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#JSON

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JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write.

Article
· Apr 22, 2025 7m read
Set, Get, and Don't Fret with JSON

The Good Old Days

The %Library.DynamicObject class has been in IRIS since before it became IRIS. If you have been using it since the Cache days, you may want to brush up on some of its changes.

In Cache 2018, the %Get method only had one argument. It was the key to retrieving from the JSON, meaning that if your JSON object called myObj, it would look like the following:

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Say I have an ObjectScript object called Book. It has 2 properties title and author. It extends JSON.%Adaptor, so I can call book.%JSONExport() and get this output:

{ "title": "For Whom the Bell Tolls", "author": "Hemmingway" }

In my web service I want to have a search function that returns an array of Books along with the total number of responses, like this:

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Background:

This guideline provides an overview of how to design and implement a REST API interface for querying patient demographic data from an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system using HealthConnect. The process involves sending a query request with the patient's identification number, retrieving the response from the EPR system, extracting the required patient demographic data from the HL7 message, and sending it as a JSON response to the supplier. The high-level process diagram is shown below (Screenshot 1).

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Introduction

A REST API (Representational State Transfer) is an interface that allows different applications to communicate with each other through the HTTP protocol, using standard operations such as GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE. REST APIs are widely used in software development to expose services accessible by other applications, enabling integration between different systems.

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In the world of APIs, REST is very extended. But what happens when you need more flexibility in your data-fetching strategies? For instance letting the client to choose what fields is going to receive. Enter GraphQL, a query language for your APIs that provides a flexible alternative to REST.

In this post, we will:

  • Compare REST and GraphQL.
  • Dive into the basics of GraphQL: Queries, Mutations, and HTTP.
  • Build a simple GraphQL server implementation using Graphene, SQLAlchemy, and Flask over data in InterSystems IRIS.
  • Explore how to deploy your GraphQL server as a WSGI application in IRIS.
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Article
· Feb 18, 2021 2m read
Basic JSON Compare

Hi Dev Community

I thought i would share a little method I knocked together to traverse and compare 2 JSON objects for basic equivilance. I'm currently working on some data migration, and wanted a basic sanity check to validate that the JSON output is basically equivliant between the old and new, excluding a few things like timestamps.

It's a basic little recurvsive method, that will bubble up any differences over a nested structure. It's very low tech, as that's all I need it to do, but I thought it might be useful for others?

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REST API with Swagger in InterSystems IRIS

Hello

The HTTP protocol allows you to obtain resources, such as HTML documents. It is the basis of any data exchange on the Web and a client-server protocol, meaning that requests are initiated by the recipient, usually a Web browser.

REST APIs take advantage of this protocol to exchange messages between client and server. This makes REST APIs fast, lightweight, and flexible. REST APIs use the HTTP verbs GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, and others to indicate the actions they want to perform.

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Using Flask, REST API, and IAM with InterSystems IRIS

Part 2 – Flask App

Flask is a web development microframework written in Python. It is known for being simple, flexible, and enabling rapid application development.

Installing Flask is very simple. Once you have python installed correctly on your operating system, we need to install the flask library with the pip command. For REST API consumption, it is advisable to use the requests library. The following link provides a guide to installing flask: https://flask.palletsprojects.com/en/stable/installation/

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Using Flask, REST API, and IAM with InterSystems IRIS

Part 1 - REST API

Hello

In this article we will see the implementation of a REST API to perform the maintenance of a CRUD, using Flask and IAM.

In this first part of the article we will see the construction and publication of the REST API in Iris.

First, let's create our persistent class to store the data. To do this, we go to Iris and create our class:

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Using SQL Gateway with Python, Vector Search, and Interoperability in InterSystems Iris

Part 2 – Python and Vector Search

Since we have access to the data from our external table, we can use everything that Iris has to offer with this data. Let's, for example, read the data from our external table and generate a polynomial regression with it.

For more information on using python with Iris, see the documentation available at https://docs.intersystems.com/irislatest/csp/docbook/DocBook.UI.Page.cls?KEY=AFL_epython

Let's now consume the data from the external database to calculate a polynomial regression. To do this, we will use a python code to run a SQL that will read our MySQL table and turn it into a pandas dataframe:

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I have a scenario where I send a GET request to a broker and receive a FHIR response. When I attempted to use the built-in InterSystems functions to convert this FHIR response into SDA, the transformation failed—likely because it is not a standard FHIR request.

How should I handle this situation? Is there a recommended approach to processing FHIR responses in this context?

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Article
· Feb 5, 2025 8m read
Using DocDB in SQL, almost

From the previous article, we identified some issues when working with JSON in SQL.

IRIS offers a dedicated feature for handling JSON documents, called DocDB.

InterSystems IRIS® data platform DocDB is a facility for storing and retrieving database data. It is compatible with, but separate from, traditional SQL table and field (class and property) data storage and retrieval. It is based on JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) which provides support for web-based data exchange. InterSystems IRIS provides support for developing DocDB databases and applications in REST and in ObjectScript, as well as providing SQL support for creating or querying DocDB data.

By its nature, InterSystems IRIS Document Database is a schema-less data structure. That means that each document has its own structure, which may differ from other documents in the same database. This has several benefits when compared with SQL, which requires a pre-defined data structure.

The word “document” is used here as a specific industry-wide technical term, as a dynamic data storage structure. “Document”, as used in DocDB, should not be confused with a text document, or with documentation.

Let's explore how DocDB can help store JSON in the database and integrate it into projects that rely solely on xDBC protocols.

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Article
· Jan 22, 2025 4m read
JSON Support in IRIS SQL

While working on getting JSON support for some Python libraries, I discovered some capabilities IRIS provided.

  • JSON_OBJECT - A conversion function that returns data as a JSON object.
  • JSON_ARRAY - A conversion function that returns data as a JSON array.
  • IS JSON - Determines if a data value is in JSON format.
  • JSON_TABLE function returns a table that can be used in a SQL query by mapping JSON.
  • JSONPath support - is a query language for querying values in JSON.

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Hello,

Is there a single ObjectScript operator or method to concatenate two %DynamicArrays?

I'm looking for something that will do the following:

set arr1 = [ 1, 2, 3 ]
set arr2 = [ 4, 5, 6 ]
set arrcombined = arr1.%Concatenate(arr2)

or 

set arrcombined arr1_arr2

With end result:

zw arrcombined
arr1=[1,2,3,4,5,6]  ; <DYNAMIC ARRAY>

I can iterate and %Pop over the 2nd array and %Push each popped entry to the 1st array, but I was looking for something more succinct.

Thanks in advance.

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The Lo-Code Challenge

Imagine the scene. You are working happily at Widgets Direct, the internet's premier retailer of Widgets and Widget Accessories. Your boss has some devastating news, some customers might not be fully happy with their widgets, and we need a helpdesk application to track these complaints. To makes things interesting, he wants this with a very small code footprint and challenges you to deliver an application in less than 150 lines of code using InterSystems IRIS. Is this even possible?

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