SQL is a standard language for storing, manipulating and retrieving data in relational databases.
Hi Communtiy,
I am a begineer who is working and trying to understand Intersystems. I am developing an Ensemble interface which receives a XML message and converts it into HL7 format without using enslib.HL7 classes.
Requirement
1. My file consists of patient details which needs to be updated in a sql table whenever the same patient arrives. We need to check if the patient exists and convert it into a pId segment.
2.
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.
SQL injection remains one of the most critical vulnerabilities in database-driven applications, allowing attackers to manipulate queries and potentially access or compromise sensitive data. In InterSystems IRIS, developers have access to both Dynamic SQL and Embedded SQL, each with distinct characteristics. Understanding how to use them securely is essential for preventing SQL injection.
Dynamic SQL constructs queries as strings at runtime. While this offers flexibility, it also creates a vulnerability if user input is not handled correctly.
Hi Community,
We're super excited to share that we’ve just launched a new free, interactive tutorial designed especially for those who are new to InterSystems IRIS and looking for a clear, practical introduction to its core concepts.
🧑🏫 Data Models of InterSystems IRIS 🧑💻
The InterSystems Ready 2026 Conference is approaching fast — it's a great time to prepare and check your knowledge before attempting one of the Certification exams onsite .
InterSystems certifications aren't easy: you need to practice with questions aligned to the real exam objectives.
exam-prep.es is a free platform built for exactly that: practice, identify weak spots, and show up better prepared.
We are trying to track down significant growth within our Namespaces, one big culprit is Ens.AppData (EnsLib.SQL.Snapshot).
Within many of our BPL's we use EnsLib.SQL.Snapshot to return Results from External SQL Stored Procedures or Query's. The same EnsLib.SQL.Snapshot context variable is used for many of these calls within a BPL.
Is there something we should be doing at the end of the BPL to ensure that EnsLib.SQL.Snapshot gets cleaned up and purged from Ens.AppData?
How can I create a Task that tells a Ens.BusinessService to execute its SQL query using the EnsLib.SQL.InboundAdapter?
So far I have come up with
I’m trying to find a way to manage globals from our Java application. We have two separate features:
Managing tables normally using SQL
Managing globals, since some globals exist without class or table definitions
Cache version : Cache for UNIX (Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86-64) 2016.1.1 (Build 108U_SU), Thu Jul 7 2016 09:39:04 EDT
I tried to retrieve the globals tree, update node values, and append nodes using SQL by calling stored procedures, but I couldn’t find any procedures for adding, updating, or deleting nodes.
I also tried using cacheextreme.jar to access the globals API directly.
How to execute a stored procedure in a remote DB2 database?
Hi Everyone,
I want to access a stored procedure in a remote DB2 database. The stored procedure in question is linked and receives a numeric value, returning a cursor with N number of rows. Sometimes the number of rows reaches hundreds of thousands, so I need to apply pagination.
I've been reading about the %ScrollableResultSet library, but it doesn't allow me to call a stored procedure.
Here's part of the code:
Set pValor=12345678
Set callSql="CALL Paquete.ClaseSpRemoto(?)"
Set rs=##class(%ScrollableResultSet).
What is Unstructured Data?
Unstructured data refers to information lacking a predefined data model or organization. In contrast to structured data found in databases with clear structures (e.g., tables and fields), unstructured data lacks a fixed schema. This type of data includes text, images, videos, audio files, social media posts, emails, and more.
Why Are Insights from Unstructured Data Important?
According to an IDC (International Data Corporation) report, 80% of worldwide data is projected to be unstructured by 2025, posing a significant concern for 95% of businesses.
I am stuck at a crossroad and was wondering if I could get a second pair of eyes to help with a query that I am sending from a Task to a Service to process some data.
I have a Linked Table (view) that points back to a MS SQL View that I am trying to query. However, my execution keeps either failing or not returning any rows. When I take the SQL Query and execute it within the Management Portal I get results, however Cache is not seeing it when trying to execute this code.
