Hey Community!

We're happy to share the next video in the "Code to Care" series on our InterSystems Developers YouTube:

⏯ MCP Explained: Bridging the Gap between AI Agents and Tools

I am connecting to an intersystems cache database via C# and I need to obtain a list of all available namespaces.

I am using code like this:

// Source - https://stackoverflow.com/q/79393836
// Posted by Tony Valenti, modified by community. See post 'Timeline' for change history
// Retrieved 2026-04-21, License - CC BY-SA 4.0
namespace ConsoleApp13
{
   internal class Program
   {
       static void Main(string[] args)
       {
           var CS = "Server=XXXXX;User=system;Password=sys;";
           
           var C = new InterSystems.Data.CacheClient.CacheConnection(CS);
           C.Open();
           var Command = C.CreateCommand();
           Command.CommandText = $@"
               select * from %SYS.Namespace_List()
           ";
           var Values = Command.ExecuteReader();
           while (Values.Read()) {
           }
       }
   }
}

The George James Software team is looking forward to going to National Harbor for READY 2026!

As part of the conference, we'll be hosting our Deltanji Source Control User Group:

Date: Wednesday, April 29th 
Time: 8 - 9am (breakfast will be provided) 
Location: Azalea 1 
RSVP by emailing laurelj@georgejames.com. 

We'll be showing what will be included in the next release of Deltanji, version 8.2, as well as providing an opportunity for questions and discussion. We welcome both current and prospective users to join us.

The Management Portal doesn't have a native way to switch to Dark Mode. This can be resolved using a Chrome extension called Dark Reader. See the result:

To install and use the Dark Reader:

I'm starting to play more with AI enabled coding. 
I've been using Github Copilot inside Visual studio code, which is very good at coming up with autocomplete suggestions that are accurate and useful. (Along with some utter rubbish, naturally).
For web development I'm starting to use Claude Code in VS Code to help create web sites and integrations. I want to see how it can help with IRIS development. 

However I can't get claude to read any iris code directly as I'm connected to my server via isfs server connections.

Most IRIS developers use $LISTBUILD every day — often without even noticing it.

It is not just a convenient function for building lists. It is also the default internal format used to store row data, global values, and many intermediate structures inside the database engine.

Despite this, the actual binary representation of $LISTBUILD values is rarely discussed. Most developers rely on its behavior, but never look at how the data is really stored.

This article focuses strictly on the binary layout of $LISTBUILD values, based on direct inspection via zzdump.

I need a %SYS.Python object that will be accessible from different processes. The goal is to avoid reinitializing the Python object whenever it is called. Ways that I checked and decided that it is NOT what I want:

• %-variables (process variables). Reusing only in the same process
• Save-and-restore via globals. Restoring means heavy initialization, which I want to avoid

Next, my ideas (none of them look like a silver bullet):

• Using Interoperability Production.

Hello, community.

I've been working with Intersystem Caché for two years, and right away I was excited about the rich ecosystem that Caché provides. However, I was disappointed with calls using #call, and I understand that it was a limitation of the time. Well, the frustration is that #call returns null by default, meaning an AJAX request is executed, but there's no hook to retrieve the return from that request. The only way to retrieve the data from that request is by building a callback on the server side using &js<>.

Hi Guys,

I've this Business operation pointing to my DSN as below 

where its calling the this method, but for some reason its not recognizing Ens.Util.LookupTable class   

What is a Microservice?

A microservice is an architectural style that structures an application as a collection of small, autonomous services. Each component is developed around a specific business capability, can be deployed independently, and is typically managed by a miniature, specialized, self-governing team. (Source: https://microservices.io/)

During my work with customers and also following I often met the 
explicit or embedded question: What is this "GLOBALS" ?
I'll try to explain the history to unfold the context.

Has anyone done this successfully?  Customer wants to receive HL7 data over https using OAUTH 2.0 client credentials.  I am assuming a custom Operation will be needed?  I tried using CoPilot for assistance but was unsuccessful.  I am not great with Object script :( 

Hi Team,

We are currently running InterSystems Caché 2018 on an IBM AIX server and would like to configure the Cache instance to start automatically when the server boots or is rebooted.

Could you please provide the recommended steps or any official scripts/guidelines to enable auto-start for the Cache instance (QA2018) on AIX?

Additionally, if there are any best practices or prerequisites (such as filesystem mount options, service dependencies, or startup order) that we should consider, please share those as well.

Thanks,
Ganesh

Hi, Community!

