wsgi-to-zpm

Generate InterSystems ZPM/IPM module.xml from an existing WSGI project.

wsgi-to-zpm was created to help quickly create (or modify) an InterSystems ZPM/IPM module.xml for an existing Python WSGI web application. This allows you to easily publish/distribute WSGI apps to InterSystems IRIS instances using zpm.

InterSystems Developer Tools Contest 2025

wsgi-to-zpm was originally created/published for the InterSystems Developer Tools Contest 2025.

Description

ZPM/IPM makes it very easy to install and configure various software and packages for InterSystems IRIS instances. The module.xml file is used to configure a ZPM package for distribution (See the ZPM Wiki). wsgi-to-zpm can be used to either quickly generate a module.xml or modify an existing module.xml to include any Python WSGI web applications it finds in your current directory.

Prerequisites

• IRIS 2024.1+ (for WSGI Web Application support)
• Python 3 installed on the system

Installation

Install via pipx:

pipx install wsgi-to-zpm

Usage

Assume you have a directory with the following Flask app:

/home/user/Projects/my-wsgi-app
├── my-webapp/
│   ├── myapp.py
│   ├── templates/
│   │   ├── hello.html
│   └── static/
│       └── style.css
└── requirements.txt

To generate a module.xml, run wsgi-to-zpm:

Depending on your responses, something like the following lines will be added to a module.xml:

<Export generator="Cache" version="25">
  <Document name="my-webapp.ZPM">
    <Module>
    ...
      <FileCopy Name="my-webapp/" Target="${cspDir}my-webapp"/>

      <WebApplication Url="/my-webapp"
        AutheEnabled="32"
        Description=""
        MatchRoles=":${globalsDbRole}"
        NameSpace="${ns}"
        WSGIAppLocation="${cspDir}my-webapp"
        WSGIAppName="myapp"
        WSGICallable="app"
        DispatchClass="%SYS.Python.WSGI"/>
    ...
    </Module>
  </Document>
</Export>

Installing Your WSGI App Via ZPM

Demo Setup

Note: If you would like to try out this process from a Docker image, follow these steps:

git clone https://github.com/intersystems-community/intersystems-iris-dev-template.git
cd intersystems-iris-dev-template
docker compose up -d

Once the Docker image is up and running, you can copy the my-wsgi-app directory to intersystems-iris-dev-template/ and log into the Docker container with bash.

# From intersystems-iris-dev-template directory
cp -r ~/Project/my-wsgi-app ./

# Connect to the Docker container to run ZPM
docker exec -it intersystems-iris-dev-template-iris-1 bash

Running ZPM

Now that you have a module.xml, you are able to load this WSGI app as a zpm package.

irisowner@bea89444b155:~/dev$ iris terminal IRIS

Node: bea89444b155, Instance: IRIS

USER>zn "IRISAPP"

IRISAPP>zpm

=============================================================================
|| Welcome to the Package Manager Shell (ZPM). Version:                    ||
|| Enter q/quit to exit the shell. Enter ?/help to view available commands ||
|| Current registry https://pm.community.intersystems.com                  ||
=============================================================================
zpm:IRISAPP>load ~/dev/my-wsgi-app

[IRISAPP|my-webapp]	Reload START (/home/irisowner/dev/my-wsgi-app/)
[IRISAPP|my-webapp]	requirements.txt START
[IRISAPP|my-webapp]	requirements.txt SUCCESS
[IRISAPP|my-webapp]	Reload SUCCESS
[my-webapp]	Module object refreshed.
[IRISAPP|my-webapp]	Validate START
[IRISAPP|my-webapp]	Validate SUCCESS
[IRISAPP|my-webapp]	Compile START
[IRISAPP|my-webapp]	Compile SUCCESS
[IRISAPP|my-webapp]	Activate START
[IRISAPP|my-webapp]	Configure START
[IRISAPP|my-webapp]	Configure SUCCESS
[IRISAPP|my-webapp]	Activate SUCCESS
zpm:IRISAPP>

Visiting the URL http://[host]:[port]/my-webapp/ will now serve your WSGI app: