In the previous part of this series, we saw how to include data in a portlet from within DeepSee. This used the built in data controller. In this part, we are going to be pulling in data from outside of DeepSee. This will include both information from within InterSystems IRIS and from the OS.

Why use this?

This is useful if you would like to create a dashboard that only contains information about your system. It is also useful if you want to display data about your system along side data that you have stored in DeepSee.

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When using Related Cubes in InterSystems IRIS BI, cubes must be built in the proper order. The One side must be built before the Many side. This is because during build time for the Many side, it looks up the record on the One side and creates a link. If the referenced record is not found on the One side, a Missing Relationship build error is generated. The One side is going to be the independent side of the relationship, AKA the side of the relationship that is referenced by the Many side or the Dependent cube. For example: Patients contain a reference to their Doctor.

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Have you ever needed a math function but could not find what you needed and ended up writing your own? Look no further! ObjectScript-Math is here to solve all your math related function needs.

ObjectScript-Math is an Open Source library for ObjectScript Math functions. It is now available on Open Exchange. This library contains a mix of new functions that are not currently available and functions that are available. The existing functions will be wrapped for use from ObjectScript-Math so that all Math functions can have a central location.

This library will continue to grow, so give it a try and give your feedback!

Don't see what you are looking for? Please feel free to submit requests for additional functions or contribute code yourself!

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Article
· Dec 31, 2019 3m read
Portlets that use data from DeepSee


In the previous part of this series, we saw how to reference a web page that will enhance our dashboard experience. Now we will look into referencing data that is already in our cubes.

In this example, we will be referencing the controller object and we will be extracting data from it. This data will then be displayed as text in our Dashboard. In Part 5, we will show how to incorporate this data into other charting libraries.

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Article
· Apr 12, 2017 5m read
Bug killing development tips

Does anyone NOT use a debugger? I can't remember the last time I did. It's not because I don't dislike them, I just don't need to use them. The main reason for this is because I have a certain development methodology that either produces less bugs, catches them at a unit test level, or makes tracking them down much easier.

Here are my tips...

1. Write your own COS cheat-sheet.

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In the first article I started discussing RESTForms - REST API for your persistent classes. We talked about basic features, now, I'd like to discuss advanced features - mainly queries capabilites:

  • Basic queries
  • Query arguments
  • Custom queries

Queries

Queries allow getting slices of data, based on arbitrary criteria. There are two query types in RESTForms:

  • Basic queries work for all RESTForms classes once defined and they differ only by the field list
  • Custom queries work only for the classes in which they are specified and available, but the developer has full access to query text
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In the previous part of this series, we saw how to define a basic portlet. Now we will look into making this portlet reference a web page that will enhance our dashboard experience.

In this example, we will be embedding a Developer Community article along side a couple of widgets displaying information related to the number of views on the Developer Community articles. This example is not hosted on the Community Analytics server, but if it was we could see the view counts going up as we interacted with the page.

Why use this?

In a real case, perhaps you have an embedded page from an external web site showing the current Emergency Room wait times for Hospitals in your area. This portlet can be used along side widgets from your Emergency Room showing how many people are waiting, how many doctors are active, and how many people are being treated. As other Emergency Room wait times grow, you can possibly expect your volume to increase as well. This can help you make decisions on how to allocate resources.

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Article
· Dec 12, 2019 2m read
Creating Portlets in DeepSee

What is a portlet?

The simple answer is: a custom widget. A portlet can exist by itself on a DeepSee dashboard, it can be used along side standard DeepSee widgets, or along side other portlets. The rendering of the custom widget is completely user defined. This means you can embed a web page, create a form to perform any sort of action needed based on the data on your dashboard, use third party charting libraries, or simply display data from outside of a DeepSee cube.

How to get started

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Article
· Mar 28, 2019 2m read
ObjectScript error handling snippets

ObjectScript has at least three ways of handling errors (status codes, exceptions, SQLCODE, etc.). Most of the system code uses statuses but exceptions are easier to handle for a number of reasons. Working with legacy code you spend some time translating between the different techniques. I use these snippets a lot for reference. Hopefully they're useful to others as well.

