MDL coverage gaps found while building a complete connector end to end (8 items)

[Chendodelangen]

Summary

We built a complete Mendix connector module end to end with mxcli (19 entities, 77 microflows, 7 pages, 6 import mappings, a dispatcher and scheduled events) and kept a list of everything that still had to be done by hand in Studio Pro. Eight gaps remained at the end. They are filed together because individually they are small, but as a list they describe what "a module built entirely from MDL" currently cannot cover.

All eight verified absent on v0.17.0 (windows/amd64, Studio Pro 11.12.2, MPR v2): none appear in mxcli syntax list, and the grammar probes below are parse errors.

The list

• 1. Scheduled events. No MDL surface at all. A connector that synchronises on a schedule cannot be finished from a script; the two scheduled events in our module are hand-made. CREATE SCHEDULED EVENT MyModule.SE_X CALL MyModule.MF; → parse error.
• 2. Tab container. mxcli syntax page.widgets lists layoutgrid / container / data widgets / inputs / actions / display, but no tab container. Our "one tab per synchronised table" page is Studio Pro handwork.
• 3. Show message activity. Microflow MDL has validation feedback but no show-message. A user-facing "this table is already synchronising" notice currently has to be a log line or handwork.
• 4. Row buttons in a datagrid. Buttons can only be written above the grid, so a per-row action (the natural place for "synchronise this row") is handwork.
• 5. Microflow annotations. Not writable (v0.17 rejects a standalone annotation deliberately). Our house style puts a story reference and any deviation on every operation flow; those now live in log messages and script comments instead.
• 6. Expose as microflow action + microflow documentation. EXPOSED AS exists only for Java actions, and there is no ALTER MICROFLOW ... SET Documentation. Connector operations that should show up in the toolbox cannot be marked as such. Probes: ALTER MICROFLOW M.F SET Documentation = 'x'; and ... SET ExposedAsMicroflowAction = true; → parse errors.
• 7. Folders for mappings and data transformers. No FOLDER clause on import/export mappings, and MOVE does not accept them (nor JSON structures — see the separate DROP FOLDER issue). A conventional folder layout therefore cannot be reproduced from a script. CREATE OR MODIFY IMPORT MAPPING M.X FOLDER 'Y' ... → parse error.
• 8. Domain-model comment sections. The coloured section boxes that most house styles require around functional blocks of a domain model have no MDL syntax; only entity @Position is writable.

Why these eight

They are the difference between "the model is complete" and "the model is complete except for a handover document". We ended up maintaining a handwerk-studio-pro.md alongside the build scripts precisely for this list, and every item on it is a place where a re-run of the scripts cannot restore the module to its finished state.

Priority from our side, if that helps triage: 1 (scheduled events) and 7 (folders) are the two that break reproducibility of a module; 5 and 6 matter for convention compliance; 2, 3, 4 and 8 are cosmetic but visible to end users or reviewers.

Happy to split any of these into separate issues if that suits your workflow better.