Beginner tag unites articles and questions for those who are getting started with InterSystems Data Platform
I know IRIS has a built-in testing framework, but I'm not sure how to write tests that validate the full message flow through a Production without depending on external systems. Do you mock Business Operations? Is there a pattern you use to test integration scenarios in an isolated and repeatable way?
I've seen that %JSON.Adaptor makes it easy to serialize and deserialize objects to JSON, but I've also seen people building custom serialization logic. Are there scenarios where %JSON.Adaptor falls short, such as handling nested objects, null values or custom field naming conventions? What has been your experience?
If I need to add or change properties in a message class that is already being used by a running Production, what is the safest way to do this? Are there risks with existing messages in the queue or in the message store? Is there a migration strategy the community recommends?
I understand that Business Rules can be used to route or transform messages without touching code. But I'm not clear on when it's better to use a Business Rule versus handling the logic directly inside a BPL or a custom BP class. What criteria do you use to decide between them?
In .NET projects I usually rely on appsettings per environment. In IRIS Productions, settings are stored per component and seem tied to the namespace. What strategies do you use to manage different configurations across environments without manually changing settings every time you promote a Production?
I have several Business Operations that share similar behavior, like building HTTP headers or parsing a specific response format. In C# I would extract this into a service class or a base class. What is the recommended way to do this in IRIS? Should I use a utility class, a common superclass, or is there another pattern the community prefers?
I have a Business Process that needs to call an external API that may take several seconds to respond. I'm worried that keeping the BP blocked waiting for the response could affect the overall Production throughput. Is there a recommended pattern for handling async calls inside a BPL or custom BP class to avoid this kind of bottleneck?
What tools or techniques do you use to debug a Production during development? I know the Management Portal shows the message queue and event log, but I'm wondering if there are better ways to trace a message through the full BS > BP > BO flow without relying only on logs.
When building a Production, should I create separate message classes for each integration flow, or is it acceptable to reuse generic request/response classes across different Business Operations? I'm trying to understand how to keep things organized as the number of integrations grows.
What is the recommended way to handle errors inside a Business Process in IRIS? Should I use Try/Catch within the BPL, return error responses to the caller, or rely on the built-in retry mechanism of the Production? Looking for guidance on what's considered good practice.
For those who learned Caché ObjectScript from scratch: what kind of personal or practice projects did you build to get comfortable with the language? I come from a C# background and I'm looking for project ideas that are small enough to be feasible but meaningful enough to actually teach the core COS concepts.
The recently published tutorial "Introduction to InterSystems Data Studio" inspired me to check out this product. And I think it’s an interesting look at how to manage a data fabric without deep-diving into complex code. It allows you to connect disparate data silos, transform the data through automated pipelines, and load it into a unified environment for analysis. So, I decided to write up an example of how you can use it. Basically, I'll walk you through the tutorial in case you don't have time to do it on your own. Though I would definitely suggest you actually follow the tutorial - it has lots of useful information.
To see how it works, I stepped into the shoes of a system administrator, logging in with the provided credentials to explore the interface. The layout centers on a few core pillars: defining where data comes from, cataloging its structure, and building automated "recipes" to move it into production.
And the very first step is to establish a connection to my data.
When we need to integrate Caché/IRIS with other relational databases, one common question arises: “How do I set up the JDBC connection?”.
The official documentation doesn’t always provide a straightforward step-by-step guide, which can be frustrating, especially for beginners.
In this article, I’ll walk you through the entire process of configuring a JDBC connection with MySQL, from downloading the connector to linking tables in Caché/IRIS.
Note: JDBC connections in Caché/IRIS have some limitations, especially regarding caching and the use of ResultSet
Despite the fact that LOCK (docs) is a foundational part of InterSystems IRIS, responsible for concurrency, there is not a lot of discussion on the Developer Community about it. Which is understandable, considering it's stable and fairly low-level command. In this article, I will show a simple example of how to use locks with interoperability.
