Strap on this jetpack to boost your developer experience in Visual Studio Code.

DX Jetpack for VS Code was my entry for the 2023 Developer Tools Contest, where it achieved 2nd place in the Experts vote and 5th place in the Community vote. It is an extension pack for VS Code, bundling three entirely new extensions created by me, plus a couple that we at George James Software published previously.

The new extensions are:

• gj :: codeSpex
• ObjectScript Class View
• ServerDiff

If you're reluctant to install DX Jetpack right away, why not try it using a dev container? In the dev container is an InterSystems IRIS Community environment augmented with InterSystems Package Manager (IPM) and the isc-codetidy package.

Let me introduce my new project, which is irissqlcli, REPL (Read-Eval-Print Loop)  for InterSystems IRIS SQL 

• Syntax Highlighting
• Suggestions (tables, functions)
• 20+ output formats
• stdin support
• Output to files 

Install it with pip

pipinstallirissqlcli

Or run with docker

dockerrun-itcaretdev/irissqlcliirissqlcliiris://_SYSTEM:SYS@host.docker.internal:1972/USER

Connect to IRIS

$ irissqlcli iris://_SYSTEM@localhost:1972/USER -W
Password for _SYSTEM:
Server:  InterSystems IRIS Version 2022.3.0.606 xDBC Protocol Version 65
Version: 0.1.0
[SQL]_SYSTEM@localhost:USER> select $ZVERSION
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Expression_1                                                                                            |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| IRIS for UNIX (Ubuntu Server LTS for ARM64 Containers) 2022.3 (Build 606U) Mon Jan 30202309:05:12 EST |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set
Time: 0.063s
[SQL]_SYSTEM@localhost:USER> help
+----------+-------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| Command  | Shortcut          | Description                                                |
+----------+-------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+
| .exit    | \q                | Exit.                                                      |
| .mode    | \T                | Change the table format used to output results.            |
| .once    | \o [-o] filename  | Append next result to an output file (overwrite using -o). |
| .schemas | \ds               | List schemas.                                              |
| .tables  | \dt [schema]      | List tables.                                               |
| \e       | \e                | Edit command with editor (uses $EDITOR).                   |
| help     | \?                | Show this help.                                            |
| nopager  | \n                | Disable pager, print to stdout.                            |
| notee    | notee             | Stop writing results to an output file.                    |
| pager    | \P [command]      | Set PAGER. Print the query results via PAGER.              |
| prompt   | \R                | Change prompt format.                                      |
| quit     | \q                | Quit.                                                      |
| tee      | tee [-o] filename | Append all results to an output file (overwrite using -o). |
+----------+-------------------+------------------------------------------------------------+
Time: 0.012s
[SQL]_SYSTEM@localhost:USER>

1.Background

        1.1 I met a few project that their interface servers were crashed. Cutoms wanted resume server as fast as we can. their servers are running at lan,and they can't use git,there are some namesapce in the server running different service,and usualy there is only one server.

        1.2 In the message,it has property in type of characterstream,as you know,the message search page doesn't support filtering with  property of characterstream,so it's so hard to find the messge you want.

        1.3 Other workmate may update the code on the server,and mybe their is something wrong.

Why I've decided to write this

Once again I had a challenge that costed me some time and a lot of testing to reach the best solution. And now that I've managed to solve it, I'd like to share a little bit of my knowledge.
 

What happened?

In a namespace there were a lot of similar classes, so to make them simpler there were a superclass with comon properties. Also, there are relationships between them. I had to export one of them to JSON, but I couldn't change the superclasses, or I would break down the flow of many other integrations.

Messages.log file contains lots of useful information about IRIS. Sometimes the file gets big, and it is not easy to get to the data I am interested to review. It would be nice to jump to a specific date and time we suspect a problem may have started.

Whenever I need support from InterSystems, WRC will ask to send them messages.log file. Dependent on where IRIS is deployed, it may be cumbersome to obtain messages.log file for sending it to InterSystems.

Hi Developers!

Here is the score of technical bonuses for participants' applications in the InterSystems Developer Tools Contest 2023!

I just released an update of the gj :: codeSpex extension containing a new feature - Exclusions.

There's now a short video demonstrating how exclusions can help you focus on the packages you're less familiar with. The video also illustrates how with the ObjectScript Class View extension you can easily explore the inheritance of your classes.

Both extensions are members of the DX Jetpack, my entry in the 2023 Developer Tools contest. Voting closes very soon, so if you like what I've created please encourage me to do more by VOTING FOR ME here.

If you haven’t already please give @John Murray your vote in the Developer Tool contest >> http://bit.ly/3XcxyeS

🚀 DX Jetpack boosts your developer experience when using VS Code with InterSystems platforms. 🚀

This extension pack includes: 

gj :: codeSpex - showing help using VS code's commenting feature.

ObjectScript class view - View and navigate all class members plus where they are inherited from.

ServerDiff - See the difference between the code you are editing in VS Code and the server copy.

You can vote here >> http://bit.ly/3XcxyeS

Here're the technology bonuses for the InterSystems Developer Tools Contest 2023 that will give you extra points in the voting:

• Embedded Python usage
• Docker container usage
• ZPM Package Deployment
• Online Demo
• Code Quality pass
• Article on Developer Community
• The second article on Developer Community
• Video on YouTube
• First Time Contribution
• Community Idea Implementation

See the details below.

Embedded Python - 3 points

Use Embedded Python in your application and collect 3 extra points. You'll need at least InterSystems IRIS 2021.2 for it.

Docker container usage - 2 points

Listen to CEO George James chat with Derek Robinson, host of the InterSystems DataPoints podcast talk about source control, developer tools and how our solutions are beneficial for InterSystems IRIS users.

In this short 17 minute episode, George and Derek discuss our work with developer tools, and how choosing the right source control can provide users with a seamless solution - which is why Deltanji is seen as the go-to source control for InterSystems IRIS users.

Listen now on the InterSystems website > https://bit.ly/3Jp5py5
or wherever you get your podcasts - just search for 'InterSystems DataPoints'.

Hey Developers,

We'd like to invite you to join our next contest dedicated to creating useful tools to make your fellow developers' lives easier: 

🏆 InterSystems Developer Tools Contest 🏆

Submit an application that helps to develop faster, contributes more qualitative code, and helps in testing, deployment, support, or monitoring of your solution with InterSystems IRIS.

Duration: January 23 - February 12, 2023

Prize pool: $13,500

Hi Community!

I want to share with you mi first Open Exchange application.

It's a tool to made our developments easier. It's a micro service in a IRIS docker that help us in our new features giving us a way to add short links in our SMS, Email campaigns and for links of the different stores for our apps.

It's very easy to use it.

Simply clone this repo:

https://github.com/daniel-aguilar-garcia/cos-url-shortener.git

Open the folder in VSCode and start the docker.

After that you can create short link version of any link via api request. For example with Postman:

The power of the presented tool becomes visible with a large JSON file.
The example I have prepared is composed of the daily results of AoC 2023.
Anonymization makes it usable for demo purposes.

The similarity between JSON objects + arrays and Globals in IRIS or Caché is evident.
With small and medium size JSON objects navigation across %Dynamic Objects is comfortable.
But with large and/or deep cascaded objects it becomes a challenge.

The presented tool offers 3 variants

• loading an already existing %Dyamic object or Array into a global of your choice
• loading a %Stream containing a JSON object into a global of your choice
• loading an external File containing a JSON object into a global of your choice

Thank you to everyone who joined our User Group Session yesterday!

It was great showing off the new Deltanji Production Component driver that facilitates source control of interoperability productions, and we had some really insightful discussions as well.

If you missed out on the session and would like a copy of the recording, feel free to drop me a message. 

Hi developers!

If you missed our presentation at the InterSystems UK&I Summit and our demo during the Source Control roundtable, but you still want to find out more about source control for Interoperability Productions... there’s another chance to see it at our User Group Session next Thursday, November 3rd at 3pm (GMT). 

The new driver enables highly granular management of Interoperability Productions with tight integration into the InterSystems IRIS management management portal. 

Sign up via eventbrite here >> https://bit.ly/3yqzfvS

YASPE is the successor to YAPE (Yet Another pButtons Extractor). YASPE has been written from the ground up with many internal changes to allow easier maintenance and enhancements.

YASPE functions:

• Parse and chart InterSystems Caché pButtons and InterSystems IRIS SystemPerformance files for quick performance analysis of Operating System and IRIS metrics.
• Allow a deeper dive by creating ad-hoc charts and by creating charts combining the Operating System and IRIS metrics with the "Pretty Performance" option.
• The "System Overview" option saves you from searching your SystemPerformance files for system details or common configuration options.

YASPE is written in Python and is available on GitHub as source code or for Docker containers at:

• https://github.com/murrayo/yaspe

We’ll be hosting our bi-annual virtual User Group Session on Thursday, November 3^rdat 3pm (GMT). We will demonstrate the new Production component driver for Deltanji - it enables highly granular management of Interoperability Productions with tight integration into the management portal. 

The session is also an opportunity for us to help to problem-solve any issues you're having, and a chance for you to offer your feedback on our tools.

Those interested in finding out more about Deltanji source control are welcome to join us too.

Sign up for free on Eventbrite >> https://bit.ly/3yBVYVO

Hey DC Members!

Get an overview of the new and enhanced capabilities of the language SDKs:

⏯ Language SDKs: New & Next 2022 @ Global Summit 2022

In this article I'll show you how you can easily convert between many different document formats, these to be precise:

• in: html, odt, doc, docx, rtf, sdw, txt...
• out: html, odt, docx, rtf, pdf, txt, tex, xhtml...

and many more, check out this table. We'll use LibreOffice as a conversion engine.

This GitHub is the simplest way to scrap using IRIS and Python, all of that already incorporated in an IRIS PRODUCTION.
From here you can build any IRIS production in full Python or in ObjectScript as this module is interoperable.
See for more information

1. IRIS-WEB-SCRAPING

Has anyone had any success reading barcodes from PDFs or images in a Cache/IRIS application? I've been looking at some possible solutions for this, including the open source ZXing libraries. I know we have the ability to create them in Zen and Intersystems Reports, but as far as I know, there's nothing built in to actually read data from a barcode. If anyone has suggestions on how to go about this, I'd love to hear them.

Following this GitHub we will see how the FIX protocol can be implemented easily using IRIS and Python.

If you don't have much time focus on the Send a Quote before the Order part near the end, as it will, in a matter of minute, tell you how to send a Quote Request followed by an Order Request and show you the result from the server, and that in no more than five clicks.

IRIS-fix-protocol

Implementation of the fix protocol using an IRIS python container for the initiator and a regular python container for the acceptor.

Hi! As a developer who was forced to move from Mac to Windows (temporary) I found some things a bit confusing. In this article I would like to talk about some tweaks I made to make my experience smoother. I think it can help not only Mac users who need to use Windows environment (for ex. in VMs), but also can help some Windows users to make some things more convenient. Of course, all the points are subjective, the best setup is one that works for you.

All the tweaks are related to Windows 10 as I don’t have an access to Windows 11 at the moment.

Getting rid of excess

Streamline start menu

Hi Community,

Recently, I migrated a series of Objectscript repositories from XML to UDL format.
After the migration, I was a bit disappointed by the presentation on the GitLab web interface.

Since Objectscript syntax is supported by GitHub, I thought It would be also supported by GitLab. Unfortunately, the library used by GitLab to highlight the code does not have an extension to support Objectscript.

I will devote the third article to a story about the additional features of the project.

znamespace

Very often you need to find out if there is a specific package in the current instance, for example, so as not to duplicate. To do this, I implemented a modification of the namespace command of the package manager, on the option tab, you need to press the FIND button.

You can filter by package name. You can filter by package name. As a result, we get a list in which namespaces, which versions of packages are.

package

In a previous article, I talked about the implemented package manager commands (generate, list, load). In this article I want to talk about other commands.

repository

On the Option tab, you can see which current case is set and switch

search

To see the list of packages in the current register, click on the search button.

install

To install a package in the current namespace, you need to check the selected package and click the install button.

Before this project, I built zpm packages almost by hand. I edited the module.xml file, inserted resources into it and copied the resources to disk, then checked the correctness of the assembly. I was tired of it and I decided to make this work easier for myself.

I present to the contest zpm-generate-ui resource manager, which represents the ui for selecting packages, classes, globals and web applications for creating zpm… modules, for subsequent export to the current registry or repository for deployment in the same or another instance.