Introduce a RetrieveOrCreate Microflow action

5

Currently, a common Mendix best practice involves creating a sub-microflow to retreive an object by a certain key (or attribute) and return it or create it if it doesn't exist and return it.

This pattern appears repeatedly in many applications, adding extra steps and microflows to maintain. And often for developers that are relatively new to Mendix, you can even see a duplication of Microflow code as the Retrieve and Create actions both return a different variable name and if not handled through a sub-microflow the logic is duplicated.

 

Proposal:

Add a dedicated "RetrieveOrCreate" action to the Microflow Toolbox.

This action would:

1. Attempt to retrieve an object using a specified key or attribute
2. Automatically create a new object if none is found
3. Return a single variable containing the Retrieved or just Created object

 

Why this matters:

• Simplicity improvement: It reduces the need for boilerplate sub-microflows
• Maintainability: Centralizes logic in a single action, lowering complexity and error chances and reducing the need for sub-microflows 
• Speed: Keeps development fast and aligns with the low-code principal of minimal manual steps.

 

By providing a native RetriveOrCreate action, Mendix devs can build apps more efficiently while reducing repetitive tasks.

 

And if possible, provide it for Nanoflows too.

 

Please vote for this feature if you like it, thanks!

asked 2025-01-29

1 answers