I joined InterSystems less than a year ago. Diving into ObjectScript and IRIS was exciting, but also full of small surprises that tripped me up at the beginning. In this article I collect the most common mistakes I, and many new colleagues, make, explain why they happen, and show concrete examples and practical fixes. My goal is to help other new developers save time and avoid the same bumps in the road.
The issue: ObjectScript/IRIS ships with many system classes and packages (%Library, %SYS, %Persistent, %SQL, etc.).
Hi Community,
If you’re new to InterSystems, check out the InterSystems Developer Hub.
Start working with InterSystems technologies — install InterSystems IRIS, connect to it, run something real, or try products directly in a browser-based interactive environment (no setup required).
If you’re wondering where to begin, here’s what you’ll find there:
Developer Onboarding Guide — a structured walkthrough of what InterSystems IRIS is and how to set it up
Quickstarts — short, practical guides to get you from zero to a working setup:
Hi, Community!
Are you working with large tables? See how partitioning helps you manage and query your data:
In this series of articles, I'd like to present and discuss several possible approaches toward software development with InterSystems technologies and GitLab. I will cover such topics as:
In the first article, we covered Git basics, why a high-level understanding of Git concepts is important for modern software development, and how Git can be used to develop software.
Hi Community,
Are you looking for resources to help your team onboard? Use these guides to get started!
Updated 04/17/26
Hi Community,
Need to find the most relevant onboarding for your HealthShare Unified Care Record® team? Maximize your team's knowledge and success by diving into this curated list of offerings from InterSystems Learning Services—which includes online and in-person training for a variety of roles in your organization.
Updated 04/17/26
Hi Community,
Looking for a way to onboard your team with InterSystems IRIS® for Health? Unlock the full potential of this platform by using these InterSystems learning resources. With a mix of online and in-person training, you can support various roles in your organization and equip your team for success.
Updated 04/16/26
Hi Community,
You can unlock the full potential of InterSystems IRIS—and help your team onboard—with the full range of InterSystems learning resources offered online and in person, for every role in your organization. Developers, system administrators, data analysts, and integrators can quickly get up to speed.
Hi, Community!
Here's another way AI can speed up your processes—take a look! 👇
Generating Transformation Descriptions with the DTL Explainer
Hi Community,
The InterSystems Learning Website has many important iterative courses.
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:
Also adding some of my own experience on what worked (and what didn’t, may be only not work for me🤫🤐).
If you don’t know where to begin, start here:
Updated 14/04/26
Before you can start building with InterSystems IRIS, you need a working local or server installation. This guide walks through downloading the distribution and installing IRIS on Windows in a straightforward way, focusing on the steps and decisions that matter in a development setup.
I’ll cover where to get the appropriate version, what prerequisites to check before installing, and how to run through the installer on your platform. The goal is to get you to a clean, usable environment with minimal friction, so you can move on to writing code, exploring the data platform, and integrating with your existing tools.
To download a Community version, please read this article: How to get InterSystems IRIS Community Edition. It explains the different ways to obtain InterSystems IRIS Community Edition, highlighting options for local, containerized, and cloud-based setups. It shows how to use Docker to quickly pull and run a ready-to-use IRIS instance. You can also learn how to deploy IRIS in the cloud via marketplaces like AWS to avoid local installation. What's important here, this guide walks through downloading an install kit from the InterSystems Evaluation Service and selecting the right version and platform.
Hi, Community!
Need help setting up OAuth on the FHIR Server? We'll guide you through the workflow:
Hi Communtiy,
I am a begineer who is working and trying to understand Intersystems. I am developing an Ensemble interface which receives a XML message and converts it into HL7 format without using enslib.HL7 classes.
Requirement
Are you familiar with SQL databases, but not familiar with IRIS? Then read on...
About a year ago I joined InterSystems, and that is how IRIS got on my radar. I've been using databases for over 40 years—much of that time for database vendors—and assumed IRIS would be largely the same as the other databases I knew.
Earlier this year, I set about creating kit to introduce young techy folk at a Health Tech hackathon to using InterSystems IRIS for health, particularly focusing on using FHIR and vector search.
I wanted to publish this to the developer community because the tutorials included in the kit make a great introduction to using FHIR and to building a basic RAG system in IRIS.