Trying to make some scripts to do some IRIS initialization during startup, I noticed that iris start and particularly stop takes too much time, and it starts to many processes in the background.

nostu is mostly useless for system initialization but could help in some scenarios, such as setup passwords, but it is still too slow

irisowner@4ea1bfb50b7f:~$ time iris start iris nostu
Starting IRIS
Using 'iris.cpf' configuration file

Starting Control Process
Global buffer setting requires attention.  Auto-selected 25% of total memory.
Allocated 7417MB shared memory
6002MB global buffers, 600MB routine buffers
Creating a WIJ file to hold 99 megabytes of data
InterSystems IRIS is started in single user mode.
To log into InterSystems IRIS, type:
    iris session IRIS -B

real    0m0.513s
user    0m0.090s
sys     0m0.207s

For instance, I have no idea why it starts so many AUX processes, even during NOSTU. With a normal start with no extra volumes attached, just plain start, I see no reasons to have so many AUX processes as well.

2011 pts/0    S      0:00 /usr/irissys/bin/irisdb -s/usr/irissys/mgr/ -w/usr/irissys/mgr/ -cc -B -Enostu -C/usr/irissys/iris.cpf*IRIS
 2052 pts/0    S      0:00 /usr/irissys/bin/irisdb WD                                                                                 
 2053 pts/0    S      0:00 /usr/irissys/bin/irisdb GC                                                                                 
 2054 pts/0    S      0:00 /usr/irissys/bin/irisdb JD                                                                                 
 2055 pts/0    S      0:00 /usr/irissys/bin/irisdb AUX2                                                                               
 2056 pts/0    S      0:00 /usr/irissys/bin/irisdb AUX1                                                                               
 2057 pts/0    S      0:00 /usr/irissys/bin/irisdb AUX5                                                                               
 2058 pts/0    S      0:00 /usr/irissys/bin/irisdb AUX7                                                                               
 2059 pts/0    S      0:00 /usr/irissys/bin/irisdb AUX4                                                                               
 2060 pts/0    S      0:00 /usr/irissys/bin/irisdb AUX3                                                                               
 2061 pts/0    S      0:00 /usr/irissys/bin/irisdb AUX6                                                                               
 2062 pts/0    S      0:00 /usr/irissys/bin/irisdb DBXD

In some testing scenarios, I need to clone the database. While I use only SQL access.

I need all data to be cloned, not mapped from the original database, and a separate database to be accessed.

Is there any way to do so?

Something like

CREATE DATABASE [Database to create]
WITH TEMPLATE [Database to copy]

Most of the databases with SQL access offers the DATE_TRUNC function or analogs. This helps to easily truncate a date by any part while keeping the DateTime in a valid format

Any ideas on how this can be solved?

I need to use it with some Unicode text, in Docker image. And get this error. And documentation says nothing about it.

USER>do $zf(-100, "/SHELL", "echo", "test")
test

USER>do $zf(-100, "/SHELL", "echo", "test тест")

DO $ZF(-100, "/SHELL", "echo", "test тест")
^
<TRANSLATE>

I know that it works in some Linux environments without Docker, but no idea where is the difference. 

Such most popular nowadays CI platforms as GitHub and Gitlab, offers the ability to run any docker image as a service, mostly useful for integration tests.

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

pip install irissqlcli

Or run with docker

docker run -it caretdev/irissqlcli irissqlcli iris://_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 30 2023 09:05:12 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>

So, I know that I can return a SQL Error message from my SQL Procedure written in ObjectScript, with code like this

$ cat <<EOF | irissqlcli iris://_SYSTEM:SYS@localhost:1972/USER
CREATE or REPLACE PROCEDURE test()
LANGUAGE OBJECTSCRIPT
{
 SET %sqlcontext.%SQLCODE = 400
 SET %sqlcontext.%ROWCOUNT = -1
 SET %sqlcontext.%Message = "test error message"
};

CALL test();

EOF
[SQLCODE: <-400>:<Fatal error occurred>]
[Location: <SPFunction>]
[%msg: <test error message>]

But I did not find how to do it with Python. I can't find %sqlcontext variable available there

So, the next year will bring us a new way of installing IRIS. Always keep in mind that you have to bring your own web server. No matter how many instances of IRIS you have on your local machine. Or if you work in Docker, always keep in mind a bit more complicated configuration.

And I now want to understand the costs of this decision for end-developers like most of here.

Let's have a look, at what we got out of the box in Web Applications, obviously do not forget about System Management Portal.

I have table

CREATE TABLE nodes (
        name VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL, 
        parent VARCHAR(50), 
        PRIMARY KEY (name), 
        FOREIGN KEY(parent) REFERENCES nodes (name) ON UPDATE cascade
);

I put some data

INSERT INTO nodes (name, parent) VALUES ('n1', NULL);
INSERT INTO nodes (name, parent) VALUES ('n11', 'n1');
INSERT INTO nodes (name, parent) VALUES ('n12', 'n1');
INSERT INTO nodes (name, parent) VALUES ('n13', 'n1');

Let's delete all

DELETE FROM nodes;

Nope, no way.

SQL Error [124] [S1000]: [SQLCODE: <-124>:<FOREIGN KEY constraint failed referential check upon DELETE of row in referenced table>]
[Location: <ServerLoop>]
[%msg: <At least 1 Row exists in table 'SQLUser.nodes' which references key 'NODESPKey2' - Foreign Key Constraint 'NODESFKey3', Field(s) 'parent' failed on referential action of NO ACTION>]

I have a table, with autoincremented id

CREATE TABLE users (
    id SERIAL NOT NULL,
    name VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY (id)
)

I can add a new item there with an explicit id 

INSERT INTO users (id, name) VALUES (2, 'fred')

And while my id is autoincremented, I can omit it

INSERT INTO users (name) VALUES ('ed')

So, this time, I don't know the id, and I want to somehow get it.

I could do it with LAST_IDENTITY() function, but it just uses %RowID, and have no relation to the primary id

A new release of ZPM has been published 0.5.0

New in this release

• Added support for Python's requirements.txt file
• Using tokens for publishing packages
• Fixed various issues

Python's requirements.txt

Now, if your project uses Python embedded and requires some Python's dependencies, you can add requirements.txt file to the project, as usual for any Python project, file have to be in the root of a project next to module.xml. And with load command or install command, ZPM will install dependencies from that file with using pip.

This is not an issue in ObjectScript, due to its typeless nature. But it's essential for external programming languages that care a bit more about types of variables.

And in any case, it's still reproducible in ObjectScript. I have table

CREATE TABLE some_table (
        id INTEGER NOT NULL, 
        x INTEGER, 
        y INTEGER, 
        z VARCHAR(50), 
        PRIMARY KEY (id)
)

And data

INSERT INTO some_table (id, x, y, z) VALUES (1, 1, 2, 'z1');
INSERT INTO some_table (id, x, y, z) VALUES (2, 2, 3, 'z2');
INSERT INTO some_table (id, x, y, z) VALUES (3, 3, 4, 'z3');
INSERT INTO some_table (id, x, y, z) VALUES (4, 4, 5, 'z4');

A new release of ZPM has been published 0.4.0

New in this release

• Added support for Deployed packages, publishing, and installation
• Support for multiple registry servers, e.g. public community registry, private corporate, and so on, including Python embedded code
• Ability to show all versions and package origin in search
• Fixed issue for packages with preload code
• The expanded limit for the length of arguments in Invoke

For quite some time InterSystems IRIS supports such thing as Merging CPF. So, with help of this it should be possible to define only desired changes in configuration. And get them applied even with vanilla Docker image. 

And I though it could be useful when used with Dockerfile. Use this way to configure IRIS during docker build instead of using Installer manifest.

Great news, the extension to Docker Desktop for InterSystems Container Registry is now publicly available for everyone.

It is already available in the marketplace in Docker Desktop. It was published today, and it requires restarting Docker Desktop to see it.

On the Latest GlobalSummit 2022, InterSystems Introduced Cloud SQL. So, you may have lightweight InterSystems IRIS with access to SQL only. Well, what if you would still need some Interoperability features in the cloud as well? There are various solutions on the market nowadays, which offer a bunch of integration adapters out of the box and can be extended with support from the community. Some time ago, I've implemented an adapter for the Node-RED project, which can be deployed manually everywhere you want. Now I would like to introduce a new integration with my recent discovery, n8n.io

n8n.io is a workflow automation platform, that supports over 200 different integrations out of the box and from a community, and now including InterSystems IRIS.

I am aware that we have 5 License Units on Community Edition. But I have issues figuring out how it's working.

I have Community Edition

USER>write $system.License.KeyCustomerName()
InterSystems IRIS Community

Freshly started system, only terminal session open, so, only one license units used, and 4 left. As expected

USER>write $system.License.LUConsumed()
1
USER>write $system.License.LUAvailable()
4

Quote from documentation - $SYSTEM.License.MaxConnections() returns the maximum number of connections a user can make while consuming one license unit. 

USER>write $system.License.MaxConnections()
25

Continuing to  observe the possibilities of Django, and usage with IRIS. The first we have looked how to define models and connect to tables already existing in IRIS, than we extended embedded Django Administration portal, with an ability to see what data we have in that models, with filters, editing and even pagination.

Time to go to real action, now we a going to create some REST API, on Django, based on the same data, we used before from the package posts-and-tags.

To do so, we will use Django REST Framework

Django REST framework is a powerful and flexible toolkit for building Web APIs.

Some reasons you might want to use REST framework:

• The Web browsable API is a huge usability win for your developers.
• Authentication policies including packages for OAuth1a and OAuth2.
• Serialization that supports both ORM and non-ORM data sources.
• Customizable all the way down - just use regular function-based views if you don't need the more powerful features.
• Extensive documentation, and great community support.
• Used and trusted by internationally recognised companies including Mozilla, Red Hat, Heroku, and Eventbrite.

In the first part, I've shown how to start a new project on Django, as well as define new models and add already existing models.

This time, I'll introduce an admin panel, available out of the box and how it can be useful.

Important note: do not expect that if you try to repeat actions from this post it will work for you, it does not. During the article, I had to do some fixes in the django-iris project, and even in DB-API driver made by InterSystems to fix some issues there as well, and I think this driver is still in development, and we will get more stable driver in future. Let's decide that this article only explains how it could be if we would have all done.

Some time ago I introduced a new driver for Django for IRIS. Now, let's see how to use Django with IRIS in practice.

I would say it is a post of pain after years of using InterrSystems IRIS Docker images in many projects.

And I hope InterSystems will hear me and do something with it.

We have a lot of issues with Docker images, but I see no progress in solving them.

• containers.intersystems.com - any new releases substitute previous versions, makes build useless
  • ARM64 images have separate names, and it makes a pain to use them
• flags in iris-main, appears and disappears from version to version, which may fail the start the container
• healthcheck does not work as expected

Very recently Docker showed a very new feature added to their Docker Desktop tool. It was a good way to start using Docker on macOS and Windows, and they also released the same tool for Linux as well. And new feature Extensions add an ability to extend this GUI application with some extra abilities from extensions.

I would like to introduce my new project for the Globals Contest. A very new view for the globals browser

With the latest improvements in support for Python in IRIS, and continued work on Python DB-API support by InterSystems. I've implemented IRIS support to the Django project where is Python DB-API is used to work with some other databases.

Let's try a simple application on Django, which stores its data in IRIS.

I think it's a known fact that Populate Utility has very limited functionality. It supports only one language and one country. The list of possible values does not have so many options. 

There is a kind of tool that now can help with it, named Faker. It has implementations in different languages, including Python. Since IRIS has now had the Embedded Python feature, Python faker can be implemented in IRIS.

Hi, I’m recently decided to stay for some months in Dubai. And looking for new opportunities here, as well as even would like to meet in person with local people who works with InterSystems. I can share my knowledge and experience. What do you think? Do we have somebody from Dubai, or other from other parts of UAE?

Not so while ago GitHub introduced, ability to very quickly run VSCode in the browser for any repository hosted there. Press the . key on any repository or pull request, or swap .com with .dev in the URL, to go directly to a VS Code environment in your browser.

This VSCode is a light version of the Desktop version but works entirely in Browser. And due to this, it has a limitation for extensions which was allowed to work this way. And let me introduce the new version 1.2.1 of VSCode-ObjectScript extension which now supports running in Browser mode.

How to check if the password is strong enough, so it will not be cracked very fast? And how to make a strong password?

I've developed a tool that may help with this. You can find it on OpenExchange. Install it with zpm

zpm "install passwords-tool"

This module will install just one class caretdev.Passwords, which contains a few helpful methods in it

Secure Password

To get a secure password it's usually enough to use letters in upper and lower case, digits, and special symbols, and it should be at least 8 symbols long.

I would like to demonstrate how you can create monitoring of Production with Node-RED, and get a dashboard like this.

Previously I have already tried to play with Google Data Studio when I connected it to InterSystems FHIRaaS. It has quite a nice UI, with a few chart types available out of the box, it can be quite easily connected to some plain tables (stored as CSV or JSON, for instance), and gives the ability to build quite flexible analytics over it. So, I have decided to implement a new connector to InterSystems Analytics (DeepSee), with the ability to select a cube and do some queries on it.