When I started my journey with InterSystems IRIS, especially in Interoperability, one of the initial and common questions I had was: how can I run something on an interval or schedule? In this topic, I want to share two simple classes that address this issue. I'm surprised that some similar classes are not located somewhere in EnsLib. Or maybe I didn't search well? Anyway, this topic is not meant to be complex work, just a couple of snippets for beginners.

InterSystems FAQ rubric

When exporting using the Export() method of the %Library.Global class, if the export format (fourth argument: OutputFormat) is set to 7, "Block format/Caché block format (%GOF)," mapped globals cannot be exported (only globals in the default global database of the namespace are exported). To export mapped globals in "Block format/Caché block format (%GOF)," specify the database directory to which you want to map them in the first parameter of %Library.Global.Export().

An example of execution is shown below. 

High-Performance Message Searching in Health Connect

The Problem

Have you ever tried to do a search in Message Viewer on a busy interface and had the query time out? This can become quite a problem as the amount of data increases. For context, the instance of Health Connect I am working with does roughly 155 million Message Headers per day with 21 day message retention. To try and help with search performance, we extended the built-in SearchTable with commonly used fields in hopes that indexing these fields would result in faster query times. Despite this, we still couldn't get some of these queries to finish at all.

Over time, while I was working with Interoperability on the IRIS Data Platform, I developed rules for organizing a project code into packages and classes. That is what is called a Naming Convention, usually. In this topic, I want to organize and share these rules. I hope it can be helpful for somebody.

I was facing the same issue as Jerry faced when connecting IRIS to SQL server. My ODBC connection is configured to authenticate via windows authentication.

Configure IRIS ODBC connection with Windows authentication using a
 

How I fixed it for myself?

Root cause

Folks!

Recently I found several one-line long ObjectScript commands on DC and think that it'd be great not to lose it and to collect more!

So I decided to gather a few first cases, put in one OEX project, and share them with you!

And here is how you can use them.

1. Create client SSL configuration.

set $namespace="%SYS", name="DefaultSSL" do:'##class(Security.SSLConfigs).Exists(name) ##class(Security.SSLConfigs).Create(name)

Useful if you need to read content from an URL.

Don't forget to return to a previous namespace. Or add 

n $namespace

Hi all,

This is a quick tip about how to use case insensitive URL in REST API.

If you have a class that extends from %CSP.REST and Ens.BusinessService, to create a REST API service, and you have defined your WebApplication in lowercase

XData UrlMap [ XMLNamespace = "http://www.intersystems.com/urlmap" ]
{
<Routes>
    <Route Url="/user" Method="POST" Call="User"/>
    <Route Url="/login" Method="POST" Call="Login"/>
</Routes>
}

Only accepts the url in lowercase, i.e. http://myserver/myproduction/user

If you have any uppercase character, the url doesn't work. http://MyServer/MyProduction/user

Introduction

This one's for those of you who feel that InterSystems tech makes your life easier... whether you’re working on integration projects, building innovative solutions, or evolving existing ones.

InterSystems FAQ rubric

The ^%GCMP utility can be used to compare the contents of two globals.

For example, to compare ^test and ^test in the USER and SAMPLES namespaces, it would look like this:
*In the example below, 700 identical globals are created in the two namespaces, and the contents of one of them is changed to make it the detection target.

I am truly excited to continue my "InterSystems for Dummies" series of articles, and today, we want to tell you everything about one of the most powerful features we have for interoperability.

Hey, even if you have already had a go, we plan to take a really close look at how to get the most out of them and make our production even better.

InterSystems FAQ rubric

One way to optimize query performance is to use query parallelism on a per-query or system-wide basis (a standard feature).

This is a technique for dividing the execution of a particular query among processors on a multi-processor system. The query optimizer will execute parallel processing only if there is a possibility of benefiting from parallel processing. Parallel processing is only applicable to SELECT statements.

Ready to elevate your Business Intelligence game?

We've got an engaging video, perfect for all skill levels.

Discover how to get started with IRIS BI, optimize cube performance, and drive analytics adoption. Plus, get a sneak peek at what's next!

I have been walking through this with a few team members and as such I thought there might be others out there who could use it, especially if you work with HL7 & Ensemble/HealthConnect/HealthShare and never venture out past the Interoperability section. 

