Yes. 

It maybe a different thing: the format with <Export generator> is outdated and Studio together with LoadDir both support the outdated format and don't support the "new" one without the <Export> element, which is in Atelier API that VSCode is using (why do we still use this Atelier name? )

So, I'd better ask to support the new format, as the Export tag thing also has an annoying "feature" that it incudes date/time of export and this changes the file with every save/export even there were no changes.

The only "caveat" of the approach is that you should put all of the pivots and dashboards into one big class container. Even you have 100+ of them. 

It's like, "let's put all the classes into one big XML and store it in the repo in one file".  It's OK for import/export, but not ideal for source control.

Thank you, @Dmitrij Vladimirov 

Sounds like that.

Actually, I tried with another proejct and failed going with PKG approach, as DFI are being exported in a shorter form for me, .e.g.:

<?xml version="1.0"?><dashboardxmlns="http://www.intersystems.com/deepsee/library"name="AnnualPotatos"folderName=""title="Annual Potato Analytics"description=""keywords=""owner=""shared="true"public="true"locked="false"resource=""timeCreated="2025-08-26T23:29:13.2Z"createdBy="SuperUser"category=""bookCover=""scheme=""worklistCount="2"snapTo="true"snapGrid="true"gridRows="10"gridCols="10"canResize="true"canModify="true"showTitleBar="true"titleBarOpacity=""titleBarColor=""selectedTitleBarOpacity=""selectedTitleBarColor=""titleBarTextColor=""selectedTitleBarTextColor=""titleBarFont=""companyName=""companyLogo=""companyStyle=""backgroundColor="white"backgroundImage="none"backgroundRepeat="no-repeat"backgroundSize="100% 100%"backgroundOpacity="1"widgetBorders="1px solid #F0F0F0"widgetBordersSwitch="edit"widgetBordersColor="#F0F0F0"widgetBordersStyle="solid"widgetBordersWidth="1"widgetBordersToggle="true"><widgetname="Widget2"type="pivot"subtype="comboChart"subtypeClass="comboChart"title="Potato Sales and Import, Tonnes"dataSource="Potatos/Yearly.pivot"dataLink=""drillDownDataSource=""width="200"height="200"sidebarContent=""showSidebar="false"sidebarWidth=""maximized="false"homeRowL="0"homeColL="0"colSpanL="7"rowSpanL="7"showToolbar="true"showToolbarBottomBorder="true"showToolbarOnlyWhenMaximized="false"colorToolbar="#F0F0F0"opacityToolbar="1"backgroundColor="#F0F0F0"opacity="1"theme=""dataColorList=""><controlname=""action="applyFilter"target=""targetProperty="[Country].[H1].[Country]"location="widget"type="auto"controlClass=""label="Country"title=""value=""text=""readOnly="false"valueList=""displayList=""activeWhen=""><valueRequired>false</valueRequired></control><overridename="comboChart">{legendVisible:'false',xAxis:{_type:'axis'},yAxisList:[{_type:'axis'}],seriesTypes:',bar',_type:'comboChart'}</override></widget></dashboard>

In your case there is also an export tag:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<Export generator="IRIS" version="26" zv="IRIS for Windows (x86-64) 2024.3 (Build 217U)" ts="2025-09-21 16:49:04">



<dashboard xmlns="http://www.intersystems.com/deepsee/library" name="AnnualPotatos" folderName="Potatos" title="Annual Potato Analytics" description="" keywords="" owner="" shared="true" public="true" locked="false" resource="" timeCreated="2025-08-26T23:29:13.2Z" createdBy="SuperUser" category="" bookCover="" scheme="" worklistCount="2" snapTo="true" snapGrid="true" gridRows="10" gridCols="10" canResize="true" canModify="true" showTitleBar="true" titleBarOpacity="" titleBarColor="" selectedTitleBarOpacity="" selectedTitleBarColor="" titleBarTextColor="" selectedTitleBarTextColor="" titleBarFont="" companyName="" companyLogo="" companyStyle="" backgroundColor="white" backgroundImage="none" backgroundRepeat="no-repeat" backgroundSize="100% 100%" backgroundOpacity="1" widgetBorders="1px solid #F0F0F0" widgetBordersSwitch="edit" widgetBordersColor="#F0F0F0" widgetBordersStyle="solid" widgetBordersWidth="1" widgetBordersToggle="true">

<widget name="Widget2" type="pivot" subtype="comboChart" subtypeClass="comboChart" title="Potato Sales and Import, Tonnes" dataSource="Potatos/Yearly.pivot" dataLink="" drillDownDataSource="" width="200" height="200" sidebarContent="" showSidebar="false" sidebarWidth="" maximized="false" homeRowL="0" homeColL="0" colSpanL="7" rowSpanL="7" showToolbar="true" showToolbarBottomBorder="true" showToolbarOnlyWhenMaximized="false" colorToolbar="#F0F0F0" opacityToolbar="1" backgroundColor="#F0F0F0" opacity="1" theme="" dataColorList="">

<control name="" action="applyFilter" target="" targetProperty="[Country].[H1].[Country]" location="widget" type="auto" controlClass="" label="Country" title="" value="" text="" readOnly="false" valueList="" displayList="" activeWhen="">

<valueRequired>false</valueRequired>

</control>

<override name="comboChart">{legendVisible:'false',xAxis:{_type:'axis'},yAxisList:[{_type:'axis'}],seriesTypes:',bar',_type:'comboChart'}</override>

</widget>

</dashboard></Export>

And zpm load imports the latter one, but not the first type.

Also, if I save it in VSCode, it removes <export> tag as a result of compiling. But the same doesn't let it be imported via PKG approach.

I think what've found is a "hack", or side-effect. Because of ZX.PKG resource line IPM imports "everything" from /src/ZX folder, inlcuding dfi files which happen to be there.

But it's OK. I wonder, if there will be no classes in ZX, or if you include another folder ZY which include only DFI documents inside, will IPM import those as well?

Next is editing and control versioning in VS-Code.

DFI changes in VS-Code are not propagating to connected IRIS automatically after saving. @Brett Saviano  - any hints how can this be set up?

In order to make changes in the Dashboard portal to be automatically reflected, one can use git-source-control. After the following lines:

USER> zpm "install git-source-control" 

USER> do ##class(%Studio.SourceControl.Interface).SourceControlClassSet("SourceControl.Git.Extension")

changes made in Dashboard Portal editor are being exported into VSCode (into a file), but the location is wrong - git-source-control has created cls/ZXFree folder and dashboard.dfi

But I expected src/ZXfree.dashboard.DFI, as there is no Folder in a dashboard, just title="ZXFree"

@Pravin Barton , @Timothy Leavitt  - could you please take a look?

It indeed works! After providing proper (for Mac) Dockerfile and Docker-compose.yml, and adding DSW, here is what I'm getting:

Like the minimalistic setup, but this doesn't work on mac:

 12/19/25-12:27:01:978 (467) 0 [Utility.Event] Initializing Interoperability during system startup
iris-1  | [INFO] ...started InterSystems IRIS instance IRIS
iris-1  | [INFO] Executing command /docker-entrypoint.sh iris-after-start '/ext/ascript.sh'...
iris-1  | [ERROR] /docker-entrypoint.sh: line 196: /ext/ascript.sh: Permission denied
iris-1  | [ERROR] Command "/docker-entrypoint.sh iris-after-start '/ext/ascript.sh'" exited with status 32256
iris-1  | [FATAL] Error executing post-startup command
iris-1  | [INFO] Shutting down InterSystems IRIS instance IRIS...

no way. Could you please share the repo?

I'd say xml as it's been working well with IPM packaging and standard import/export.

But if dfi is working for you it'd be great to hear! I kind of like .dfi more as it's more clear what the file is about. But xml is fine too.

Hi @Brett Saviano !

I double checked the export format - the format is the same now and is supported both in IPM and VSCode ObjectScript.

The only issue left is file naming: Atelier REST API exports DFI file names with dFI extension as:

Potatos-AnnualPotatos.dashboard.DFI

at the same time IPM can consume DFI resources if they are presented as XML (tested in 0.10.4), e.g.:

Potatos/AnnualPotatos.dashboard.xml

Inviting @Pravin Barton also, maybe there are plans to do something with this in the future. 

And it exports files with "-" as a folder delimeter. Imagine if you have 100+pivots and dashboards in folders - in the code repository, they all will be in one folder with 100+ files with "-" as delimiters. Doesn't sound like a convenient approach. 

It's like ObjectScript code files will be named as:

/src/package-subpackage-class.cls

and all reside in one folder, instead of being distributed in packages as folders, as it is working now:

src/package/subpackage/class.cls

@Brett Saviano - hope we could fix this too in the future.
 

You may ask: how to export the file?

There is a special "helper" package "isc dev", once installed via:

zpm "install isc-dev"

and set up then as:

do##class(dev.code).workdir("/home/irisowner/dev/src")

it will allow at any moment to export all the DFI at once into your dev folder with the command:

d##class(dev.code).export("*.DFI")

Neat! Thank you, looks easy and practical! Thank you for sharing!

Thahks @Timothy Leavitt ! Looks better with an example, of course. Hope you'll have some time for it in the future.

Ideally, if you share the code sample somewhere so devs can reproduce and see what's really going on

Perhaps there are no rows that satisfy the dimension conditions?

Or maybe there are build constraints? (1000 rows?)

Thanks @John Murray ! It's a good idea. I'm not sure if the Ideas portal allows such functionality, as it turned out that we are not the first enterprise to consider bug reporting functionality via a private channel of communication, but it makes sense to me.

Public exposure of critical bugs is not the best way to support the community. On the contrary, it could be a serious threat to thousands of working and important services. 

Yes. You find a bug and report it privately to InterSystems, avoiding public exposure. 

I wouldn't name this new service to report bugs as "philosophy" as it is a newly introduced service for developers who encounter bugs. We'll see how it works, and maybe after some time, we can assess if it can be a "philosophy" or a reasonable approach. Let's see.

Hi @Dmitry Maslennikov ! Thanks for highlighting that! The point is that bugs can be dangerous, so we have the privilege to know it in advance and address and take care of InterSystems customers. 

We introduced this service to have a legitimate way to report bugs found by developers while developing with InterSystems products.

My bad. It looks like %source lets to refer to properties only, not methods.