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Currently, many of you has some knowledge about CachéQuality (which is being renamed to objectscriptQuality) for analyzing objectscript code using the rules we have predefined. Probably you have tested it and have found too many warnings in your projects. I'm sure there are issues which are really important for you and some others which you would like to dismiss.

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Some time ago I developed an application that tackled a familarial problem faced by many developers when required to update multiple UAT or PRODUCTION sites with the latest Software patches that have been developed and tested on your DEV server and now need to be deployed to multiple sites running that software.

In principle the solution works as follows:

1) Prepare an XML export of affected classes/routines/csp pages/hl7 definitions et al

2) Optionally create a global export of any new globals or changes to existing globals

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InterSystems Data Platforms products allow you to export and import security settings in two different ways.

This article talks about those options:
- On the command line, using ^SECURITY
- Programmatically, using the Export and Import methods of classes in the Security package

Exporting settings on the command line (^SECURITY)

You can export everything or individual sections of the security settings.

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Article
· Nov 11, 2019 11m read
Transactions in Global InterSystems IRIS

InterSystems IRIS supports a unique data structure, called globals, for information storage. Essentially, globals are persistent arrays with multi-level indices, having several extra capabilities—transactions, quick traversal of tree structures, and a programming language known as ObjectScript.

I'd note that for the remainder of the article, or at least the code samples, we'll assume you have familiarised yourself with the basics of globals:

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Hi developers!

I just want to share with you the knowledge aka experience which could save you a few hours someday.

If you are building REST API with IRIS which contains more than 1 level of "/", e.g. '/patients/all' don't forget to add parameter 'recurse=1' into your deployment script in %Installer, otherwise all the second and higher entries won't work. And all the entries of level=1 will work.

/patients

- will work, but

/patients/all

- won't.

Here is an example of CSPApplicatoin section which fix the issue and which you may want to use in your %Installer class:

    <CSPApplication Url="${CSPAPP}"
      Recurse="1"
      Directory="${CSPAPPDIR}"
      Grant="${RESOURCE},%SQL"
      AuthenticationMethods="96"
      />

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Why log in to view pivot tables when you can have them delivered directly to your inbox? Are you in need of automated reporting for InterSystems IRIS Business Intelligence? Pivot Subscriptions is your solution: a tool for subscribing to scheduled email reports of pivot tables inside InterSystems IRIS Business Intelligence (previously known as DeepSee).

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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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In the previous article, I have demonstrated a simple way to record data changes. At this time I have changed the "Audit Abstract Class" which is responsible for recording audit data and the data structure where the audit log will be recorded.

I have changed the data structure to a parent and child structure where there will be two tables to record the "transaction" and the "fields its values" changed on that transaction.

Take a look at the new data model:

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Hi,

It turns out that on windows if you run a command with a windows command file you need to escape the % character as %%

In my case I could test freeze and thaw calls at the command line successfully as

..\bin\cache -s. -U%SYS ##Class(Backup.General).ExternalFreeze()

...but when my freeze script ran it would fail.

it turns out that a single '%' is striped when run in a windows command file, and it must be escaped as '%%' windows gets:

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A few years ago, I was teaching the basics of our %UnitTest framework during Caché Foundations class (now called Developing Using InterSystems Objects and SQL). A student asked if it was possible to collect performance statistics while running unit tests. A few weeks later, I added some additional code to the %UnitTest examples to answer this question. I’m finally sharing it on the Community.

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When dealing with a support issue of one of our Deltanji source control sites this week I learned that if you're using InterSystems versions earlier than 2018.1 on Unix-type platforms it's possible that a class you export in UDL format will subsequently fail to import. So I'm posting this information here in case it helps other folk.

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Index to Articles

Published 2018-05-11 Last edit -

Hi All

I this article I detail some strategic issues that a new development UI will need to address - these are the ones that I can think of now - others may come to light during this journey.

See the webinar by Eduard Lebedyuk here from the last Global Summit describing modern web development and Caché

And, as always, if I have missed something please comment....

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Every developer has made the mistake of accidentally leaving temporary debug code in place when they meant to remove it after debugging is complete. The great thing about writing in ObjectScript is that there is a way to make temporary code be truly temporary and automatically self-destruct! This can also be done in such a way that the code has no change of making it into your source control stream, which can be helpful as well.

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