UFP Format (User Friendly Pattern)

UFP - user-friendly pattern format that is used to find data in search strings. Patterns consist of 2 parts: static and dynamic.

Pattern Components

Dynamic Parts (Variables)

• Data that may differ in searched strings
• Must have a unique name wrapped in angle brackets (<, >)
  • Examples: <Date>, <Patient.FirstName>, <UselessData1>
• Cannot be placed next to each other without a separator
• Can be marked as greedy by adding * before the closing bracket (e.g., <StudyUid*>)

Static Parts (Separators)

• Data that never changes in searched strings
• Can be any character except <, >, and |
• Can be of any length

Greedy Variables

A greedy variable (marked with *) will match as much text as possible until reaching the next separator. This is useful when:

• The variable content may contain characters that would normally match subsequent separators
• You want to capture all remaining text until a specific pattern

Example: <Path*>/<Filename>.<Extension>

For input docs/reports/2024/annual_report.pdf:

• Path: "docs/reports/2024"
• Filename: "annual_report"
• Extension: "pdf"

Without greedy marking, the pattern might incorrectly split on intermediate / characters.

Example of Pattern and String

String with data for parsing:

User friendly pattern:

Parsing result:

• Date: "22-04-2024"
• Phone: "1288724"
• Patient.FirstName: "Alexey"
• Patient.LastName: "Yagelo"
• Patient.Gender: "male"
• Reference: "KH2708530"
• UID: "3111196K001PB8"
• Extension: "doc"

Mega Pattern

A mega pattern consists of several patterns separated by |. The parser will use the pattern that most closely matches the input string.

Mega pattern example:

<Protocol>://<Domain>/<Page>?<FirstParameter.Key>=<FirstParameter.Value>|<Date>_<Name>.<Extension>|<StudyUid*>.<Type>.<Extension>

Values for parsing:

• 04-05-2024_fh5_image.png
• https://youtu.be/KoFSQeOAYz4?t=10
• 04-05-2024_scan.jpg
• 1.2.840.52394.3.152.235.2.12.187636473.patient.csv

Parsing result:

• Date: "04-05-2024"
• Name: "fh5_image"
• Extension: "png"

---

• Protocol: "https"
• Domain: "youtu.be"
• Page: "KoFSQeOAYz4"
• FirstParameter.Key: "t"
• FirstParameter.Value: "10"

---

• Date: "04-05-2024"
• Name: "scan"
• Extension: "jpg"

---

• StudyUid: "1.2.840.52394.3.152.235.2.12.187636473"
• Type: "patient"
• Extension: "csv"