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Blog Post
January 20, 2024

How to build Better Mendix Applications: 3 recommendations

Get insights on building high-performance and sustainable Mendix applications, with guidelines from Mendix Best Practices.

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Maria Barcelos

mendix 10 1 year aniniversary best features

Table of contents

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1. App Security
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2. Folder organization
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3. User Experience

Mendix platform stands out as a solution that brings speed, flexibility, and agility when developing software and digital solutions. It also bridges the gap between Business and IT teams, as no other platform on the market. 

However, understanding how to use the platform and take advantage of its capabilities in the best way is essential to build sustainable and quality applications.

In this blog post, we point out some of the top recommendations for building better Mendix applications, with suggestions from the Mendix platform itself. These best practices ensure the success of your applications and contribute to their longevity and adaptability.

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1. App Security

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As an application expands in functionality, its potential for containing exploitable logic that could be targeted by attackers also grows. These vulnerabilities can also be discovered over time. That is why maintaining a high level of app hygiene is essential to minimize the risk of having a vulnerable application.

According to Mendix's own best practices for optimal app hygiene, you should follow these recommendations in app development:

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  • Eliminate unused modules, widgets, and Java libraries;
  • Delete any redundant microflows (Mendix AI Assistants can be helpful);
  • Try and avoid the usage of components with known vulnerabilities, that aren’t on Mendix Marketplace.

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Access is an important part of app security.

Even though the roles can vary between different applications, there are some general recommendations when considering user security:

  • Turning off anonymous access if it's not needed for the app;
  • Roles that control other user roles should be very strict;

The app's administrator user (usually MxAdmin by default) should only be able to create actual administrative accounts.

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2. Folder organization

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It might seem trivial to think of organizing folders, but once your application is finished, it is usually handed over to other stakeholders, and so its organization needs to be clear for others to understand what you did and how to maintain it or even improve it. 

Having a clear structure for folders and following the naming conventions improves the maintainability of your application, so you, other collaborators, or whoever comes after can easily navigate through it, without wasting time, making sure the Mendix fast development capability can be leveraged.

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Check out this video from Mendix, giving a hands-on example of folder organization best practices:

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Remember: the Mendix platform is only as fast and time-saving as you allow it to be. Giving thought to how you structure your process and organize your app development saves you time in the future, and you won’t need to redo components or waste time finding lost documents.

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3. User Experience

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We know that UX Design is a very important element of the success of any application. Although UX Designers have mastery of what makes an application accessible, teamwork is important, and having a few guidelines in mind during the application development process helps maintain productivity and effectiveness (plus, saves you from having to make plenty of adjustments).

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These are, according to Mendix, a few best practices for developers to keep in mind regarding user experience: 

  • Only use drop-down menus as a last resort to present options to the end user;
  • Give every page a header: the user needs to know where they are within your app;
  • When the end-user has to perform multiple steps, show the steps: this guides expectations;
  • Do not place a pop-up window in another pop-up window: this distracts the user and makes them lose track of the structure;
  • When a page is more than one level deep, give it a breadcrumb: help users retrace their steps.

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As we navigate the ever-evolving landscape of application development, Mendix stands as a beacon of innovation, but harnessing its true potential requires more than just understanding its capabilities—it demands a commitment to best practices that ensure the longevity and adaptability of your applications.

These are 3 of our recommendations, but there are many other best practices to be adopted. Feel free to share with us the others you feel are most important.

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Bonus tip: check out this video on how to create a Mendix application in just 5 minutes, with a tutorial by our Managing Parter, Daniel Costa:

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