added code to read from simulator socket

main.py

+import socket
+
+from utils import process_mllp_message, parse_hl7_message, create_acknowledgement
+
+
+def start_server(host="0.0.0.0", port=8440):
+    """
+    Starts the TCP server to listen for incoming MLLP messages on the specified port.
+    """
+    with socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM) as sock:
+        sock.connect((host, port))
+        print(f"Connected to simulator on {host}:{port}")
+
+        while True:
+            data = sock.recv(1024)
+            if not data:
+                print("No data received. Closing connection.")
+                break
+
+            hl7_data = process_mllp_message(data)
+            if hl7_data:
+                message = parse_hl7_message(hl7_data)
+                print("Parsed HL7 Message:")
+                print(message)
+
+                # Create and send ACK message
+                ack_message = create_acknowledgement(message)
+                sock.sendall(ack_message)
+            else:
+                print("No valid MLLP message received.")
+
+
+def main():
+    start_server()
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()

utils.py

+import socket
+import hl7
+import datetime
+
+from constants import MLLP_START_CHAR, MLLP_END_CHAR
+
+
+def process_mllp_message(data):
+    """
+    Extracts the HL7 message from the MLLP data.
+    """
+    start_index = data.find(MLLP_START_CHAR)
+    end_index = data.find(MLLP_END_CHAR)
+    if start_index != -1 and end_index != -1:
+        return data[start_index + 1 : end_index]
+    return None
+
+
+def parse_hl7_message(hl7_data):
+    """
+    Parses the HL7 message and returns the parsed message object.
+    """
+    message = hl7.parse(hl7_data.decode("utf-8"))
+    return message
+
+
+def create_acknowledgement(hl7_msg):
+    """
+    Creates an HL7 ACK message for the received message.
+    """
+    # Construct the ACK message based on the simulator's expectations
+    ack_msg = f"MSH|^~\\&|||||{datetime.datetime.now().strftime('%Y%m%d%H%M%S')}||ACK||P|2.5\rMSA|AA|\r"
+    framed_ack = MLLP_START_CHAR + ack_msg.encode() + MLLP_END_CHAR
+    return framed_ack