	Mongo	RDBMS
_id	✔	✔
_lastUpdated	✔	✔
_tag	*	✔	See note on _tag below
_source	✔	✔
_profile	✔	✔
_security		✔
_text		✔
_content		✔
_list		✔
_has		✔
_type
_filter		✔

Search result parameters	-----	-----
_sort	✔	✔	See note on _sort below
_count	✔	✔
_include	✔	✔
_revinclude	*	✔	See note on _revinclude below
_summary	*	✔
_total=none	*	✔
_total=accurate	✔	✔
_total=estimated
_elements	✔	✔
_contained		✔
_containedType		✔
_fhirpath	✔	✔

_tag On RDBMS, tags can be stored as a single collection for all versions of a resource, or can be versioned along with resource contents. For RDBMS and MongoDB, partial searches by System are not supported and the Operation Outcome will be an error stating that the value|code are both required.
_revinclude On MongoDB, the _revinclude parameter is only currently supported when the target of the _revinclude is a single resource, e.g. Patient?_id=123&_revinclude=*. Furthermore, _iterate is currently not supported while using _revinclude.
_tag On MongoDB, tags on resources are version specific.
_sort On MongoDB, the _sort parameter currently only supports sorting by a single sort parameter, e.g. Observation?_sort=category. Combining multiple sort parameters (e.g. Observation?_sort=status,-date,category) is not supported.

Search Parameter Types

data type	prefix	Mongo	RDBMS	Notes
number	eq	✔	✔
number	ne	✔	✔
number	gt	✔	✔
number	lt	✔	✔
number	ge	✔	✔
number	le	✔	✔
number	ap		✔
date	eq	✔	✔
date	ne	✔	✔
date	gt	✔	✔
date	lt	✔	✔
date	ge	*	✔
date	le	*	✔
date	sa
date	eb
date	ap
string	contains		✔
string	exact	✔	✔
string	text		✔
uri	above		✔
uri	below		✔
token	text		✔
token	not		✔
token	above		✔
token	below		✔
token	in		✔
token	not-in		✔
token	of-type	✔	✔
quantity	eq	✔	✔	MongoDB: See note on quantity search parameters below
quantity	ne	✔	✔
quantity	gt	✔	✔
quantity	lt	✔	✔
quantity	ge	✔	✔
quantity	le	✔	✔
quantity	ap		✔
reference	mdm	✔	✔

MongoDB Quantity Search Parameters

On MongoDB, search parameters of type Quantity are supported, but they do not take units of measure into consideration. For example, a search for /Observation?value-quantity=gt5.4|http://unitsofmeasure.org|mg will match any Observations with Observation.valueQuantity containing a numeric value above 5.4, regardless of the source units.

FHIR Endpoint Module