In the previous blog post, I tried to explore ideas and questions that help me determine how to correct or establish a good domain model. In this second part, I'm writing about the process of implementing those changes as compared to traditional application development.
Fixing your Mendix Domain model - part 1
In the past month, I've been asked to help other Mendix developers with what I'm seeing as a very common problem: Domain models. What is occurring is that the developers build their models, begin to create their pages and forms, and inevitably hit a wall where they can't quite get the attributes on their pages to align, associate, or a number of other issues. Worse yet are those applications that have been in production for a while that require a redesign in order to accommodate a new feature. In this post I'm going to explore how I troubleshoot and help correct designs.
Published in the BI Journal
This week has been quite eventful. I welcomed my new son into the world and got published in TDWI's BI Journal, a quarterly publication of BI experts sharing knowledge and advice about best Business Intelligence practices. It was a lengthy process but I'm very proud of the accomplishment.
If you are a premium member of The Data Warehouse Institute, you can check it out here.
Display line breaks in your Mendix strings
I was asked the following question recently:
Do you know if it is possible to use a new-line character when creating an attribute in Mendix? I've created an attribute that I would like to display as such:
Attribute Name
Entry 1
Entry 2
Entry 3
...
Where each Entry is generated via a loop. I've tried every new-line character combination and trick I know and can find on the internet ( '\n', '\\n', 'newline', hard coding the return, hard coding the return with a character in the first and last slot, hard coding spaces, etc.). All of the questions about this topic that I've run into on the Mendix forums have claimed that '\n' or '\\n' work but these do not work for me. I ran into one question on the forums (whichI can't seem to find now) where someone asked the exact question I have and also said that none of the answers he received worked.
The good news is that I can help. I, too, struggled with this topic early on in my Mendix development. I'm sure I read many of the same forum posts this individual did as well as I recognize the proposed solutions. Here's how I deal with line breaks in my Mendix strings.
Expand your Mendix app to other departments
This week I tackled a pretty common issue with all successful apps: Enable use across more than the one group it was developed. When an application solves a business problem, the users tend to tell their peers about it. Suddenly, those peers realize they have a similar business problem and they want in on the solution. In this blog, I'll discuss the various factors that need to be considered when transitioning a single-purpose app into a multi-purpose one.