#Node.js

gj :: configExplorer is a new VS Code extension integrating with Server Manager and leveraging Structurizr to produce configuration diagrams of your servers.

Here's a short introductory video.

By using the InterSystems IRIS Native API for Node.js it avoids the need for any support code to be installed on the servers. This technology choice also qualifies it for entry into the current Developer Community contest.

The initial release focuses on two aspects of server configuration:

• Namespaces and databases
• ECP connectivity

Suggestions for what to add next are welcome, as is general feedback.

Introduction

My guess is that most IRIS developers create their applications using its native ObjectScript language or, if using an external language, then most likely using either Java, Python or perhaps C++.

I suspect that only a minority have considered using JavaScript as their language of choice, which, if true, is a great shame, because, In my opinion and experience, JavaScript is the closest equivalent to ObjectScript in terms of its ability to integrate with the IRIS's underlying multi-dimensional database. 

UPDATE: since version 0.0.4 of the extension was published on 2025-11-23 it is now possible to use gj :: configExplorer directly in VS Code on Windows.

In my previous article introducing gj :: configExplorer I flagged up how an apparent bug in the Windows elements of the Native API for Node.js means it's not currently available to run in VS Code on a Windows desktop. In a comment on that article I offered a workaround, but this requires a Docker-equipped Linux host you can SSH to.

If you don't have a suitable target it's now possible to leverage your local Windows Docker Desktop. Here's how:

Hi Developers!

Here are the technology bonuses for the InterSystems .Net, Java, Python, and JavaScript Contest that will give you extra points in the voting:

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/):

Overview

The typeorm-iris project provides experimental support for integrating TypeORM with InterSystems IRIS, enabling developers to interact with IRIS using TypeORM’s well-known decorators and repository abstractions. This allows a more familiar development experience for JavaScript and TypeScript developers building Node.js applications with IRIS as the backend database.

While the project implements key integration points with TypeORM and supports basic entity operations, it’s not yet battle-tested or suitable for production environments.

Reviewing my published packages, I identified a nasty bug in IRIS Native API

Overview I'm excited to announce the release of testcontainers-iris-node, a Node.js library that makes it easy to spin up temporary InterSystems IRIS containers for integration and E2E testing. This project is a natural addition to the existing family of Testcontainers adapters for IRIS, including testcontainers-iris-python and testcontainers-iris-java.

Why testcontainers-iris-node? As a Node.js developer working with InterSystems IRIS, I often faced challenges when setting up test environments that mimic production. testcontainers-iris-node solves this by leveraging the testcontainers-node framework to create isolated IRIS environments on-demand.

This is particularly valuable for:

• Integration testing with IRIS databases
• Testing data pipelines or microservices
• Automating test environments in CI pipelines

Features

• Launches IRIS in Docker containers using Testcontainers
• Supports custom Docker images and configuration
• Wait strategies to ensure IRIS is ready before tests begin
• Clean teardown between test runs

Hi,

If I test the Native api for Node.js from the documentation, I noticed (if I'm correct) all methods and calls are synchronous. By default due to the nature of Node.js, there is only one thread of execution and normally  all JavaScript methods and all calls should be asynchronous and use either a callback function (the "old way") or promises or the async/await contruct to return their result, e.g.:

• myFunction(params, callbackFunction(response))
• myFunction(params).then(resolveFunction(response))
• async someFunction() {
  ​​​​​  response = await myFunction(params)
  }

Hello, Does the NodeJs package work when running a node js file on windows (nodejs for windows)? I've added the package by running npm install <package location folder>

I have the following index.js file, but when running from node (windows) I get the following error. Does the NodeJs package build the output files when the package is added or does it just assume linux as the underlying os?

Error: Cannot find module './bin/winx64/irisnative.node'

When trying the Iris Nodejs Quickstart I do get the following message in the source code:

 the necessary npm modules are installed...

this suggested command does not solve the issue:

Hi Developers!

This is the second post on the resources for Developers. This part is about Open Exchange

Using Open Exchange to Learn InterSystems

InterSystems Open Exchange is a applications gallery of tools, connectors, and libraries which InterSystems Developers submit to share the experience, approaches and do business. All the applications are either built with InterSystems data platforms or are intended to use for development with InterSystems data platforms.

If you are a beginner developer you can take a look at applications in Technology Example category. All the applications in this category come with open source code repositories, so you are able to run the samples and examples in a docker container with IRIS on your laptop or in the cloud IRIS sandbox. Examples:

Hi, 

I almost managed to connect myself from nodejs to IRIS via intersystems-iris-native, but the connection failed. 

> const irisnative = require('./intersystems-iris-native')
> irisnative
{
  createConnection: [Function (anonymous)],
  Connection: [Function: Connection],
  Iris: [Function: Iris],
  Iterator: [Function: Iterator],
  IRISList: [Function: IRISList]
}
.....
>     var connection = irisnative.createConnection({
...     host: ip,
...     port: port,
...     ns: namespace,
...     user: username,
...     pwd: password
...     })
Uncaught Error: 8-bit servers are not supported [ERROR_8BIT_SERVER]
>
 

Hot on the heels of our announcement last week about our ultra-high-performance mg-dbx-napi JavaScript interface for IRIS, we are now pleased to announce a significant new technology - mg_web - which not only represents a new paradigm for JavaScript Web Frameworks, but also delivers significantly higher performance than even the fastest of the established Node.js Web Frameworks, whilst leveraging all the benefits of the big-three industry-standard Web Servers.

I'd like to announce the release of something really rather interesting - revolutionary in fact.  That may sound like hyperbole, but I don't think you'll have seen anything quite like this, or even thought it possible!

We've pushed out a new JavaScript/Node.js module named glsdb which you can read all about here in detail:

https://github.com/robtweed/glsdb

However, for the purposes of this announcement here, I just want to focus on one part of glsdb: its APIs that abstract IRIS (or Cache) Classes as equivalent JavaScript Objects.

You may have heard about our mg-dbx-napi interface for IRIS which provides insanely fast access from Node.js.  If you've been following recent developments in the server-side JavaScript world, you'll be excited to know that mg-dbx-napi also works with Bun.js, the latter proving to be significantly faster than Node.js for many/most purposes.

Of course, if you're a Node.js user, you'll probably wonder how mg-dbx-napi compares with the Native API for Node.js that is included with IRIS.

With all that in mind, we've created a Github repository: mg-showcase

We recently uploaded to OpenExchange a small application that I developed a while ago (and that @Jose-Tomas.Salvador improved and refined) that I often use when I need to generate large volumes of HL7 messaging.

Intro

Most server-client communication on the web is based on a request and response structure. The client sends a request to the server and the server responds to this request. The WebSocket protocol provides a two-way channel of communication between a server and client, allowing servers to send messages to clients without first receiving a request. For more information on the WebSocket protocol and its implementation in InterSystems IRIS, see the links below.

• WebSocket protocol

• WebSockets in InterSystems IRIS documentation

New to coding in InterSystems IRIS® data platform? Try this brand-new learning program to get the basics, and see how to develop an application with InterSystems ObjectScript alongside your language of choice: Java, .NET, Python, or Node.js. 

I'm using a customised IRIS Community Edition Docker Container: Node.js has been added and the Native API for Node.js directory moved to a node_modules folder in /home/irisowner.  I've changed the _SYSTEM password using the Management Portal (which connects to IRIS just fine)

If I shell into the running container and try to connect with a JS script file containing this:

        const IRISNative = require('intersystems-iris-native');

        let connectionInfo = {

          host: 'localhost',

          port: 1972,

          ns: 'USER',

          user: '_SYSTEM',

          pwd: 'secret',

Developing a Full-Stack JavaScript web app with Caché requires you to bring together the right building blocks. In the previous part, we created a basic front-end React application. In the second part of this article series I will show how to choose the right back-end technology for your application. You will see Caché allows you to use many different approaches to link your front-end to your Caché server, depending on your application's needs. In this part we will set up a back-end with Node.js/QEWD and CSP/REST. In the next part we will enhance our basic web app and connect it to Caché using these technologies.

The latest Node.js Weekly newsletter included a link to this article:

https://thecodebarbarian.com/getting-started-with-vector-databases-in-n…

I'm wondering if anyone has been considering or actually using IRIS as a vector database for this kind of AI/ChatGPT work?

The concept of low code development is getting more and more important across all industries. Everybody who is starting to get into low code programming, will inevitably come across Node-RED. InterSystems IRIS is renowned for its interoperability and so should be accessible via Node-RED.

Hey Community, 

Learn how you can develop a Node.js application and connect to InterSystems IRIS data platform through the Native API:

⏯ Using Node js to connect to InterSystems IRIS

I am a newbie who is trying to learn how to set up a basic connection to Iris using a node js application. I am astounded at the lack of documentation there is on how to do this and even more concerning there are a few errors within the documentation. For example I am on the Native API application within the below link.

https://docs.intersystems.com/irislatest/csp/docbook/DocBook.UI.Page.cl…

Newbie

I am currently running a docker image with Iris 2021.1 and I would like to install node js on to it. I have had a look at the instructions on the intersystems online learning portal and I must say its very confusing. Some of the documentation says that you can only install it on 2019. Other parts say that it doesn't matter and you can install it if you have a dev directory. I checked my dev directory and there it isn't there. Sadly this is very inconsistent. Does anyone know if it is possible to install on the above mentioned version of Iris ?

I wrote a step by step tutorial in the qewd-howtos repository how you can write state of the art multi-page web apps with Node.js using a QEWD-Up WebSocket/REST api back-end integrated with a mainstream web framework like NuxtJS & Vue.js. In particular with the latest NuxtJS/Vue.js frameworks, writing web applications becomes fun again, allowing you to write your applications very efficiently, hiding all boilerplate code from you.

The tutorial should be very easy to try out on your development machine and consists of two parts:

There's been quite a bit of discussion lately in this forum on the tools available in IRIS for using both XML and JSON, and debate on cross-conversion between the two formats.

I've posted this video on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHUifpuav9I

Expand this article for some background to what it shows and what it's all about...

Hi:

I'm looking for some help with JSON notation for a global structure.  I need a way to represent a global structure in JSON where the global structure both has a value at a given node as well as sub-nodes.