Welcome, Developers

What You Need to Know

As you get started with InterSystems IRIS for Health, it is important to understand the environment in which your code will run. Orientation for Programmers contains a set of pages meant to introduce you to the key topics.

Platform Features

After reading the basics, you might need some of the following topics, which are generally independent of programming language:

• Globals—InterSystems IRIS for Health ultimately stores all data using globals, although other access modes are available. Depending on how you choose to write your code, you may need to know details about the structure of globals, how to map globals to other databases, how to use temporary globals.

• Creating Classes—InterSystems IRIS for Health automatically creates a persistent class definition for each table definition, no matter how you create that table. Consequently, it is possible to access the same data via the object API or via SQL. Depending on how you choose to write your code, you may find the class-based API useful.

• Parallel Processing—InterSystems IRIS for Health supports parallel processing via the Work Queue Manager (which is also used internally by multiple components of the product).

• Locking—Most applications need to manage concurrency. If this applies in your case, read these topics to learn about the InterSystems IRIS for Health locking , which are accessible via any language.

• Transactions—Most applications need to manage data integrity by using transactions. If this applies in your case, read this topic to learn about the InterSystems IRIS for Health transactions mechanisms, which are accessible via any language.

• External Language Servers—The External Language Servers provide instant, fully integrated bi-directional connections between InterSystems IRIS for Health and external language platforms. The InterSystems External Server environment includes InterSystems Native SDKs for use by programs that run external to the InterSystems IRIS for Health server.

  The InterSystems IRIS for Health APIs include support for REST and SOAP as well as many other forms of interoperability.

Developer Tools

The Developer Tools pages provide information on connecting to your integrated development environment (IDE) and setting up source control, as well as details on other tools for developers.

Available Languages

With InterSystems IRIS for Health, you can use any of the following languages to create applications:

• Python

• ObjectScript

• SQL

• Java

• .NET

• Node.js

Available APIs

InterSystems IRIS for Health provides a large set of APIs that you can incorporate into your own applications. The more complex APIs are described in pages in the InterSystems IRIS for Health APIs group, which includes the Detailed API Index.

If you create interoperability productions, additional APIs are available for use with them.

Advanced Topics

Pages in the Advanced Topics group discuss topics that are much less commonly needed.