Here's another way AI can speed up your processes—take a look! 👇

Generating Transformation Descriptions with the DTL Explainer

Introduction
InterSystems IRIS Adaptive Analytics is an optional extension that provides a business-oriented, virtual data model layer between InterSystems IRIS and popular Business Intelligence (BI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) client tools. Adaptive Analytics is powered by AtScale, the AtScale documentation can be found at this link: https://documentation.intersystems.atscale.com

This article will showcase some AtScale features that can facilitate data analysis:

1. Cube creation
2. Excel visualization
3. Parallel Period
4. Queries
5. Snowflake
6. Security

7. Aggregates

The 2025.1.4 and 2024.1.6 maintenance releases of InterSystems IRIS^® data platform, InterSystems IRIS^® for Health, and InterSystemsHealth Connect™ are now Generally Available (GA). These releases include the fixes for a number of recently issued alerts and advisories, including the following: 

• April 15, 2026 – Alert: Removal of InterSystems IRIS for Health and Health Connect 2024.1.4 and 2024.1.5 Due to Health Interoperability Issues | IDC

Summary

Issue

• The impacted versions of InterSystems IRIS for Health and Health Connect are being removed from WRC distribution sites due to issues identified in several FHIR and healthcare interoperability features.

We didn't start with a big AI strategy.

We had a legacy InterSystems Caché 2018 application, a lot of old business logic, and a practical need: build a new UI and improve code that had been running for years. At first, I thought an AI coding agent would help only with a small part of the work. Maybe some boilerplate, some REST work around the system, and a bit of help reading old ObjectScript.

In practice, it became much more than that.

Before finding the best solution for Supply Chain, we need to understand what Supply Chain is. Well, regardless of the language used, the term is known by the name already mentioned. For your information, the translation in Brazilian Portuguese is "Cadeia de Suprimentos" (Supply Chain), sometimes also called "Cadeia Logística" (Logistics Chain), but we will not dwell on the nomenclature, but rather on the meaning.

Hi, every one. Again, it's me!!😀😀

Recently I was trying to organize some learning materials for InterSystems IRIS😆, and realized that the resources are actually quite scattered.🤐

So I put together a list here—grouped by categories—for anyone who:

• is new to InterSystems
• or wants to go deeper into specific areas

Also adding some of my own experience on what worked (and what didn’t, may be only not work for me🤫🤐).

1. For starters

If you don’t know where to begin, start here:

• https://developer.intersystems.com/
• https://developer.intersystems.com/resources/
• https://developer.intersystems.com/intersystems-iris-getting-started/

Over the past year there have been a few DC articles offering MCP servers designed to connect to IRIS and help the AI features of VS Code and its cousins do a better job. For example:

• Hey chat, what's up with my Interoperability by @Dmitry Maslennikov 
• No-Hallucinate MCP: Real-time Routine Context for ObjectScript by @Jinyao 
• iris-mcp-atelier introduced by @Ernest Salas in his comment on the Claude Code vs ISFS. Has anyone cracked how to get one to see the other? post by @MarkCharlton.

I use cspa24.so Apache module to connect to IRIS. I have notified that idle Apache processes will always result in connections being kept open to the IRIS server, and thus some amount of IRIS processes being kept alive (and dedicated to those apache processes) because of those connections.

Eg: if I have 50 idle Apache processes, I will have 50 IRIS processes being kept alive in IRIS even if there is no client connection being made at that time. 

It's even worse with multiple Apache nodes and a load balancer.

Summary

Issue

• Deployments do not serve FHIR Server, bulk FHIR, FHIR SQL, or associated security user interfaces when using a non-default path prefix. For example, when using logical path configurations with Windows IIS, Apache, or other web servers.

This past weekend we ran into something odd. When we failed over our mirror from 2022.1.3 to 2025.1.3 the one of the Business Rules that was on what became the Primary (2025.1.3), had a rule within it that was removed back in January. When the Failover occurred, we had to scramble to backup, disable, and remove the Rule that shouldn't have been there. 

Both the Data and Code live within the same IRIS.dat that is the main MIRROR database for that Namespace. 

If this happened to one Class file, could it happen to others we do not know about?

Hi Community,

In our two preceding articles, we explored the fundamentals of the Interoperability Embedded Python (IoP) framework, including message handling, production setup, and Python-based business components.

In this third piece, we will examine advanced methodologies and practical patterns within the IoP framework that are pivotal for real-world interoperability implementations.
We will explore the following topics: 

✅ DTL (Data Transformation Language) in IoP
✅ JSON Schema Support
✅ Effective Debugging Techniques

Collectively, these features help us create maintainable, validated, and easily troubleshootable production-grade interoperability solutions.