#Contest

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.
For developers new to VS Code, or those already familiar with it but are looking to streamline their connections to InterSystems IRIS, this tutorial will take you through installing the SQLTools extensions and the InterSystems IRIS drive. It then guides you on how to establish a connection to your instance of InterSystems IRIS and run a query.

Hi Community,

It's time to announce the winners of the InterSystems Developer Tools Contest! 

Thanks to all our amazing participants who submitted 17 applications 🔥🔥

Now it's time to announce the winners!

We are happy to present the bonuses page for the applications submitted to the InterSystems Developer Tools Contest 2025!

See the results below.

If you like what you see please support this in the Developer Tools 2025 contest. Voting closes at midnight EDT on Sunday 3rd.

Hi Community,

It's voting time! Cast your votes for the best applications in our InterSystems Developer Tools Contest:

🔥 VOTE FOR THE BEST APPS 🔥

How to vote? Details below.

If you’ve ever watched a true artisan—whether a potter turning mud into a masterpiece or a luthier bringing raw wood to life as a marvelous guitar—you know that magic isn’t in the materials, but in care, craft, and process. I know this firsthand: my handmade electric guitar is a daily inspiration, but I’ll admit—creating something like that is a talent I don’t have.

Yet, in the digital world, I often see people hoping for “magic” from generative AI by typing vague, context-free prompts like “build an app.” The results are usually frustratingly shallow—no artistry, no finesse.

The new version of InterSystems Testing Manager which I released last week brings @Timothy Leavitt's cool 
Test Coverage Tool to VS Code, and is my entry for the 2025 Developer Tools contest.

Here's a teaser screenshot showing how the unit tests of the IPM project don't yet cover a feature that apparently allows an IPM repository to override its sort order.

Hi Developers,

We are happy to announce the new InterSystems online programming contest dedicated to creating useful tools to make your fellow developers' lives easier:

🏆 InterSystems Developer Tools Contest 🏆

Duration: July 14 - August 3, 2025

Prize pool: $12,000

Users of the %UnitTest framework can now get test coverage information inside VS Code by combining the latest release (v2.0.0) of the InterSystems Testing Manager extension with @Timothy Leavitt's impressive Test Coverage Tool.

Above you can see the Test Coverage pane, which I have moved to the secondary sidebar on the right so it can more easily be explored in conjunction with the Test Explorer on the left.

Notice how the most recent test run (of all Test Coverage Tool's own unit tests) covered the BitValue method of TestCoverage.Procedures but not the BitCount method (nor 6 other methods).

Hi Developers!

There is a free ObjectScriptQuality tool for ObjectScript developers who upload solutions on GitHub. This tool helps developers validate ObjectScript code using a variety of rules, based on common code errors.

There are currently 16 rules in this tool, but there are definitely many more rules to consider when testing ObjectScript code.

Could you suggest any other rules to add to this tool?

Note: You can submit it as an idea on the InterSystems Ideas for the 2nd Idea-A-Thon contest

Hey Community,

We're pleased to invite all the developers to the upcoming kick-off webinar for the InterSystems Developer Tools Contest!

Date & Time: Monday, July 14 – 11 am EDT | 5 pm CEST  

Hi Community,

It's time to announce the winners of the InterSystems FHIR and Digital Health Interoperability Contest! 

Thanks to all our amazing participants who submitted 11 applications 🔥 

Now it's time to announce the winners!

Hi Developers!

We are happy to present the bonuses page for the applications submitted to the FHIR and Digital Health Interoperability Contest 2025!

See the results below.

Hi Community,

It's voting time! Cast your votes for the best applications in our InterSystems FHIR and Digital Health Interoperability Contest:

🔥 VOTE FOR THE BEST APPS 🔥

How to vote? Details below.

Hi Community,
In this article, I will introduce my application iris-fhir-bridge 
IRIS-FHIR-Bridge is a robust interoperability engine built on InterSystems IRIS for Health, designed to transform healthcare data across multiple formats into FHIR and vice versa. It leverages the InterSystems FHIR Object Model (HS.FHIRModel.R4.*) to enable smooth data standardization and exchange across modern and legacy healthcare systems.

Let me introduce you to FHIRCraft, a lightweight tool to generate synthetic FHIR resources.

Now, you might be thinking:
“But wait — doesn’t Synthea already do that, and with tons of resources?”
Exactly — and that’s precisely why I created this app.

