There are two basic strategies:

1. Use the web gateway sidecar.  This is my recommendation as it's the most straightforward.

2. Call the ObjectScript class that the metrics API uses directly from the shell.  A real pain-in-the-neck, but it avoids having the sidecar.

Regarding the new topology.data.irisDatabases.seed field, the field is used to let you create databases that start with some starting data in them instead of the usual empty database.  This is useful for applications that typically start with some basic information in them.  Here's the link to the docs, if they help.

https://docs.intersystems.com/components/csp/docbook/DocBook.UI.Page.cls...