Article
· Jun 4, 2019 1m read
Favourite editor for programming

There are many projects which work on InterSystems products, and they are not always written only in ObjectScript. I think some of you working with different programming languages and already have some experience with other editors, and hope you already have a favourite online editor.

My current choice is VSCode, whereas you may already know I have added an extension to support ObjectScript.

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Article
· Nov 23, 2017 12m read
Where is my global stored?

It's well-known that namespace global mapping helps us to write code independent on database storage details (Caché instance name, directory path). But sometimes we can face problems accessing an unsubscripted global which has subscript level mapping (SLM) defined. Most of such cases are evident and associated with administrative tasks that should be done on database level, but some of them can confuse even an experienced developer. Just to start:

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Programming and languages

Being a programmer nowadays is basically the geek version of being a polyglot. Of course, most of us here, in the InterSystems Community, “speak ObjectScript”. Howeever, I believe this wasn’t the first language for many people. For instance, I had never heard about it prior to getting the appropriate training at Innovatium.

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Article
· Oct 4, 2016 1m read
How to Parse a URL in Caché

How to parse a URL in Caché:

Let's pretend you are working on a project where you may be retrieving a URL for some purpose and you have the need to be easily able to parse apart that URL to get the various components that make up the URL.

Here's how to do that:

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Introduction

Since InterSystems has recently announced the discontinuation of support for InterSystems Studio starting from version 2023.2 in favor of exclusive development of extensions for the Visual Studio Code (VSC) IDE, believing that the latter offers a superior experience compared to Studio, many of us developers have switched or are beginning to use VSC. Many may have wondered how to open the Terminal to perform operations, as VSC does not have an Output panel like Studio did, nor an integrated feature to open the IRIS terminal, except by downloading the plugins developed by InterSystems.

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Today, we'd like to spotlight one of the standout members of the InterSystems Developer Community: @Benjamin De Boe. Since the inception of the InterSystems Developer Community, he has shared his expertise, contributing thoughtful articles, practical demos, and answers to questions. Having worked with InterSystems products since 2010, Benjamin brought invaluable knowledge to the Developer Community. From navigating iKnow projects to simplifying complex deployments with Docker and Python, he has continually inspired fellow developers through his work and presence on the Community.

🤩 Let's take a closer look at Benjamin's journey with InterSystems technology and our Developer Community...

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When you deploy code from a repo, class (file) deletion might not be reflected by your CICD system.
Here's a simple one-liner to automatically delete all classes in a specified package that have not been imported. It can be easily adjusted for a variety of adjunct tasks:

set packages = "USER.*,MyCustomPackage.*"
set dir = "C:\InterSystems\src\"
set sc = $SYSTEM.OBJ.LoadDir(dir,"ck", .err, 1, .loaded)
set sc = $SYSTEM.OBJ.Delete(packages _ ",'" _ $LTS($LI($LFS(loaded_",",".cls,"), 1, *-1), ",'"),, .err2)

The first command compiles classes and also returns a list of loaded classes. The second command deletes all classes from specified packages, except for the classes loaded just before that.

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Article
· Jun 13, 2016 1m read
Debug: using locks for breakpoints

Hi, Community!

Want to share with you one debugging approach from the Russian forum.

Suppose I want to debug the application and I want it to stop the execution on a particular line.

I add in code this line:

l +d,-d

When I want to start debugging in this line I block d in terminal

USER> l +d

And execute the app.

The app stops on this line and lets me connect to it with Studio debugger.

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Article
· Dec 7, 2019 1m read
About %objlasterror

%objlasterror is a useful reference to the last error.

Every time $$$ERROR is called, %objlasterror is set to a result of this call.

It's important in cases where you want to convert exception to status:

Try {
   //  quality code
} Catch ex {
   Set sc = $g(%objlasterror, $$$OK)
   Set sc = $$$ADDSC(sc, ex.AsStatus())
}

Because AsStatus calls $$$ERROR under the wraps, the order is important, first you need to get %objlasterror and convert exception after that.

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Article
· Jun 24, 2016 2m read
Atelier, Git, and GitHub

One of the benefits of Atelier is easy integration with source code management tools. Some Eclipse installations include the EGit plugin, or you can install it from the Eclipse marketplace. EGIt makes integration with Git and GitHub easy. Here are the steps I used to connect Atelier to a GitHub repository:

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One of the topics that comes up often when managing Ensemble productions is disk space:

The database (the CACHE.DAT file) grows in a rate that was unexpected; or the Journal files build up at a fast pace; or the database grows continuously though the system has a scheduled purge of the Ensemble runtime data.

It would have been better if these kind of phenomena would have been observed and accounted for yet at the development and testing stage rather than on a live system.

For this purpose I created a basic framework that could aid in this task.

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Article
· Mar 4, 2016 1m read
Getting my head around a class model

There's plenty of goodness in the %-packages InterSystems supplies, and it seems that every new version of Caché brings something new. The browser-based class documentation (a.k.a. Documatic) generally provides a good level of information, but on the basis that "a picture is worth a thousand words" I sometimes want a diagram.

For example, when trying to navigate the %Dictionary package for a project that needed to find out about class definitions, here's one of the UML class diagrams I created.

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When using Studio, ODBC or a terminal connection to Caché or Ensemble, you may have wondered how to secure the connection. One option is to add TLS (aka SSL) to your connection. The Caché client applications - TELNET, ODBC and Studio - all understand how to add TLS to the connection. They just need to be configured to do it.

Configuring these clients is easier in 2015.1 and later. I'm going to be discussing this new method. If you're already using the old, legacy method, it will continue to work, but I would recommend you consider switching to the new one.

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Database systems have very specific backup requirements that in enterprise deployments require forethought and planning. For database systems, the operational goal of a backup solution is to create a copy of the data in a state that is equivalent to when application is shut down gracefully. Application consistent backups meet these requirements and Caché provides a set of APIs that facilitate the integration with external solutions to achieve this level of backup consistency.

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The InterSystems Iris Fhirserver running on a Raspberry Pi Raspberry running as a FHIRserver

Raspberry running as FHIRserver

About a year ago I wrote some articles about the installation of the HAPI FHIRserver on a Raspberry Pi. At that time, I only knew the basics of the FHIR standard, little about the technology behind FHIR-servers and not much more about the Raspberry. By trying, failing, giving up and trying again I learned a lot.

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Article
· Jul 18, 2016 15m read
Remote proxy objects via dynamic dispatch

This article created as side effect of preparations to the longer set of articles about simple, but still handy MapReduce implementation in Caché. I was looking for relatively easy way to pass arguments to (potentially) multiple targets via remote calling facilities. And after several attempts I have realized that we do have very powerful mechanism in the Caché ObjectScript which might be of particular help here – dynamic dispatch for methods and properties.

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