Marketplace - Jonaath/EmergingTechnologiesMendix GitHub Wiki

1. Introduction

Context and Definition

The Mendix Marketplace is the official ecosystem of prebuilt components, widgets, and connectors for the application. It allows the community to exchange ready-to-use resources.

How to Access the Marketplace

Simply open a project in Mendix Studio Pro and click the “MarketPlace” icon located at the top right of your profile.

2. General Overview of the Mendix Marketplace

2.1 Component Catalog

The Mendix Marketplace offers a wide range of ready-to-use components for various application layers:

  • UI Widgets: Visual controls (buttons, charts, forms, etc.) that facilitate creating user interfaces.

  • Functional Modules: Packages that include business or technical logic (user management, external service integration, data processing).

  • API Connectors: Bridges that easily link a Mendix application to services such as CRM, ERP, or online payment systems.

  • Templates and Themes: Starter kits to harmonize UI/UX design and save time on implementation.

  • AI Integrations: Mendix provides opportunities to integrate artificial intelligence—enabling chatbots, image recognition, predictive analytics, and more.

    For example, OpenAI Connector can be used to harness advanced text generation and conversation capabilities within the Mendix application, powered by OpenAI’s NLP technology.

By leveraging these components, developers can focus on specific business needs while reusing proven building blocks for general technical aspects.

2.2 Marketplace Organization

In Mendix Studio Pro, you can apply various filters to streamline your searches:

  1. Search Bar
    A field where you can type a keyword (e.g., “Excel,” “Chatbot”) to directly filter the results.

  2. All Content Types
    Select the type of resource (widgets, modules, connectors, etc.). For example, you can display only widgets or only connectors.

    • All Content / My Company Content / Platform Supported Content
      • All Content: Shows all components available on the Marketplace, regardless of origin.
      • My Company Content: Restricts the search to resources internal to your organization—a useful way to share proprietary modules with your team.
      • Platform Supported Content: Filters items officially supported by the Mendix platform, ensuring maintenance and compatibility.

  3. All Categories
    Filter by functional domain (Data, AI, Connectors, etc.). Ideal for finding modules specific to a particular use case.

Each component has a descriptive sheet (features, compatibility, publisher) and user ratings (scores, comments) to help you choose more easily.

3. Example of Adding a Component – The Community Commons Module

A very popular module on the Marketplace is Community Commons. It is a library of ready-to-use Java functions and actions that you can call directly from your microflows. These actions can be used in many situations, such as date, file, and string manipulation, as well as conversions and encryption operations.

Installing from the Marketplace

  1. In the search bar, type “Community Commons”.
  2. Select the “Community Commons” module, then click “Download”.
  1. Once the installation is complete, you will find a “CommunityCommons” folder in your Project Explorer.

Usage and Benefits

  • Ready-to-Use Java Actions: Instead of coding certain functions manually, you simply call the actions (e.g., objectToJson, decryptString, etc.) from a microflow.
  • Frequent Updates: The community regularly maintains and enhances this module, making it reliable in the long run.

Using the monthsBetween Action from Community Commons in Mendix

This section explains how to calculate the difference, in months, between two dates using the monthsBetween Java action from the Community Commons module, and display the result in a message.

1. Creating a Test Microflow

  1. Open your project in Mendix Studio Pro.
  2. In the Project Explorer (left panel), right-click on your target module, then select Add > Microflow.
  3. Name this microflow (e.g., TestMonthsBetween) and confirm.

2. Defining Two Reference Dates

We will create two DateTime variables in the microflow:

  1. Drag a Create variable block from the Palette (right panel) into your microflow.
  2. Double-click the block to open the configuration:

    • Variable name: StartDate

    • Variable type: Date and time

    • Variable value:

      parseDateTime('2023-01-01','yyyy-MM-dd')

      This instruction creates a date corresponding to January 1, 2023.

  3. Repeat the process to create a second Create variable block:

    • Variable name: EndDate

    • Variable type: Date and time

    • Variable value:

      parseDateTime('2023-03-01','yyyy-MM-dd')

      Here, the date is March 1, 2023.

3. Calling the monthsBetween Action

  1. Add an Action block (from the Palette) after your two variables.
  2. Double-click it to configure.
  3. From the list of activities, select Call Java Action.
  4. Click Select... in the Java action section, then navigate to CommunityCommons > DateTime.
  5. Select the monthsBetween action.
  6. For Date1, enter $StartDate; for Date2, enter $EndDate.
  7. In the Output section, set Use return value to Yes and provide a variable name like $MonthsDifference.
  8. Click OK.

4. Displaying the Result to the User

To show the number of months between your two dates:

  1. Insert a Show message block after the “Call Java Action” block.

  2. Double-click on it to configure the displayed text.

  3. In the Template field, here's an example message:

    'You can see here the difference between the two dates: ' + $MonthsDifference

  4. This is the final outcome once the microflow executes.

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