#Innovatium

Introduction

In some of the last few articles I've talked about types between IRIS and Python, and it is clear that it's not that easy to access objects from one side at another.

Fortunately, work has already been done to create SQLAlchemy-iris (follow the link to see it on Open Exchange), which makes everything much easier for Python to access IRIS' objects, and I'm going to show the starters for that.

Introducing Django

Django is a web framework designed to develop servers and APIs, and deal with databases in a fast, scalable, and secure way. To assure that, Django provides tools not only to create the skeleton of the code but also to update it without worries. It allows developers to see changes almost live, correct mistakes with the debug tool, and treat security with ease.

To understand how Django works, let’s take a look at the image:

Case description

Let’s imagine that you are a Python developer or have a well-trained team specialized in Python, but the deadline you got to analyze some data in IRIS is tight. Of course, InterSystems offers many tools for all kinds of analyses and treatments. However, in the given scenario, it is better to get the job done using the good old Pandas and leave the IRIS for another time.

I recently started to study interoperability and I found the official documentation very helpful in understanding how it works, though I still had some trouble implementing it myself. With the help I got from my coworkers, I managed to create a Demo of a system and learn through practice. Because of that, I decided to write this to help others with "getting their hands dirty" and share the help I got.

Introduction

This is a simple tutorial on the quickest way I found to create a sample database for any purposes such as testing, making samples for tutorials, etc.

Creating a namespace

1. Open the terminal
2. Write the command "D $SYSTEM.SQL.Shell()"
3. Write "CREATE DATABASE " and the name you want for your namespace.

Now you have a new namespace in a faster way than creating it from the Management Portal - which of course offers way more configuration options.

Why I decided to write this

Recently I had the challenge to create a secure authentication method to authorize access to some data, but unfortunately I had zero experience with those security configurations and I felt that I was missing some basic concepts to have a better understanding of the official documentation.

After studying and managing to deliver the classes that I was asked to develop, I'd like to share a little bit of my new knowledge, which helped me follow the topics in the documentation.

Why should you connect Flask to InterSystems IRIS?

The first thing that comes to mind when we think about combining Flask with IRIS is a portal to interact with your clients and partners. A good example would be a website for patients to access their clinical exams. Of course, this case would require a whole new layer of security, which we did not cover in our last article. However, we can effortlessly add it with Werkzeug, for instance.

Our objective

In the last article, we talked about a few starters for Django. We learned how to begin the project, ensure we have all the requisites, and make a CRUD. However, today we are going a little further.
Sometimes we need to access more complex methods, so today, we will connect IRIS to a Python environment, build a few functions and display them on a webpage. It will be similar to the last discussion, but further enough for you to make something new, even though not enough to feel lost.