Mendix World, the largest low-code event on the planet, was held online in 2020. This event gives makers a first glimpse at a whole range of new features that Mendix has in the works. This year during the executive keynote, the most-watched session of the event, Johan announced plans to launch a massive improvement to the Mendix mobile offering, branded Mendix Mobile 2.0. Even more mobile features were unveiled during the keynote and follow-up sessions. I thought it might be helpful to have a complete list of all of the new features that were announced this year.
New mobile features coming in Mendix 9:
The percentage of apps that are accessed via a mobile device keeps growing every year. That means that your app needs to look good on a mobile screen and integrate with device capabilities if you want to stay relevant. With support for native mobile apps (powered by React Native), Mendix has opened the door for business-to-consumer applications thanks to the beautiful UI and deep device integration.
However, if your app does not need a lot of device integration, Mendix will now support progressive web apps. Think of this is an intermediate between a responsive web site and a native app. PWAs have some of the features of native apps, most importantly offline capability, but take much less time to build. Offline apps rely heavily on nanoflows, so the new nanoflow debugger will be a great help there.
Trends in UI design are similar to fashion trends in that they get outdated pretty quickly. That’s why the new UI framework will bring a nice fresh look to every app without any effort from the dev side. Switching between light/dark theme is also something many users are requesting, and it’s great to see Mendix adding a built-in option for that.
Last but not least, to make the lives of all app builders easier, Mendix is introducing a brand new GUI packager that is part of the modeler. This packager is much simpler to use than the command line tool and offers extensive customization to fit everyone’s use-case. Mendix will also be offering built-in over-the-air updates so your native app stays up to date with the latest model without you having to release a new version to the app store. These updates will come with a host of improvements to versioning and backwards compatibility.
I hope this post gives you a good overview of all the new features that have been announced.
To learn more, check the individual session recaps