First, I would like to establish that this is an extension of the already established documentation on importing and exporting SQL data found here: https://docs.intersystems.com/iris20241/csp/docbook/DocBook.UI.Page.cls?KEY=GSQL_impexp#GSQL_impexp_import

Hey folks! Having recently onboarded to InterSystems, I realized that despite having a totally free and awesome Community Edition, it's not super clear how to get it. I decided to write up a guide highlighting all the different ways you can access the Community Edition of InterSystems IRIS:

Get InterSystems IRIS Community Edition as a Container

InterSystems FAQ rubric

If you want to raise an arbitrary custom error in a TRY block, you can pass an exception with a throw as follows. In the following example, a custom error is raised if Stcount is less than 1.

InterSystems FAQ rubric

In InterSystems IRIS, you can create linked tables using commands, instead of using System Explorer > SQL > Wizard > Linked Tables in the Management Portal:

To create a linked table, use the CreateLinkedTable method of the %SYSTEM.SQL.Schema class. See the class reference for details.

To execute it, follow these steps:

InterSystems FAQ rubric

There is data, such as execution log data, that you do not want to return to its previous state even if a rollback occurs during a transaction. The above requirement can be met by placing that data in the IRISTEMP database, which will not be rolled back.

Temporary Globals and the IRISTEMP Database

By mapping the table entities you do not want to roll back to this database, you can retain the information after the rollback.

Dynamic Entities (objects and arrays) in IRIS are incredibly useful in situations where you are having to transform JSON data into an Object Model for storage to the database, such as in REST API endpoints hosted within IRIS. This is because these dynamic objects and arrays can easily serve as a point of conversion from one data structure to the other.

Dynamic Objects

Dynamic Objects are very similar to the standard ObjectScript object model you get when you create a new instance of a class object, but with some key differences:

This article is a continuation of the IRIS JSON project and features additional methods and insights.

Let's continue with the instance methods

%GetTypeOf(Key)

This instance method is used to determine the JSON data type of the %DynamicObject or %DynamicArray.

It returns one of the following strings:

InterSystems FAQ rubric

You can check the free disk space at any time using the system utility class: SYS.Database and query: FreeSpace.

Here's how to try it in the IRIS terminal (go to the %SYS namespace and then run it):

zn"%SYS"set stmt=##class(%SQL.Statement).%New()
set st=stmt.%PrepareClassQuery("SYS.Database","FreeSpace")
set rset=stmt.%Execute()
do rset.%Display()

The output result example is as follows:

*In the command execution example, all databases are located on the same disk, so the free disk space (DiskFreeSpace) returns the same value.

I need to implement a retry policy for an incoming message queue containing thousands of relatively small messages.

Successfully processed messages should be immediately removed from the queue.

Do not let the title of this article confuse you; we are not planning to take the InterSystems staff out to a fine Italian restaurant. Instead, this article will cover the principles of working with date and time data types in IRIS. When we use these data types, we should be aware of three different conversion issues:

1. Converting between internal and ODBC formats.
2. Converting between local time, UTC, and Posix time.
3. Converting to and from various date display formats.

Maybe this is well known but wanted to help share.

Consider that you have the following persistent class defintions

An Invoice Class with a property reference to Provider

Previously, we trained our model using machine learning. However, the sample data we utilized was generated directly from insert statements. 

Today, we will learn how to load this data straight from a file.

Hey everyone,

I'm diving deeper into Caché ObjectScript and would love to open a discussion around the most useful tips, tricks, and best practices you’ve learned or discovered while working with it.

Whether you're an experienced developer or just getting started, ObjectScript has its own set of quirks and powerful features—some well-documented, others hidden gems. I’m looking to compile a helpful set of ideas from the community.

Some areas I’m especially interested in:

InterSystems FAQ rubric

To enable Interoperability functionality after creating a namespace, use the EnableNamespace method of the %EnsembleMgr class:

do ##class(%EnsembleMgr).EnableNamespace()

Hi all,

My team is exploring options for handling timezone offsets in DTL and we’re wondering if there are any built-in methods available — ideally low-code or no-code solutions. Specifically, we're looking for a way to adjust timestamps based on the date and whether Daylight Saving Time (DST) is in effect.

For example, if an HL7 message has an MSH-7 value of 20250518144529, it should be converted to 20250518144529-0500 (Central Daylight Time), but if the timestamp were 20250218144529, it should be 20250218144529-0600 (Central Standard Time).

Reviewing the different articles that I have published, I realized that I needed to explain a very practical functionality within our EMPI (Enterprise Master Patient Index) and it is none other than the notification of registrations and links to systems external to the EMPI.

The Good Old Days

The %Library.DynamicObject class has been in IRIS since before it became IRIS. If you have been using it since the Cache days, you may want to brush up on some of its changes.

In Cache 2018, the %Get method only had one argument. It was the key to retrieving from the JSON, meaning that if your JSON object called myObj, it would look like the following: