Mendix Release 10.17 – Global Reach, Sharper Tools

Studio Pro

Hello World, こんにちは世界, 你好世界, 안녕하세요 세상

Studio Pro is now available in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean! As a new public beta feature, it is now possible to change the language of Studio Pro from the preferences, after which the interface of Studio Pro will change to your selected language. This allows developers to better understand the meaning of different actions in Studio Pro, enabling them to go make it! Choose the language of your preference from the “work environment” tab in the preferences.

Support tools

In the support tools menu under Help, we’ve added a new functionality where you can provide more information about an issue you are encountering. This way, Mendix support can help you better resolve Studio Pro problems. It is now also possible to change the log level of Studio Pro on the fly, which will help give more insights into what is happening, so we can provide more helpful assistance. Additionally, we have also added an option to enable a simple progress dialog, which can help with the overall stability of Studio Pro.

Optional parameters in microflow and nanoflow

At Mendix, we empower you to create robust application logic using microflows and nanoflows. These tools are integral to our platform and are widely utilized in applications and shared modules. However, we understand that updating logic that is reused, like in shared modules, can be challenging, especially while maintaining backward compatibility.

With the release of Mendix 10.17, we’re simplifying this process by introducing optional parameters for both nanoflows and microflows. Now, you can specify whether each parameter is required or optional and set default values as needed. This enhancement will significantly ease the task of creating and updating reusable logic, and will make it easy to create more backwards-compatible changes.

Index in Loops

Loops in Mendix provide a powerful way to repeat processes or apply them to each object in a list. When working with loops, it’s often useful to track how many times the loop has run. Traditionally, this was achieved by creating a new variable and incrementing it with each iteration.

With our latest release, you can now access the current index anywhere inside a loop via the new variable $currentIndex. On the first run, it will be zero, and on subsequent runs, it will increment accordingly. We believe this convenient feature will save you time!

Updated Access Rules Editor in public beta

Ensuring your applications remain secure often hinges on effectively managing access rules, though this task can sometimes feel cumbersome. At Mendix, we’re dedicated to simplifying every aspect of our platform, including access rights.

With the release of version 10.6, we introduced a beta version of our new access rules editor. Your feedback and support have been invaluable—thank you! In this latest update, we’ve incorporated much of your input to enhance the editor further. We’re excited to announce that this improved editor will soon become the default. Give it a try today!

Updated native mobile libraries

At Mendix, we harness the power of several open-source projects to build robust native mobile apps. These projects are crucial as they provide much of the core functionality you depend on. Keeping these projects up to date is essential for maintaining security, performance, and compatibility with the latest operating systems.

With the release of Mendix 10.17, we are updating React Native to 0.75.4 and several key open-source components. You can find a list of updated libraries and versions in our release notes. We believe these enhancements will make your apps faster and more efficient.

Data grid 2 – loading indicator

The latest Data widgets update introduces a loading indicator feature to provide visual cues during data grid loading. You have the option to choose between a skeleton loader or a loading spinner, enhancing the user experience by clearly indicating when data is being loaded.

Version control: Git migration without history

Scrum masters now have a new option in the self-service SVN-to-Git migration: start fresh with a clean repository. This approach converts only the latest commit on the main branch to Git, allowing you to pick up right where you left off. Since no history is migrated from SVN, the new repository is much smaller, ensuring the fastest experience.

Rest assured, your SVN history isn’t lost. After the migration, you’ll receive a complete SVN backup for auditability purposes. We’ve also eased migration restrictions further. The only remaining condition is that .mpr files must be under 400MB.

Migrating without history is now an option for all SVN projects. For larger repositories over 3.5GB, migrating without history is the only available path. Start your streamlined migration today!

Integration and connectors

Interactive REST client

The new interactive REST client is now fully supported for production apps. This release also includes some new features: in this new iteration, you can dynamically configure your request’s base URL from a microflow activity. This makes it easier to tailor requests for different environments.

We also made some usability and UX improvements to make your life easier when working with REST calls. You can now duplicate a request, which saves you time by reusing existing setups instead of starting every request from scratch. Adding and modifying request headers and parameters also just got easier with the new UI.

Mendix Data Loader for Snowflake: Multiple data sources

There is now the option to configure multiple Mendix data sources, which allows you to set up data ingestions for your entire Mendix application landscape using just one instance of the Mendix Data Loader. This provides a central hub to view and manage all Mendix data ingestions into your Snowflake account.

