Before starting with mendix, we have to understand the concept of low code development platform. Low code is a technology employed for making application development and deployment easier. It uses Graphical User Interface for program development instead of traditional programming techniques which employes programming using code. Low code development platform helps to expedite and make application development easier.
Mendix is also a low code development platform which enables us to prepare mobile and web application continuously. The application can be prepared either in web modeler or desktop modeler. Currently web modeler only supports limited functionalities so it easier to prepare application using desktop modeler which is available for download in mendix website.
Mendix mainly consists of three components:
- Domain Model
- Page
- Microflow
- Domain Model:
Domain model is the representation of database structure of mendix application being prepared. It is also called Entity Relationship diagram of E-R Diagram since it contains entities and associations between them.
They are shown as :
Here, Course, Location are called entities and Title, Description are referred as attributes. The relation between two entities connected by lines are called associations.
- Â Page:
It consists of different components for preparing pages of mendix application that is actual User Interface being displayed.
It can be view as:
Here, the table shown is data grid that will show the data in table as populated by database to user.
It can be viewed by user as:
- Â Microflow:
It is the representation of programming concepts that are implemented in mendix application. It can be simply referred to as flow charts representing flow and logic of program that is usually used instead of programming code.
They can be viewed as:
Here, the green circle denotes start start of the flow, red denotes end of the flow and the yellow arrow is called parameter that represents input to be considered. The rectangular box is called activity diagram in which here we have chosen show page as activity.
Mendix also supports use of regular expressions such as:
The expression above is used to validate email address of entity Trainee.
The database is stored to mendix cloud by default. We also can use other cloud sources like azure. The default database employed by mendix is HyperSQL Database which is a type of relational database. It also supports other database like MYSQL, Oracle.
The overall app is managed by team server whose purpose is to create new app, update existing project, managing commits. The version is managed by team server using SVN. It is also employed in task like preparing sprint, planning task and stories and getting feedback. It is generally employed to make mendix experience easier.