In Studio you could open a class directly via it's name, without having to traverse the package tree with multiple clicks until arriving at the desired class.

You would Ctrl + O or (File -> Open) and be able to simply type in the class name, for example:

You press Enter, and viola - the class is opened.

How do you achieve this in VSCode?

5 1
0 583

InterSystems FAQ rubric

ObjectScript allows you to pass any number of arguments using arrays. Do it by adding ... after the argument name.

An example is as follows. In the example statement, the argument information is set in a global variable (a variable stored in the database) so that it can be easily checked after the method is executed.

5 1
0 328

Object Synchronization is a feature that has been around for a while, since Caché days, but I wanted to explore a bit more how it works. I've always thought that database automatic synchronization is complex by nature but, for some particular scenarios shouldn't be so hard. So I considered a very simple use case (OK, perhaps the typical one, I'm not discovering anything... but if it's common and it works, it's good wink ).

6 1
2 471

InterSystems technologies are renowned for their high performing databases, which support the systems and operations of many organisations. However a key ingredient to this success is the quality and maintainability of their code.

The quality of code can impact everything from speed and ease of fixing bugs and making enhancements, to the overall performance of your organization and your ability to get ahead in the marketplace.

By ensuring your code is maintainable, you can reduce approximately 75% of the systems life cycle costs*. This is why, at George James Software, the solutions we build are always straightforward and written in high quality code - because we know that this solid foundation can positively impact the rest of your organization.

With a maintainable system you're able to reduce your overall maintenance as any issues that occur are significantly faster to identify and fix. This means you're free to allocate that time and budget to enhancements, enabling you to get the most value out of your applications and ultimately better support your organization.

Keep an eye out for our next few posts about what a maintainable system looks like and the tools that can help you keep your code maintainable, in order to help you to reduce those maintenance costs.

3 1
1 391

InterSystems FAQ rubric

If you want to run an OS executable file, command, or a program created within an InterSystems product when the InterSystems product starts, write the processing in the SYSTEM^%ZSTART routine. (The %ZSTART routine is created in the %SYS namespace).

Before you write any code in SYSTEM^%ZSTART, make sure that it works properly under all conditions.

2 1
0 89
Article
· Oct 6, 2016 4m read
RESTful Exception Handling

A beginner’s guide to Exception Handling in RESTful web services. The article gives an example how the various error conditions during processing a service request can be handled.

We expect our client – server communication working in a flawless operational condition, running error free software. But we are prepared to handle exceptions. Are we? So far in the examples of the previous sessions were not. We did not care about exceptions. The result? In any error incident it took ages to figure out what the problem is and more importantly how to fix it.

3 1
0 1.7K

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.

3 1
0 391
Article
· Nov 2, 2023 3m read
How to hide the source program

InterSystems FAQ rubric

For routines (*.mac)

You can hide the source by exporting/importing only the *.obj that is generated after compiling the source program.

The command execution example specifies EX1Sample.obj and EX2Sample.obj, which are generated by compiling EX1Sample.mac and EX2Sample.mac, as export targets and exports them to the second argument file.

After moving to another namespace, I am using the exported XML file to perform the import.

8 1
0 501
Article
· Oct 1, 2018 4m read
Profiling code using Caché Monitor

Not everyone knows that InterSystems Caché has a built-in tool for code profiling called Caché Monitor.

Its main purpose (obviously) is the collection of statistics for programs running in Caché. It can provide statistics by program, as well as detailed Line-by-Line statistics for each program.

Using Caché Monitor

Let’s take a look at a potential use case for Caché Monitor and its key features. So, in order to start the profiler, you need to go to the terminal and switch to the namespace that you want to monitor, then launch the %SYS.MONLBL system routine:

3 1
7 983
Article
· Apr 24, 2017 1m read
Diagnosing the cause of <PROTECT> errors

If your application is raising <PROTECT> errors and you're finding it hard to work out why, here's a way to get additional information.

First, if auditing is not already enabled, turn it on:

Then use "Configure System Events" (highlighted above) and locate the event named %System/%Security/Protect. In the screenshot below I used the Filter field to do this (type "protect" - highlighted below - and press TAB):

4 1
0 2.5K

When using InterSystems IRIS as an interoperability engine, we all know and love how easy it is to use the Message Viewer to review message traces and see exactly what's going on in your production. When a system is handling millions of messages per day, you may not know exactly where to begin your investigation though.

Over my years supporting IRIS productions, I often find myself investigating things like...

7 1
2 222

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

1 1
0 357
Article
· Oct 5, 2020 2m read
File Passthrough Feeder

IRIS Interoperability Productions formerly known as Ensemble are fun to work with. Yes, I really think my work is fun. I have seen File Passthrough Services and File Passthrough Operations come in handy. At one point we placed test messages in files, then we utilized a File Passthrough Service with Inbound File Adapter to send the contents of the file as a Stream to a File Passthrough Operation with Outbound TCP Adapter.

4 1
0 378
Article
· Jul 27, 2021 2m read
IRIS Interoperability Message Bank

I heard about Message Bank when we started redesigning a Health Connect production to run in containers in the cloud. Since there will be multiple IRIS containers, we were directed to utilize Message Bank as one place to view messages and logs from all containers.

6 1
0 413



This formation, accessible on my GitHub, will cover, in half a hour, how to read and write in csv and txt files, insert and get inside the IRIS database and a distant database using Postgres or how to use a FLASK API, all of that using the Interoperability framework using ONLY Python following the PEP8 convention.

12 1
1 642

The class %Compiler.UDL.TextServices arrived in 2015.1, bringing us methods for exporting a class in UDL format (i.e. looking just like we're used to seeing it in Studio), and importing a UDL format definition back into a namespace. Some source control tools including our Deltanji are now able to use UDL format, resulting in diffs that are easier to understand.

1 1
0 318