Recently, the question came up while discussing the access to the data stored in IRIS from different languages with my students if it was possible to initiate the connection and get data from Cloud solution (InterSystems IRIS CloudSQL) from Microsoft Excel, not the other way around. Considering the many varied ways one can get data in Excel (import data from external sources, connecting to databases using ODBC drivers, using power queries and web queries etc.) the obvious choice was to try ODBC driver. The only task left was to try to connect to the database in the cloud using the ODBC driver.

Suppose you have an application that allows users to write posts and comment on them. (Wait... that sounds familiar...)

For a given user, you want to be able to list all of the published posts with which that user has interacted - that is, either authored or commented on. How do you make this as fast as possible?

Here's what our %Persistent class definitions might look like as a starting point (storage definitions are important, but omitted for brevity):

I recently realized it's been far too long since I talked about the latest features in the InterSystems ObjectScript Extension for Visual Studio Code.

I'm pleased to announce version 2.12.1 of the ObjectScript extension, containing a number of enhancements that make a developer's life easier. Some highlights are described below, including the #1 requested feature from Global Summit -- XML import!

Hi Community,

We have some exciting news! It's time for the next InterSystems technical article writing competition!

✍️ Technical Article Contest: InterSystems IRIS Tutorials ✍️

Write an article that can be considered a tutorial for InterSystems IRIS programmers of any level: beginner / middle / senior from February 19th to March 17th. We've extended the submission deadline till the 24th of March!

🎁 Prizes for everyone: A special prize for each author participating in the competition!

SQLTools is a Visual Studio Code (VS Code) Extension with over 3.5 million downloads that provides connections to many of the most used databases, including InterSystems IRIS, using drivers.

Surely you have all heard about FHIR as the panacea and solution to all interoperability and compatibility problems between systems. Right here we can see one of his classic defenders holding a FHIR resource in his hand and enjoying it immensely:

But for the rest of us mortals we are going to make a small introduction.

I am often asked to review customers' IRIS application performance data to understand if system resources are under or over-provisioned.

This recent example is interesting because it involves an application that has done a "lift and shift" migration of a large IRIS database application to the Cloud. AWS, in this case.

A key takeaway is that once you move to the Cloud, resources can be right-sized over time as needed. You do not have to buy and provision on-premises infrastructure for many years in the future that you expect to grow into.

Continuous monitoring is required. Your application transaction rate will change as your business changes, the application use or the application itself changes. This will change the system resource requirements. Planners should also consider seasonal peaks in activity. Of course, an advantage of the Cloud is resources can be scaled up or down as needed.

For more background information, there are several in-depth posts on AWS and IRIS in the community. A search for "AWS reference" is an excellent place to start. I have also added some helpful links at the end of this post.

AWS services are like Lego blocks, different sizes and shapes can be combined. I have ignored networking, security, and standing up a VPC for this post. I have focused on two of the Lego block components;
- Compute requirements.
- Storage requirements.

There is an interesting new feature in the recently announced 2024.1 preview, JSON_TABLE. JSON_TABLE is one of a family of functions introduced by the 2016 version of the SQL Standard (ISO Standard, published in early 2017). It allows for JSON values to be mapped to columns and queried using SQL. JSON_TABLE is valid in the FROM clause of some SQL statements.

The syntax of JSON_TABLE is quite large, allowing for exceptional conditions where the provided JSON values don't match expectations, nested structures and so on.

Hi Community,

In my previous article, we learned topics listed below:

1. What is Docker?
2. Some of the Docker benefits
3. How does Docker work?
4. Docker Image
5. Docker Container
6. Docker Image repository
7. InterSystems's Docker image repository
8. Docker Installation
9. Docker Basic Commands
10. Running IRIS community edition by using Docker
11. Docker Desktop GUI

In this article, we will cover the following topics:

1. Use of Docker Compose file (a YAML file)
2. Use of Docker file (employed to build a Docker image)
3. Use of Docker volume

So let's begin.

BPL from 10,000 feet

BPL stands for Business Process Language.
This is an XML format for describing complex information orchestration interactions between systems.
InterSystems Integration engine has for two decades, provided a visual designer to build, configure, and maintain, BPL using a graphical interface.
Think of it like drawing a process flow diagram that can be compiled and deployed.

Artificial intelligence is not limited only to generating images through text with instructions or creating narratives with simple directions.

You can also make variations of a picture or include a special background to an already existing one.

Additionally, you can obtain the transcription of audio regardless of its language and the speed of the speaker.

So, let's analyze how the file management works.

Hi Developers!

Here are the technology bonuses for the InterSystems Java Programming Contest 2023 that will give you extra points in the voting:

As first announced in May, and after many presentations and robust discussions at Global Summit 2023, we are continuing with the plans to deprecate InterSystems Studio (deprecated designates a feature or technology that InterSystems no longer actively develops, and for which better options exist).

Hey Community,

It's time to announce the winners of the InterSystems Java Contest 2023!

Thank you to all our amazing participants who submitted 13 applications 🔥