FHIRCraft is designed to generate simpler, smaller, and more focused FHIR resources. Unlike Synthea, it doesn’t aim to simulate entire patient histories or clinical workflows. Instead, it helps when you’re just getting started with FHIR — when you want to test things incrementally, or explore how specific resources behave in isolation.

Hi Developers,

We are happy to announce the new InterSystems online programming contest dedicated to all things health-related:

🏆 InterSystems FHIR and Digital Health Interoperability Contest 🏆

Duration: May 12 - June 1, 2025

Prize pool: $12,000

Just like a knockout punch, without giving the opponent a chance, Kubernetes, as an open source platform, has a universe of opportunities due to its availability (i.e., the ease of finding support, services and tools). It is a platform that can manage jobs and services in containers, which greatly simplifies the configuration and automation of these processes.

But let's justify the title image and give the tool in question the “correct” name: InterSystems Kubernetes Operator.

Hi Developers!

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is getting a lot of attention lately because it can change many areas of our lives. Better computer power and more data have helped AI do amazing things, like improving medical tests and making self-driving cars. AI can also help businesses make better decisions and work more efficiently, which is why it's becoming more popular and widely used. How can one integrate the OpenAI API calls into an existing IRIS Interoperability application?

Prefer not to read? Check out the demo video I created:

Hi Community,

It's time to announce the winners of the AI Programming Contest: Vector Search, GenAI and AI Agents! 

Thanks to all our amazing participants who submitted 15 applications 🔥 

Now it's time to announce the winners!

Hi Developers!

We are happy to present the bonuses page for the applications submitted to the InterSystems AI Programming Contest!

See the results below.

Hi Community,

It's voting time! Cast your votes for the best applications in our AI Programming Contest:

🔥 VOTE FOR THE BEST APPS 🔥

How to vote? Details below.

Hi Community!

It's time to celebrate our 25 fellow members who took part in the latest InterSystems Technical Article Contest and wrote

🌟 38 AMAZING ARTICLES 🌟

The competition was filled with outstanding articles, each showcasing innovation and expertise. With so many high-quality submissions, selecting the best was no easy task for the judges.

Let's meet the winners and look at their articles:

Hey Community,

It's time for the first programming contest of the year, and there's a surprise so read on! Please welcome:

🏆 InterSystems AI Programming Contest: Vector Search, GenAI, and AI Agents 🏆

Duration: March 17 - April 6, 2025

Prize pool: $12,000 + a chance to be invited to the Global Summit 2025!

Hi Developers!

Here're the technology bonuses for the InterSystems AI Programming Contest: Vector Search, GenAI and AI Agents that will give you extra points in the voting:

• Agent AI solution - 5
• Vector Search usage - 4
• Embedded Python - 3
• LLM AI or LangChain usage: Chat GPT, Bard, and others - 3
• IntegratedML usage - 3
• Docker container usage - 2 
• ZPM Package deployment - 2
• Online Demo - 2
• Implement InterSystems Community Idea - 4
• Find a bug in Vector Search, or Integrated ML, or Embedded Python - 2
• First Article on Developer Community - 2
• Second Article On DC - 1
• First Time Contribution - 3
• Video on YouTube - 3
• Suggest a new idea - 1

See the details below.

Hi Community!

We are excited to announce the first French technical article writing contest!

✍️ Technical Article Contest ✍️

This is the perfect opportunity for all InterSystems technology enthusiasts to share their knowledge and showcase their writing skills. No matter your experience level, everyone is welcome to participate. Articles can cover a wide range of technical topics related to InterSystems products or services. So, let your creativity and expertise run wild!

📅 Contest period: September 2-29, 2024

🎁 Gifts for all: a special gift is prepared for each participant!

🏅 Prizes for the authors of the best articles

After so many years of waiting, we finally got an official driver available on Pypi

Additionally, found JDBC driver finally available on Maven already for 3 months,  and .Net driver on Nuget more than a month.

 As an author of so many implementations of IRIS support for various Python libraries, I wanted to check it. Implementation of DB-API means that it should be replaceable and at least functions defined in the standard. The only difference should be in SQL.

And the beauty of using already existing libraries, that they already implemented other databases by using DB-API standard, and these libraries already expect how driver should work.

I decided to test InterSystems official driver by implementing its support in SQLAlchemy-iris library.

Hey Community,

Here are the bonuses for participants' articles that take part in the InterSystems Technical Article Contest 2025: