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intersystems-community.iris-jupyter-server

This VS Code extension is an alpha-quality proof of concept. It leverages Microsoft's Jupyter extension to bring the notebook paradigm to developers working with InterSystems IRIS servers, both local and remote.

Getting Started

  1. Install the extension. This will also install the Jupyter and ObjectScript extension packs if you don't already have them.
  2. Use InterSystems Server Manager to define a connection to an IRIS server.

Note: IRIS developers who already use the objectscript.conn settings object and don't want to adopt Server Manager should consult a later section of this document for information applicable to them.

  1. From VS Code's File menu select New File.... This option is also available on the Welcome page.
  2. When a quickpick appears, choose Jupyter Notebook.
  3. Click the Detecting Kernels button in the upper right of the notebook.
  4. In the quickpick titled "Select Kernel" choose Existing Jupyter Server....
  5. In the next quickpick ("Select a Jupyter Server") choose Enter the URL of the running Jupyter server.
  6. Enter http://localhost:50773/servername:namespace?token=1 when prompted. Replace servername with the name of the Server Manager definition you previously created. Replace namespace with the target namespace on that server. Do not omit the colon between these two elements. For example http://localhost:50773/iris231:USER?token=1
  7. On the next prompt ("Change Server Display Name") enter a suitable name, for example IRIS231 USER. Don't leave this blank, else the display name will default to localhost, meaning you won't be able to distinguish between entries you create for different servername:namespace combinations.
  8. When you connect to a namespace for the first time you will be asked to allow the installation of a support class named PolyglotKernel.CodeExecutor. Choose Yes.

Tip: To avoid having to load this class into other namespaces on the same server you can add a %ALL package mapping of the PolyglotKernel package to the default code database of the namespace you initially connected to.

  1. On the kernel selector, choose the IRIS ObjectScript INT kernel.
  2. The kernel indicator in the upper right of the notebook will display your choice, and the initial notebook cell will show the corresponding language (ObjectScript INT) in the lower right corner.
  3. Starting with a single-space indent, enter an ObjectScript command in the cell, e.g. write $zversion,!,$namespace,!,$job,! and click the Execute Cell button on the left. The output from the command will appear below the cell.

Tip: If you forget to start the line with a space it won't be syntax-colored correctly but it will still execute.

  1. Cells can contain more than one line of code, so the above example could be rewritten as:
 write $zversion,!
 write $namespace,!
 write $job,!

Next Steps

  • Create another .ipynb notebook, select the same Jupyter server, then pick the IRIS SQL kernel. Use cells to run SQL statements, for example:
SELECT 123 AS One, 456 AS Two
  • In another notebook choose the IRIS Python kernel and run some Python code inside IRIS ('IRIS Embedded Python'), for example:
print('Hello world')
  • Try the Polyglot IRIS kernel. Begin each cell with a 'magic' line to indicate what language you are scripting in:
    • %%objectscript
    • %%python
    • %%sql

Note: Cells of a Polyglot IRIS notebook are not language-aware, so they lack syntax coloring, completions etc. The so-called 'cell magics' tell the server-side code executor class which language to run, but the Jupyter notebook extension is not currently able to use them to vary the cell language in the editor.

Use With objectscript.conn

If you already use the objectscript.conn settings object to connect VS Code to your IRIS server, you can reference that connection definition in your Jupyter Server URL.

  • Enter http://localhost:50773/:?token=1 to connect to the namespace set in the ns property of your objectscript.conn settings object.
  • Enter http://localhost:50773/:namespace?token=1 to connect to a different namespace.

Your objectscript.conn must have one of the following formats:

  • { "active": true, "host": "xxx", "port": nn, "username": "uuu", "password": "***", "ns": "YYY" }
  • { "active": true, "server": "xxx", "ns": "YYY" }

The first format requires a password to be stored as plaintext. The second format avoids this risk by leveraging Server Manager's secure credential storage.

Both formats may optionally specify "https": true.

Other Resources

The Jupyter PowerToys extension adds a Kernels view to a dedicated Jupyter view container. Access this from its activity bar icon to explore remote servers, kernelspecs and active kernels (sessions).

Known Issues

  1. The InterSystems IRIS Node Native API connectivity we use operates only in synchronous mode. Consequently the output from a long-running cell does not stream, so you have to wait for all the work to complete before you see any results for the cell.
  2. The Jupyter Server proxy launched by the extension always listens on port 50773.

Feedback

Initial development of this extension by George James Software was sponsored by InterSystems.

Please open issues at https://github.com/intersystems-community/vscode-iris-jupyter-server/issues

The InterSystems Developer Community is also a good place for discussion.