Introduction

The InterSystems IRIS Data Platform has long been known for its performance, interoperability, and flexibility across programming languages. For years, developers could use IRIS with Python, Java, JavaScript, and .NET — but Go (or Golang) developers were left waiting.

That wait is finally over.

The new go-irisnative driver brings GoLang support to InterSystems IRIS, implementing the standard database/sql API. This means Go developers can now use familiar database tooling, connection pooling, and query interfaces to build applications powered by IRIS.

Why GoLang Support Matters

GoLang is a language designed for simplicity, concurrency, and performance — ideal for cloud-native and microservices-based architectures. It powers some of the world’s most scalable systems, including Kubernetes, Docker, and Terraform.

Bringing IRIS into the Go ecosystem enables:

• Lightweight, high-performance services using IRIS as the backend.
• Native concurrency for parallel query execution or background processing.
• Seamless integration with containerized and distributed systems.
• Idiomatic database access through Go’s database/sql interface.

This integration makes IRIS a perfect fit for modern, cloud-ready Go applications.

Starting out with ObjectScript, it is really exciting, but it can also feel a little unusual if you're used to other languages. Many beginners trip over the same hurdles, so here are a few "gotchas" you'll want to watch out for. (Also few friendly tips to avoid them)

NAMING THINGS RANDOMLY

We have all been guilty of naming something Test1 or MyClass just to move on quickly. But once your project grows, these names become a nightmare. 

➡ Pick clear, consistent names from the start. Think of it as leaving breadcrumbs for your future self and your teammates.

MIXING UP GLOBALS AND VARIABLES

Globals (^G

Since we reached two important milestones for Go developers working with InterSystems IRIS:

• The Wait Is Over: Welcome GoLang Support for InterSystems IRIS — where we unveiled the new go-irisnative driver, providing a native database/sql interface for Go.
• GORM Meets InterSystems IRIS: Introducing gorm-iris — where we showed how to integrate IRIS with GORM, one of the most popular Go ORM libraries.

Now it’s time to see everything working together.

To demonstrate how easily Go developers can adopt InterSystems IRIS, I took an existing production-grade open-source project — the RealWorld Example App — which showcases a full-stack Medium.com-style clone implemented with Go Fiber, GORM, and SQLite.

With just a few configuration tweaks, I swapped out SQLite for gorm-iris, keeping everything else unchanged. The result?
A fully functional Go + Fiber application powered by InterSystems IRIS — no code rewrites, no ORM gymnastics, just a different database backend.

You can find the complete working demo here: github.com/caretdev/golang-fiber-iris-realworld-example-app

While working with external languages for IRIS (such as Python and Node.js), one of the first things you must accomplish is making a connection to an IRIS instance.

For instance, to make a connection in python (from https://pypi.org/project/intersystems-irispython/):

import iris

# Open a connection to the server
args = {
	'hostname':'127.0.0.1', 
	'port': 1972,
	'namespace':'USER', 
	'username':'username', 
	'password':'password'
}
conn = iris.connect(**args)

# Create an iris object
irispy = iris.createIRIS(conn)

# Create a global array in the USER namespace on the server

If you thought native Go support for IRIS was exciting, wait until you see what happens when GORM enters the mix.

Just recently, we welcomed native GoLang support for InterSystems IRIS with the release of go-irisnative. That was just the beginning. Now, we’re kicking things up a notch with the launch of gorm-iris — a GORM driver designed to bring the power of Object Relational Mapping (ORM) to your IRIS + Go stack.

Why GORM?

GORM is one of the most popular ORM libraries in the Go ecosystem. It makes it easy to interact with databases using Go structs instead of writing raw SQL. With features like auto migrations, associations, and query building, GORM simplifies backend development significantly.

So naturally, the next step after enabling Go to talk natively with IRIS was to make GORM work seamlessly with it. That’s exactly what gorm-iris does.

Are you familiar with SQL databases, but not familiar with IRIS?  Then read on...

About a year ago I joined InterSystems, and that is how IRIS got on my radar.  I've been using databases for over 40 years—much of that time for database vendors—and assumed IRIS would be largely the same as the other databases I knew.  However I was surprised to find that IRIS is in several ways quite unlike other databases, often much better.  With this, my first article in the Dev Community, I'll give a high-level overview of IRIS for people that are already familiar with the other databases such as Oracle, SQL Server, Snowflake, PostgeSQL, etc.   I hope I can make things clearer and simpler for you and save you some time getting started.

I was thinking about how to create a new parameter in a method, similar to Output or ByRef...

What documentation can I read to learn more about this?

I want to create a parameter customized.

First, let me wish the developer community a Happy New Year! We hope to bring you many good things this year, and today I'd like to introduce the latest version of the Intersystems Language Server extension to VS Code. Most Language Server improvements are experienced via the ObjectScript extension UI, so you many not be aware of the many improvements in areas like Intellisense and hover overs that were released throughout 2024. Please take a quick read over the Language Server's CHANGELOG and find out what you missed.