Additionally, you can now create multiple tasks per data source for scheduling ingestion jobs, enabling more complex ingestion schedules when necessary. We improved logging and error handling, making it easier to troubleshoot potential issues, and have refreshed the interface to provide better guidance through the various steps.

AI – Smart Apps

Prompting like a pro

While large language models have been trained on vast amounts of data, AI-augmented apps usually cover specific use cases. You can now learn how to tailor the model output to your needs and improve response accuracy without the need for fine-tuning in two new consecutive blog posts on prompt engineering. To first get an overview of prompt engineering, Part 1 introduces prompt types, best practices, and five common prompt techniques. After this introduction, Part 2 will take you deeper into tree-of-thought prompting and offer a more hands-on approach so you’re ready to create your own prompts. If you are now wondering how to test your prompts – get started with our GenAI starter apps (for example the AI Bot Starter App) and stay tuned for the next release updates!

Portfolio Management

Link Jira epics to Initiatives

You can now connect Jira projects to your portfolios, assign Jira epics to portfolio initiatives, and track progress seamlessly. You can also see completed epics and identify at-risk initiatives. Everything is centralized, making it simpler to manage your initiatives.

Private Cloud

Reduced downtime

Mendix Operator 2.20 introduces a smarter approach to managing app restarts at deployment, ensuring they occur only when absolutely necessary. This Operator enhancement is designed to minimize downtime and maintain optimal performance for your applications. App restarts are now triggered exclusively in critical scenarios: when adding Marketplace modules that include persistent entities, updating the object model within the app or its Marketplace modules, and upgrading to a newer Mendix version. By focusing on these key instances, Mendix Operator 2.20 ensures that your app remains stable and operational, reducing unnecessary service interruptions and enhancing the overall user experience. Further details can be found here.

Enhanced control: Sorting app environments in the Private Cloud Portal

In the Private Cloud Portal, you can now sort the sequence of app environments directly from the overview page. This feature gives you greater control over how the environments are displayed on the screen, allowing for a more organized and efficient workflow.

Governance

Platform Extensions with SSO using the OIDC Provider module

The latest version of the OIDC Provider module can be used as a building block for partners or customers who want to build platform extensions that securely consume external services. The main improvements support token refresh and dynamic port numbers.

Since its 10.12 release, Mendix Studio Pro is an extensible IDE that allows you to build extensions to connect with other external tools. These external tools, or Extension Applications, offer services for platform extensions to consume, often as web applications with user interfaces and a set of “extension services” that provide web applications and APIs. With your extension, Studio Pro acts as a client that consumes these extension services. In this architecture, implementing a security mechanism for accessing the Extension Application is essential. Using OAuth/OpenID Connect (OIDC) SSO and OAuth Access Tokens is the current best practice for securing this access.

If you are building your Extension Application as a Mendix app, you can use the OIDC Provider module to allow platform users to log in to your Extension Application, get OAuth Access Tokens, and use these tokens to access web APIs provided by your Mendix Extension Services. Since the OIDC protocol requires a static URI for your IDE extension, you can set this URI using the Static URI API (available from Mendix 10.16 onward).

Automate your testing with Mendix Pipelines!

We released the Unit Test step for Mendix Pipelines! The Unit Testing module can perform regression testing on an environment in which a new deployment package has been deployed. This step executes the Unit Testing module in a running environment, for example, after building and deploying a new commit on a non-production environment, before promoting the app to production.

If any unit test fails, the pipeline will be marked as failed, with the run details and output parameters showing the failure count and relevant information.

To support the Unit Test step, we introduced user-defined variables that can be reused in your pipelines. These user-defined variables can be used to easily reference values such as API Keys, third-party tool app IDs, and more.

Find your way faster in the Control Center

The Control Center is now your one-stop destination for everything related to your application landscape. With a range of exciting new features added over the past few months, we’ve streamlined the menu to help you find exactly what you need. We’ve reorganized the menu items into intuitive categories.

We’ve made it even easier to manage your applications with the addition of a powerful search feature to the Apps Overview. Now, finding the exact app you need—whether by App ID or Name—is quick and effortless.

Previously, locating an app could be a challenge if you didn’t know the deployment type. With our new search functionality, you can instantly locate any app, no matter where it’s deployed, and get the details you need.

Discover how these improvements make managing your apps simpler, more efficient, and faster than ever before.

Are you ready to start your next app?

• Download Mendix Studio Pro.
• Take a closer look at all the features, improvements, fixes, and more in the Mendix 10.17 release notes.
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