I am trying to create a task that has a variable property that a user can specify DaysBack but it keeps coming up blank when I ask the system to get the date as of DaysBack from the CURRENT_DATE. Can someone tell me why I am not getting a value back in my tDate variable?
Class OSU.Workday.TerminationsTask Extends %SYS.Task.Definition
{
Parameter TaskName As STRING = "OSU - Workday Termination Update";
Property DaysBack As %Integer [ InitialExpression = 1 ];
Method OnTask() As %Status
{
Set tSC=$$$OK
#Dim tException as %Exception.
In the previous article, we saw in detail about Connectors, that let user upload their file and get it converted into embeddings and store it to IRIS DB. In this article, we'll explore different retrieval options that IRIS AI Studio offers - Semantic Search, Chat, Recommender and Similarity.
Inspired by @Ashok Kumar T's post on the ideas portal here as well as my own wishes for a solution to this problem, I have come up with a simple way to allow more complete and consistent JSON queries without having to specify every desired field. I have created a class that extends the built-in %JSON.Adaptor class and makes its %JSONExportToString and %JSONExportToStream methods accessible through SQL with just a couple of simple SqlProc Methods.
Class DH.JSONAdaptor Extends %JSON.Adaptor [ Abstract ]
{
ClassMethod jsonstring(id, map = "") [ SqlProc ]
{
try{
set myobj = .Hello everyone,
I’m trying to find a way to manage globals from our Java application. We have two separate features:
Managing tables normally using SQL
Managing globals, since some globals exist without class or table definitions
Cache version : Cache for UNIX (Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86-64) 2016.1.1 (Build 108U_SU), Thu Jul 7 2016 09:39:04 EDT
I tried to retrieve the globals tree, update node values, and append nodes using SQL by calling stored procedures, but I couldn’t find any procedures for adding, updating, or deleting nodes.
I also tried using cacheextreme.
With the release of InterSystems IRIS Cloud SQL, we're getting more frequent questions about how to establish secure connections over JDBC and other driver technologies. While we have nice summary and detailed documentation on the driver technologies themselves, our documentation does not go as far to describe individual client tools, such as our personal favourite DBeaver. In this article, we'll describe the steps to create a secure connection from DBeaver to your Cloud SQL deployment.
InterSystems IRIS allows you to build REST APIs using ObjectScript classes and the %CSP.REST framework. This enables the development of modern services to expose data for web apps, mobile apps, or system integrations.
In this article, you'll learn how to create a basic REST API in InterSystems IRIS, including:
GET and POST methodsA full demonstration using Docker
I need to reproduce a table (in fact a view, but let's start with a simple table 😊) in IRIS as the currently used in Oracle.
I need to expose/project one column to JDBC as CLOB, in my class I have the corresponding property defined as:
Property GlobStream As %Stream.GlobalCharacter;
In JDBC this column is projected as LONGVARCHAR, this is compliant with the documentation but I need to project it as CLOB.
In addition, I'm no expert in JDBC but wit seems that LONGVARCHAR has a Maximum Length 32,700 characters in JDBC, not quite enough for an arbitrary stream.
Hello everyone,
I’m looking to implement Continuous Training (CT) as part of an MLOps strategy for some data science projects in IRIS. I want to automate the full cycle:
- Monitoring model performance & accuracy degradation.
- Retraining models automatically.
- Validating and updating production models.
I’ve looked into IntegratedML, but it seems more focused on the SQL interface for training (AutoML). Even with the new Custom Models (beta), which allows for more flexibility with Python, it doesn't seem to provide the "Continuous" orchestration out of the box.
I’d like to know:
Why do these clauses affect SQL performance?
select ID from some_table where row_status in ('I','U') order by ID limit 5 - makes the query infinite
select top 10 ID from some_table where row_status in ('I','U') order by ID - the same
select ID from some_table where row_status in ('I','U') order by ID - is fast
Actually there are no rows in the table having row_status 'I' or 'U'.
Ever since I started using IRIS, I have wondered if we could create agents on IRIS. It seemed obvious: we have an Interoperability GUI that can trace messages, we have an underlying object database that can store SQL, Vectors and even Base64 images. We currently have a Python SDK that allows us to interface with the platform using Python, but not particularly optimized for developing agentic workflows. This was my attempt to create a Python SDK that can leverage several parts of IRIS to support development of agentic systems.
The 2025.1.3 maintenance releases of InterSystems IRIS® data platform, InterSystems IRIS® for HealthTM, and HealthShare® Health Connect are now Generally Available (GA).
Hello everyone,
My team lead mentioned that users can sometimes create globals directly without associating them with tables or classes. In this case, these globals would not be accessible via SQL.
Is this correct? Can a global exist independently in this way, and if so, is there a specific approach to access or manage them without SQL?
10:47 AM — Jose Garcia's creatinine test results arrive at the hospital FHIR server. 2.1 mg/dL — a 35% increase from last month.
What happens next?
No chatbot. No manual prompts. No black-box reasoning.
This is event-driven clinical decision support with full explainability:
✅ Triggered automatically by FHIR events ✅ Multi-agent reasoning (context, guidelines, recommendations) ✅ Complete audit trail in SQL (every decision, every evidence source) ✅ FHIR-native outputs (DiagnosticReport published to server)
Built with:
You'll learn: 🖋️ How to orchestrate agentic AI workflows within production-grade interoperability systems — and why explainability matters more than accuracy alone.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/43Vl7cU_uNY?si=o3NZ3AqPOdFkCn9w" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>1-command only required for an entire IRIS instance for Data Science projects, and leveraging this to compare query methods' speed (Dynamic SQL, Pandas Query, and Globals).
Before joining InterSystems, I worked in a team of web developers as a data scientist. Most of my day-to-day work involved training and embedding ML models in Python-based backend applications through microservices, mainly built with the Django framework and using Postgres SQL for sourcing the data.
I wanted to try vibecoding a real backend + frontend setup on InterSystems IRIS, ideally using something realistic rather than a toy example. The goal was simple: take an existing, well-known persistent package in IRIS and quickly build a usable UI and API around it — letting AI handle as much of the boilerplate as possible. Here is the result of the experiments.
Vector search is a retrieval method that converts text, images, audio, and other data into numeric vectors using an AI model, and then searches for items that are semantically close. It enables “semantic similarity search” from free text, which is difficult with keyword search alone.
However, in real use, I encountered cases where results that are “close in meaning” but logically the opposite appeared near the top of the search results.
This is a serious issue in situations where affirmation vs. negation matters. If the system returns the wrong answer, the impact can be significant, so we cannot ignore this problem.
This article does not propose a new algorithm. I wrote it to share a practical way I found useful when semantic search fails due to negation.
Hey Community!
We're happy to share a new video from our InterSystems Developers YouTube:
⏯ Multi-threading an HL7 Interface and scaling beyond FIFO constraints @ Ready 2025
Here at InterSystems, we often deal with massive datasets of structured data. It’s not uncommon to see customers with tables spanning >100 fields and >1 billion rows, each table totaling hundred of GB of data. Now imagine joining two or three of these tables together, with a schema that wasn’t optimized for this specific use case. Just for fun, let’s say you have 10 years worth of EMR data from 20 different hospitals across your state, and you’ve been tasked with finding….
TL;DR: This article demonstrates how to run GraphRAG-style hybrid retrieval—combining vector similarity, graph traversal, and full-text search—entirely within InterSystems IRIS using the
iris-vector-graphpackage. We use a fraud detection scenario to show how graph patterns reveal what vector search alone would miss.
Every year, businesses and consumers lose billions to fraud. In 2024 alone, consumers reported $12.5 billion lost—a 25% increase year over year. What makes modern fraud so difficult to detect is that fraudsters rarely work alone.