This has been bothering me a little bit; %Dictionary.* should really be a last-resort option, in my opinion, and it isn't easy to use it to get the full picture from an SQL perspective.

Here are some alternative/possibly-better solutions, using %SQL.StatementMetadata and INFORMATION_SCHEMA. It looks like INFORMATION_SCHEMA is more exactly what you were looking for, if you're running on a recent enough Caché version (2015.1+). I haven't been able to find documentation on it other than the class reference, though.

/// NOTE: It could be good to validate pTableName to avoid SQL injection. (Outside the scope of this demo.)
/// This works pre-2015.1 (since %SQL.Statement was introduced - maybe 2012.2+?)
ClassMethod GetTableColumns(pTableName As %String) As %List
{
    #dim tResult As %SQL.StatementResult
    #dim tMetadata As %SQL.StatementMetadata
    Set tStmt = ##class(%SQL.Statement).%New()
    $$$ThrowOnError(tStmt.%Prepare("select top 0 * from "_pTableName))
    Set tResult = tStmt.%Execute(), tMetadata = tResult.%GetMetadata()
    Set tCols = ""
    For i=1:1:tMetadata.columnCount {
        Set tCols = tCols_$ListBuild(tMetadata.columns.GetAt(i).colName)
    }
    Quit tCols
}

/// This will only work on 2015.1+; INFORMATION_SCHEMA is a new feature. For more information, see the class reference for it in the documentation.
ClassMethod GetTableColumnsNew(pTableName As %String) As %List
{
    #dim tResult As %SQL.StatementResult
    Set tStmt = ##class(%SQL.Statement).%New()
    Set tSchema = $Piece(pTableName,".")
    Set tTableName = $Piece(pTableName,".",2)
    $$$ThrowOnError(tStmt.%Prepare("select COLUMN_NAME from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS where TABLE_SCHEMA = ? and TABLE_NAME = ?"))
    Set tResult = tStmt.%Execute(tSchema,tTableName)
    Set tCols = ""
    While tResult.%Next(.tSC) {
        Set tCols = tCols_$ListBuild(tResult.%Get("COLUMN_NAME"))
    }
    $$$ThrowOnError(tSC)
    Quit tCols
}

Using this:

SAMPLES>set cols = ##class(Demo.TableColumns).GetTableColumns("Sample.Person")
SAMPLES>w $lts(cols)
ID,Age,DOB,FavoriteColors,Name,SSN,Spouse,Home_City,Home_State,Home_Street,Home_Zip,Office_City,Office_State,Office_Street,Office_Zip
SAMPLES>set cols = ##class(Demo.TableColumns).GetTableColumnsNew("Sample.Person")
SAMPLES>w $lts(cols)                                                            ID,Age,DOB,FavoriteColors,Name,SSN,Spouse,Home_City,Home_State,Home_Street,Home_Zip,Office_City,Office_State,Office_Street,Office_Zip

In various posts, you've talked about having an implementation tool that is run from the browser, and you've also talked about running it from terminal. Here's a design that would be well-suited to both:

* Settings that apply to the whole thing are properties of an object (class extends %RegisteredObject)

* There's a class method (static method in other languages) to get the settings' values interactively

* There's an instance method to run the setup on an instance of the class

Include %syPrompt

Class Demo.SetupTool Extends %RegisteredObject
{

Property Type As %String(VALUELIST = ",Gateway,IHE");

Property Setting1Value As %String [ InitialExpression = "ABC" ];

Property Setting2Value As %Boolean [ InitialExpression = 1 ];

ClassMethod RunInteractive()
{
    Set tSettingsObject = ..%New()
    
    Write "Deployment Utility"
    Set options(1) = "Gateway"
    Set options(2) = "IHE"
    Do ##class(%Prompt).GetArray("Deployment Type?",.tType,.options,,,,$$$InitialDisplayMask+$$$MatchArrayMask)
    Set tSettingsObject.Type = tType
    
    Set tString = tSettingsObject.Setting1Value
    Do ##class(%Prompt).GetString("Enter a string: ",.tString)
    Set tSettingsObject.Setting1Value = tString
    
    Set tYesOrNo = tSettingsObject.Setting2Value
    Do ##class(%Prompt).GetYesNo("Is this a helpful demo? ",.tYesOrNo)
    Set tSettingsObject.Setting2Value = tYesOrNo
    
    Do tSettingsObject.DoSetup()
}

Method DoSetup()
{
    Write !,"Starting ",..Type," deployment...",!
    // Here, do things based on properties of this object.
    If '..Setting2Value {
        //Do something specific if Setting2Value is false.
        Write "Why not?",!
    }
}

}
 

Then, for example:

USER>d ##class(Demo.SetupTool).RunInteractive()
Deployment Utility
 
1) Gateway
2) IHE
 
Deployment Type? 1 Gateway
Enter a string:  ABC =>
Is this a helpful demo?  Yes => No
Starting Gateway deployment...
Why not?

