In the View of Many
I’m a big Matrix movie fan. In the first film one of the characters, Cypher when looking at the Matrix code says “The image translators work for the construct program“. That’s always stuck in my mind when I get stuck into deep Microflow and Entity modelling.
In an on-going project we had to put logic inside Microflows that accesses a fairly big number of Entity models. It’s easy to get confused when faced with that perceptual complexity. Furthermore it can be tedious to tab between the Microflow and Entity model to visually reference things unless you know the 3 points below:
1. Dragging Screens
Mendix allows you to drag screens into a custom view. That means that you can have a setup where you can see 2 Microflows (or a Microflows and an Entity model) on the same screen. This setup allows you to visually see things on a single screen that you normally would have to tab to.
To set this up simply click on the Microflow tab heading you want to see in parallel and drag the Microflow. The below dialogue should immediately display. Just place the Microflow in the screen hemisphere you’d like to see it in.
Creating a Secondary View
That will result in the view below, allowing you to see both the Entity model and the Microflow in a single screen.
View of the Microflow and Entity Model
2. F11
The above setup can lead to screen real-estate issues. As posted in a previous post F11 is the answer here. It strips away all the other windows leaving on the Microflow pane in full screen mode. Exactly what you need when zoning in on more than 1 Microflow at a time.
3. Control-G
Visually removing all other sections on the screen, especially the Project Explorer means that finding some Microflows or Entities can seem tougher. Also covered in a previous post Control G brings up a dialogue allowing you to quickly search for the Microflow you need next.
By sharing screen real-estate between more than 1 Microflow we were able to complete our complex tasks quicker.
Mendix and beyond 