Hi Folks,
Okay, the title probably sounds a bit strange at first. Let me start with a bit of background!
Background:
- If you have been developing in Mendix for a while, you have probably already encountered situations where you need to create specific 'configuration' data in the running application (e.g. email templates, Excel templates, basic part of email account), but in your development time at your local environment. During the normal operation (i.e. BAU time), the application already refers to these as “built-in” data that must be provided in the application deployment time. (That is, they must be created/uploaded in each environment, either manually or via specially developed automatic feature.)
- On the one hand, these data are similar to the application’s operational data (i.e. entity dataelement); on the other hand, due to their purpose, they are considered as the integral part of the application’s "source code", since the business logic always assumes their existence. The implementation of the corresponding data models (entities) is solved. However, the data values - designed/created this way during your implementation time - exist only in your local environment. Though they can be made part of the "source code" and pushed to the repository, this always requires additional effort (e.g. exporting templates). This is rather inconvenient and inducing further errors (e.g. forgetting to export a modified template).
Proposed solution / idea:
- During implementation, it should be possible to mark an entity as a “built-in” type. The data created for such entities should be managed together with the source code (saved/loaded from the application, pushed/pulled to/from the repository). Due to their nature, such data should, of course, be editable only in a local runtime (creation, modification, deletion).
- By means of this robust feature/approach, the export/import functionalities, that currently need to be handled (developed, maintained, and used) in each local/remote environments, could be replaced generally.
Hope I could describe the problem/solution in a clear way. Please vote if you get it and find useful.
Thanks,
Istvan