In this article, I aim to demonstrate a couple of methods for easily adding validation to REST APIs on InterSystems IRIS Data Platform. I believe a specification-first approach is an excellent idea for API development. IRIS already has features for generating an implementation stub from a specification and publishing that specification for external developers (use it with iris-web-swagger-ui for the best results). The remaining important thing not yet implemented in the platform is the request validator. Let's fix it!

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Here are the technology bonuses for the InterSystems Full Stack Contest 2026, which will give you extra points in the voting:

  • IRIS Vector Search usage -3
  • InterSystems Native SDK for Python or Embedded Python usage -3
  • Developer Community Idea implemented - 2
  • Docker container usage -2
  • IPM Package Deployment - 2
  • Online Demo -2
  • Find and report a bug - 2
  • Article on Developer Community - 2
  • The second article on Developer Community - 1
  • Video on YouTube - 3
  • YouTube Short - 1
  • First Time Contribution - 3

See the details below.<--break->

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Vector search is a retrieval method that converts text, images, audio, and other data into numeric vectors using an AI model, and then searches for items that are semantically close. It enables “semantic similarity search” from free text, which is difficult with keyword search alone.

However, in real use, I encountered cases where results that are “close in meaning” but logically the opposite appeared near the top of the search results.

This is a serious issue in situations where affirmation vs. negation matters. If the system returns the wrong answer, the impact can be significant, so we cannot ignore this problem.

This article does not propose a new algorithm. I wrote it to share a practical way I found useful when semantic search fails due to negation.

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Embeddedpy-bridge: A Toolkit for Embedded Python

Overview

Embedded Python is a game-changer for InterSystems IRIS, offering access to the vast Python ecosystem directly within the database. However, bridging the gap between ObjectScript and Python can sometimes feel like translating between two different worlds.

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Hi developers!
Happy holidays!

In ObjectScript there is neat option to log errors - call Log() method of an exception intance, e.g.:

ClassMethod MyMethod() {

Try {

w 1/0

}

Catch e {

do e.Log() // logging error in the app log

write "the error happened: "_e.DisplayString()

}

}

Is there anything like that for Embedded Python? e.g:

ClassMethod MyMethod() [Language = python] {

 try:

   print(1/0)

 except ZeroDivisionError as e:

   // how can I log e into IRIS App Error Log here?

   print("Caught exception: " + str(e))

}

Any ideas?

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I have an Embedded Python method, which is essentially a call to one third-party module.

Most of the time, the method takes <0.1 seconds to execute, but sometimes it takes 30 or 60 seconds.

The server is relatively idle (20-30% CPU load).

How can I debug this issue further? Ideally, I want to know where this library spends the time. The library is mainly Python code (it's boto3, so it's not a Python C API proxy library).

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One objective of vectorization is to render unstructured text more machine-usable. Vector embeddings accomplish this by encoding the semantics of text as high-dimensional numeric vectors, which can be employed by advanced search algorithms (normally an approximate nearest neighbor algorithm like Hierarchical Navigable Small World). This not only improves our ability to interact with unstructured text programmatically but makes it searchable by context and by meaning beyond what is captured literally by keyword.

In this article I will walk through a simple vector search implementation that Kwabena Ayim-Aboagye and I fleshed out using embedded python in InterSystems IRIS for Health. I'll also dive a bit into how to use embedded python and dynamic SQL generally, and how to take advantage of vector search features offered natively through IRIS.

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Hi everyone,
I'm getting prepared to take the following certification exam: "InterSystems IRIS Development Professional".

Can you give some advice on how to prepare (aside from the official course page: https://www.intersystems.com/certifications/intersystems-iris-development-professional/ )?
Do you have examples of quiz questions that simulate the real exam or any material that helped you getting prepared?

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Using embedded Python while building your InterSystems-based solution can add very powerful and deep capabilities to your toolbox.

I'd like to share one sample use-case I encountered - enabling a CDC (Change Data Capture) for a mongoDB Collection - capturing those changes, digesting them through an Interoperability flow, and eventually updating an EMR via a REST API.

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InterSystems Official
· Mar 27, 2025 4m read
2025.1 Modernizing Interoperability User Experience

The Interoperability user interface now includes modernized user experiences for the DTL Editor and Production Configuration applications that are available for opt-in in all interoperability products. You can switch between the modernized and standard views. All other Interoperability screens remain in the Standard user interface. Please note that changes are limited to these two applications and we identify below the functionality that is currently available.

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Hi all,

Let's do some more work about the testing data generation and export the result by REST API.😁

Here, I would like to reuse the datagen.restservice class which built in the pervious article Writing a REST api service for exporting the generated patient data in .csv

This time, we are planning to generate a FHIR bundle include multiple resources for testing the FHIR repository.

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Hi,

It's me again😁, recently I am working on generating some fake patient data for testing purpose with the help of Chat-GPT by using Python. And, at the same time I would like to share my learning curve.😑

1st of all for building a custom REST api service is easy by extending the %CSP.REST

Creating a REST Service Manually

Let's Start !😂

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With the rapid adoption of telemedicine, remote consultations, and digital dictation, healthcare professionals are communicating more through voice than ever before. Patients engaging in virtual conversations generate vast amounts of unstructured audio data, so how can clinicians or administrators search and extract information from hours of voice recordings?

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Your Mission

Let's pretend for a moment that you're an international action spy who's dedicated your life to keeping the people of the world safe from danger. You recieve the following mission:

Good day, Agent IRIS,

We're sorry for interrupting your vacation in the Bahamas, but we just received word from our London agent that a "time bomb" is set to detonate in a highly populated area in Los Angeles. Our sources say that the "time bomb" is set to trigger at 3:14 PM this afternoon.

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As part of a recent documentation technical project to optimize the search, I needed to use Embedded Python in my ObjectScript code. The main blocker was passing a Python list from a Python class method to a ObjectScript method. Sending the list by reference to the python method, populating it with the Insert() method, and returning the reference to the ObjectScript method resulted in an list with type %SYS.Python, a process that was straightforward but not efficient.

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Interoperability on Python (IoP) is a proof-of-concept project designed to showcase the power of the InterSystems IRIS Interoperability Framework when combined with a Python-first approach.IoP leverages Embedded Python (a feature of InterSystems IRIS) to enable developers to write interoperability components in Python, which can seamlessly integrate with the robust IRIS platform. This guide has been crafted for beginners and provides a comprehensive introduction to IoP, its setup, and practical steps to create your first interoperability component. By the end of this article, you will get a clear understanding of how to use IoP to build scalable, Python-based interoperability solutions.

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I have a custom Buffer class which is designed to capture written/printed statements to the device, to be able to transform the captured text to string or stream type. I have used this in ObjectScript to capture ObjectScript write statements and return a string. I would like to try to use this with a [ Language = python ] method as follows. This class will be called by a scheduled task.

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Article
· Jul 29, 2025 13m read
Taking up Collections in IRIS

Imagine you’re walking down the street on a nice summer’s day, and someone walks up to you and says “Hey, you work at InterSystems, right? I’ve been hearing more and more about InterSystems IRIS lately. I know IRIS has its own programing language called ObjectBook? or InstaScript? OK, I admit it, I know it’s called ObjectScript! I know IRIS also supports Python. I’m a Python developer, so that sounds great to me. But I’m also interested in ObjectScript. For example, Python and other languages support collections. Does ObjectScript support collections?”

You’d answer “Of course!”

And then your new friend might get excited and start firing off more questions:

  • How many kinds of collections does ObjectScript support?
  • Can ObjectScript use Python collections?
  • Can Python use ObjectScript collections?
  • Which collection is best?

How would you answer? Well, you don’t have to worry about answering. All you’d have to do is send your new friend the URL of this long page.

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Are you curious about how to run Python scripts directly in your InterSystems IRIS or Caché terminal? 🤔 Good news it's easy! 😆 IRIS supports Embedded Python, allowing you to use Python interactively within its terminal environment.

How to access the Python Shell?

To launch the Python shell from the IRIS terminal, simply run the following command:

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