DESCRIBE WORKFLOW round-trip: missing activity configs and noisy comments

[engalar]

Summary

DESCRIBE WORKFLOW output is incomplete and contains non-executable comments, making it impossible to use DESCRIBE output as input for a round-trip (describe → exec → check cycle).

Discovered by reading all workflows from a baseline project with SHOW WORKFLOWS / DESCRIBE WORKFLOW.

Problems Found

1. End-of-path activities rendered as noisy comments

-- [Workflows$EndOfParallelSplitPathActivity] End of parallel split path
-- [Workflows$EndOfBoundaryEventPathActivity] End of boundary path

These are Mendix-internal activities and should be silently skipped in DESCRIBE output (like StartWorkflowActivity and EndWorkflowActivity already are).

2. Activity annotations rendered with noisy prefix

-- [Annotation] I am a note

Should be emitted as a plain comment: -- I am a note

3. WAIT FOR TIMER missing delay expression

-- Before (broken):
WAIT FOR TIMER;

-- After (correct):
WAIT FOR TIMER 'addDays([%CurrentDateTime%], 1)';

Root cause: parser was reading DelayExpression BSON field instead of the correct Delay field.

4. Boundary event timer missing duration

-- Before (broken):
NonInterruptingTimer -- AnTimerEvent

-- After (correct):
NonInterruptingTimer TIMER 'addDays([%CurrentDateTime%], 1)' -- AnTimerEvent

Root cause: parser was reading DelayExpression instead of FirstExecutionTime.

5. USER TASK outcomes showed empty string

-- Before (broken):
OUTCOMES
  '' { };

-- After (correct):
OUTCOMES
  'Approved' { };

Root cause: parser was not reading the Value field of UserTaskOutcome.

6. USER TASK missing page

-- Before (broken):
USER TASK rtTask1 'Approve'
  OUTCOMES ...

-- After (correct):
USER TASK rtTask1 'Approve'
  PAGE Module.TaskPage
  OUTCOMES ...

Root cause: parser was not handling the nested Workflows$PageReference object structure.

7. BoundaryEvents array marker wrong

BSON writer was using int32(3) for BoundaryEvents, but the correct marker is int32(2).

Verified Fix

Round-trip test after fixes — mx check: 0 errors:

CREATE WORKFLOW WorkflowBaseline.RoundtripTestWF
  PARAMETER $WorkflowContext: WorkflowBaseline.Entity
BEGIN
  USER TASK rtTask1 'Approve'
    PAGE WorkflowBaseline.Page
    OUTCOMES
      'Approved' { }
      'Rejected' { };

  PARALLEL SPLIT
    PATH 1 { WAIT FOR TIMER 'addDays([%CurrentDateTime%], 7)'; }
    PATH 2 { WAIT FOR TIMER 'addDays([%CurrentDateTime%], 1)'; };

  DECISION '$WorkflowContext/Attribute = ''done'''
    OUTCOMES
      True -> { }
      False -> { WAIT FOR TIMER 'addDays([%CurrentDateTime%], 3)'; };
END WORKFLOW

DESCRIBE output matches input exactly for all tested features.

Remaining Limitations

• WAIT FOR NOTIFICATION — no MDL syntax for notification target entity
• Standalone canvas Annotations — writer does not support creating them via MDL
• USER TASK DueDate / UserTargeting — parsed but not yet emitted by DESCRIBE