Or, if you want to do the same kind of setup from a simple ZenMethod in a Zen page or something, you could set up a settings object and then call DoSetup() on it.

USER>set tSettings = ##class(Demo.SetupTool).%New()
 
USER>set tSettings.Type = "IHE"
 
USER>d tSettings.DoSetup()
 
Starting IHE deployment...

Here's some relevant documentation: http://docs.intersystems.com/cache20152/csp/docbook/DocBook.UI.Page.cls?KEY=GORIENT_ch_cos#GORIENT_cos_scope

One way to make this work as-is would be to put tstVar in the "public" list:

start
    set tstVar = "Green"
    do TestIt()
 
TestIt() [tstVar] {
    write tstVar 
}

Another would be to give the variable a name starting with a %:

start
    set %tstVar = "Green"
    do TestIt()
 
TestIt() {
    write %tstVar 
}

Look at $zconvert (abbreviated $zcvt):

http://docs.intersystems.com/cache20152/csp/docbook/DocBook.UI.Page.cls?KEY=RCOS_fzconvert

For example:

USER>w $zcvt("thisIsATest","U")
THISISATEST
USER>w $zcvt("thisIsATest","L")
thisisatest

"GOTO label" jumps to a specified label in the same context frame.

"DO label" adds a new context frame. Code at the specified label will execute until a QUIT/RETURN or the end of the routine, then execution will resume at the next line after the DO command.

So in this case it's running through the whole routine (including everything under the dataentry label, with dtype already set to something valid), including printing the message at the end. Then it proceeds to the next thing after the DO command, which is printing that line again.

For what it's worth, if you're building command-line tools, %Library.Prompt may save you a lot of time. See the class reference for more informatioan.

For example:

#include %syPrompt
    New options,dtype
    Write "Deployment Utility"
    Set options(1) = "Gateway"
    Set options(2) = "IHE"
    Do ##class(%Prompt).GetArray("Deployment Type?",.dtype,.options,,,,$$$InitialDisplayMask+$$$MatchArrayMask)
    Write !, "Starting ", dtype," deployment..."
    Quit

At a Caché level (for namespaces, databases, code, and security), %Installer may be useful; see: http://docs.intersystems.com/cache20152/csp/docbook/DocBook.UI.Page.cls?KEY=GCI_manifest

For Ensemble, there are some additional deployment-related features that might do more for you in terms of settings and lookup tables. See: http://docs.intersystems.com/ens20152/csp/docbook/DocBook.UI.Page.cls?KEY=EGDV_deploying#EGDV_deployment_overview

Another option, and a caveat about ^%SYS("SystemMode"):

It looks like you're using CCR.* "Environment" is a meaningful term in that context. In namespaces configured for CCR, you can retrieve the environment with $$Env^%buildccr, i.e.:

CCR>w $$Env^%buildccr
BASE

It is possible to have multiple namespaces on the same instance configured as different environments. ^%SYS("SystemMode") is set to the furthest-along environment (of BASE-TEST-LIVE) of any namespace on the instance. That is, if you have a namespace configured as BASE, and configure another one as TEST, ^%SYS("SystemMode") will be changed to TEST - and this is system-wide. Just something to keep in mind.

*CCR (Change Control Record) is an InterSystems in-house application used in sites where InterSystems does implementation work, so this isn't as generally relevant as ^%SYS("SystemMode").

I tend to use %INLIST $ListFromString(?) in cases like this. (Assuming that the list is something like IDs that wouldn't contain commas.)

So, in your example:

<tablePane  width="25%" id="testTable" sql="SELECT Id from Tracking_Data.Person WHERE Id %INLIST $ListFromString(?)" showQuery="true">
<parameter/>
</tablePane>
<button caption="Test" onclick="zenThis.composite.testTestTable();"/>

ClientMethod testTestTable() [ Language = javascript ]
{
  var table = zenThis.composite.getChildById("testTable");
  table.setProperty('parameters', 1, '1,2');
}

This should definitely work. Are you setting the showTabBar property to true for the nested tabGroup? If not, that might explain why nothing is showing up.