In this article, exceptions are covered.

Working with Exceptions

Instead of returning a %Status response, you can raise and throw an Exception. You are then responsible for catching the exception and validating it. IRIS provides five main classes to handle exceptions effectively. Additionally, you can create custom exception class definition based on your needs.

These exceptions are different from %Status, so you can't directly/efficiently use the exception object with $SYSTEM.OBJ.DisplayError() or $SYSTEM.Status.DisplayError(). Instead, use the DisplayString() method to display the exception

As part of a migration project from a bunch of java classes to IRIS, we need to maintain a few jar files due to some external dependencies.

The problem I am seeing is that I cannot pass a byte array ( byte[] ) from ObjectScript to the Java Class. I have tried a number of different ways

I have reproduced in a java class and Objectscript class:
Java Class:

package wrc;

publicclassTestJava{
    
    publicstaticvoidtestByteArr(byte[] keyBytes){

        System.out.println("keyBytes getClass() = " + keyBytes.getClass() );
        System.out.println("keyBytes toString() = " +

Intersystems provides External language server connections for various languages which,
from a development perspective, is great as I can keep my application code separate but still interact with the IRIS kernel.

It becomes more complex though if you are using Interoperability etc where you might end up with some code in IRIS and some code in another language.
What would be great is having an IRIS to IRIS language server where the application code and stay IRIS based but separate from the database?

If you like Java and have a thriving Java ecosystem at work into which you need to incorporate IRIS, it's not a problem. Java External Language Gateway will do it seamlessly, almost. This gateway serves as a bridge between Java and Object Script in IRIS. You can create objects of Java classes in IRIS and call their methods. You just need a jar file to do this.

Visual Studio Code releases new updates every month with new features and bug fixes, and the August 2024 release is now available. 

Version 1.93 includes: 

• Profiles editor - Switch and manage your profiles from a single place.
• Django unit test support - Discover and run Django unit tests from the Test Explorer.
• IntelliSense on vscode.dev - Boost your JS & TS coding in vscode.dev with IntelliSense.
• Notebook diff viewer - Efficiently review changes in notebooks by collapsing unchanged cells.
• Resize columns via the keyboard - Resizing table columns in VS Code more accessible via keyboard.
• S

Visual Studio Code releases new updates every month with new features and bug fixes, and the July 2024 release is now available. 

Version 1.92 includes: 

• Default browser - Configure which browser to use for opening links in VS Code.
• Revert PRs - Easily create a revert PR for a merged PR.
• Extension updates - More easily configure auto updating of extensions.
• Override profiles - Override an existing profile with the Profiles Editor.
• Paste files in CSS - Quickly add CSS file references with paste or drag and drop.
• Move Panel to top - Position the Panel section at the top of the workbench.
• C

I have been using embedded python for more than 2 years now on a daily basis. May be it's time to share some feedback about this journey.

Why write this feedback? Because, I guess, I'm like most of the people here, an ObjectScript developer, and I think that the community would benefit from this feedback and could better understand the pros & cons of chosing embedded python for developing stuff in IRIS. And also avoid some pitfalls.

• Feedback : Using embedded python daily for 2 years
• Introduction
• Starting with Python
  • Python is not ObjectScript
    • Pep8
    • Modules
    • Dunders
  • Conclusion
• Embedded Python
  • What is Embedded Python ?
  • How to use Embedded Python ?
  • How I use Embedded Python
    • Use Python libraries and code as they were ObjectScript classes
      • With the language tag
      • Without the language tag
      • Conclusion
    • Use a python first approach
      • Example : iris-fhir-python-strategy
      • Remarks
      • Where to find the code
        • How to implement a Strategy
        • Implementation of InteractionsStrategy
        • Implementation of Interactions
        • Interactions in Python
        • Implementation of the abstract python class
      • Too long, do a summary

Visual Studio Code releases new updates every month with new features and bug fixes, and the June 2024 release is now available. 

Version 1.91 includes: 

• Preview: Incoming/Outgoing changes graph - Visualize incoming and outgoing changes in the Source Control view.
• Python environments - Enhanced environment discovery with python-environment-tools.
• Smart Send in native REPL - Smoothly run code chunks in the native REPL.
• GitHub Copilot extensibility - Chat and Language Model APIs available in VS Code Stable.
• Preview: Profiles Editor - Manage your profiles in a single place.
• Custom tab labels

Hello,

I am interested about reading the source code of the primitives of the system.  For example, I want to see how WRITE is implemented.

Can you help me to get a reflexive interrogation of the system ?

Kind regards,

Alin C Soare.

Note: this was originally posted on June 5, 2024 but presented as being posted on May 9, 2024 so this re-post fixes the date. 

Recent updates to the Intersystems Language Server introduce many significant enhancements aimed at improving developer experience and productivity. I'll talk about some of the key ones here, while the complete list, including numerous bug fixes, can be found in the Language Server's CHANGELOG.

Detailed descriptions for syntax errors

In the past, all syntax errors were reported simply as "Syntax error." Now, the syntax error reported in VS Code's PROBLEMS pane has the

Hi there,

I am interested to execute ObjectScript commands from external language.  I saw that IRIS provides the irisnative library for this.

I am using Windows and 8-bit IRIS server (due to compatibility with old software I need to use 8-bit instead of Unicode).

I tried to execute irisnative for Javascript and for python, without success, as I explained in my previous questions.

I would like to ask you whether Intersystems provides an API to execute commands from external scripts (the same as Visual Studio Code does when I execute commands like "Import and Compile", etc.).

Is there a language

Visual Studio Code releases new updates every month with new features and bug fixes, and the March 2024 release is now available. 

Introduction

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is a free source code editor made by Microsoft for Windows, Linux, and macOS. It provides built-in support for JavaScript, TypeScript, and Node.js. You can add extensions to provide support for numerous other languages including ObjectScript.

The InterSystems extensions enable you to use VS Code to connect to an InterSystems IRIS server and develop code in ObjectScript. The Visual Studio Code Documentation is an excellent resource on VS Code, so it is a good idea to be familiar with it.

Your may not realize it, but your InterSystems Login Account can be used to access a very wide array of InterSystems services to help you learn and use InterSystems IRIS and other InterSystems technologies more effectively.  Continue reading to learn more about how to unlock new technical knowledge and tools using your InterSystems Login account.  Also - after reading, please participate in the Poll at the bottom, so we can see how this article was useful to you!

What is an InterSystems Login Account? 

An InterSystems Login account is used to access various online services which serve

Visual Studio Code releases new updates every month with new features and bug fixes, and the February 2024 release is now available. 

Version 1.87 includes: 

• Voice dictation in editor - Use your voice to dictate directly in the editor.
• Multi-cursor inline suggestions - Review and accept inline suggestions for multiple cursors.
• Copilot-powered rename suggestions - Get rename suggestions for symbols from Copilot.
• Side-by-side preview refactoring - Preview refactorings across files with multi diff editor.
• Smarter Python imports - Improvements for adding missing Python imports.
• Sticky scroll

Maven Projects mixing ObjectScript and Java

What is Maven?

Maven is a tool, hosted by the Apache Software Foundation, for building and managing any Java-based project. Apache Maven is the best source of information.

Why Maven?

Managing a project, its dependencies, and life cycle can be a tedious task. Maven automates these tasks, making project management much simpler. Maven also defines a standard directory layout and provides tools for initializing projects. These tools employ project templates called maven archetypes. There is a rich library of archetypes available.

Hey Community,

Watch this video to learn about the latest developments in client connectivity across Java, .NET, JavaScript, and Python:

⏯ Language Connectivity: New & Next @ Global Summit 2023

A question for anyone using InterSystems technology:

What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced either trying to hire developers that know ObjectScript, or trying to train developers on ObjectScript?

• Are developers generally willing or resistant to the idea of learning ObjectScript?   Why?
• For developers trying to learn ObjectScript - what was that process like?   What were the main challenges there?
  • In-person learning?  
  • Online class? 
  • Documentation?  
  • What were your impressions?
• How did it compare to other languages?
• What would have made it easier to learn?
• How long did it

InterSystems IRIS 2022.2 has Native SDK for Python (https://docs.intersystems.com/iris20222/csp/docbook/Doc.View.cls?KEY=PA…).

We know how to traverse a global data structure using IRIS Object Script $Order function.

SET key=""FOR  {
     SET key=$ORDER(^myglobal(key)) 
     QUIT:key=""WRITE !,^myglobal(key)
   }

How to do the same from Python using IRIS Native SDK for Python? Here is a code example:

import iris

args = {'hostname':'127.0.0.1', 'port':51772,
    'namespace':'USER', 'username':'_SYSTEM', 'password':'SYS'
    }

conn = iris.connect(**args)

#

XData blocks in Caché classes has a MimeType property, and dcoumentation says

MimeType — The MIME type (more formally, the internet media type) of the contents of the XData block. The default is text/xml

But unfortunately I can't set any other values, such as text/html or application/javascript, because XData still expect only XML. 

So, question is, for what reasons this property was appeared?

It would be very usefull to set in this property anything other then text/xml, and Studio would highlighted it as developer expected.

 InterSystems is pleased to announce version 2.0.0 of the Language Server for VS Code. The Language Server augments the VS Code ObjectScript extension to provide better syntax coloring, embedded documentation, code completion and more. Detailed information is available in the GitHub repo's README. Version 2.0.0 adds support for a number of new platform architectures including M1 Macs! It also reduces package size, improves SQL coloring, and fixes a number of other issues detailed in the CHANGELOG. 

As always, if you already have the extension installed, VS Code should automatically update your