Considering using Mendix - Employee Directory

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  I am considering using Mendix and wanted to start with the Employee Dircectory. I am an ex-developer (but have not forgotten everything) and use similar tools (for instance, WIX has a similar interface). Some questions: I want to try out the employee Directory. I currently have the “free” version. Can I deploy and use this single app with a “free” account? I am trying to get this app to work. I am on Windows 10. This particular example does not appear to work with the latest tool? 8.3? I then used version 7 and can get it to work but the demo IDs do not work? Assuming I can get the demo IDs to work, how do I make the deployment available so that some customers can test?   I had really hoped I could download the tool, import this example, and have some users try it out right away. But that does not seem to be the case? I watched the videos but this does not address the user issue. If this is an aproved example, should it not be trivial to get it to work? I am sure I am doing something stupid but I had hoped it would be trivial to deploy this example to show to some users. Thanks for any tips to get to that point. Dave  
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2 answers
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  • Yes. It has a few drawbacks, the biggest two being sleep mode and NoScheduledEvents;
  1. the sleep mode is the mode that your app gets into when it has not been used for a couple of hours. Upon the first re-use, it will be waking up for about 20 seconds or so.
  2. the free version does not start Scheduled events. The reason is the possible sleep mode that it is in when a certain scheduled event needs to run.
    • Both these drawbacks can be worked around having some scheduled proces calling the app, therefor keeping it awake and by publishing a rest call, which triggers the scheduling, and externally calling that service 30 seconds later.
  • The employee App is built over a year ago and Mendix develops quickly. To get this APp to run in version 8.3.0 you have to take a few steps. First download and open a version of Mendix modeler 7.23.0, open the project which makes it upgrade the project to that version. Then open it in version 8.3.0 and the project will get upgraded, now to 8.3.0. I just did so, ran into having to convert an attribute-type from deprecated float to decimal and imported AtlasUI, removed HybridPhone stuff, just Phone is enough, Project->Tools->update widgets. Replaced the deprecated Googlemaps from projectdir\widgets by the Mx v8 version. Removed Java action CalculateGeo, which was giving a java-compilation error. Still 2 errors caused by deprecated Appcloudservices, replaced this with MendixSSO, replaced the deprecated Administration module with the V8 version. There you go! It is running locally.
  • I also pressed “Run”, so it should be in the cloud available shortly at https://employeedirectory8-sandbox.mxapps.io/index.html?profile=Responsive. Still a couple of things to improve, like latitude and longitude not yet correctly implemented with the GoogleMaps and the AtlaUI not yet correctly upgraded from the 7.3 version. Feel free to look around, log in, download it etc.. Log in with Donovan, nQhcVcEvKp or as administrator Harrison, kDk96f8sHS

Gone through all this trouble I would advise you to not use EmployeeApp, but anohter more recent demo, like the Asset Manager. This will get you and your collegues enthousiast more easy.

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Tim,

Thanks for taking the time to answer and to tweak the app for 8.3.

The organization I am trying to help is looking for a free solution and a solution for an employee directory. Is there a reason you would not recomend using this? It seems to do exactly what we would need if I can get the issues you mention above sorted?

It is not a business so a 20 second delay, while less than ideal, might be acceptable.

If you have another idea for a free user directory – basically functionality like this – I am open to it.

Thans again!

Dave

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