Mendix Feedback

Last modified: November 19, 2024

Introduction

The Mendix Feedback module allows end-users of your application to directly submit feedback into your app. The module contains a feedback widget along with the pages and necessary flows and a couple of examples. The feedback module is fully integrated with the Feedback page for your app in Apps, where you can review feedback and convert it into user stories to improve your app.

The Mendix Feedback module is easy to set up and automatically attaches additional information to each submitted issue such as the user’s name, role, active form, browser version, and screen resolution.

Typical Usage Scenario

Typically, feedback module usage has the following flow:

  • An end-user creates feedback through the feedback button
  • The end-user, optionally, creates a screenshot and annotates it before sending the feedback
  • The app maker receives the feedback in App Insights
  • The app maker processes the feedback, connecting with the end-user if they need more information
  • The app maker creates a story from the feedback if the feedback is accepted – they can also move or delete the feedback

Features

  • Screenshots annotation
  • Gathers detailed information about the client state

Limitations

  • This module is compatible with Studio Pro 9.18.6 or higher.
  • Atlas Core is required to apply the styling.
  • In native mobile apps, some of the feedback metadata such as username, email address, and document name will be hard-coded, as they cannot be retrieved dynamically (to address this you can use the Native Feedback widget instead, located in Native Mobile Resources).

Installation

You should install the latest version of the Mendix Feedback module, as it will provide the most up-to-date features for leaving feedback and communicating with the team. To ensure you have the latest version of the module included in your app, follow the instructions in How to Use Marketplace Content to import the latest version of the module into your app.

Usage

Adding the Feedback Widget to Your App

  1. Configure the User roles in the App Security for the Feedback module. Add the module role ‘user’ to each user role that needs access to the feedback option.

  2. In the Toolbox, find the Feedback widget in the Feedback category.

  3. Drop the Feedback widget into a position in the layout:

  4. Configure the Feedback widget.

Configuring the Feedback Widget

To configure the Feedback widget, double-click it to open the Edit Feedback dialog box. To use the feedback feature, configure the following properties:

  • Configuration tab

    • Model pop-up type – This controls what happens once you click the Feedback button. By default, it opens the Share Feedback page. If you select Custom, you can select a different On click action.

    • App ID – This is the unique identifier of your app. You can find it in your app’s General Settings in Apps.

    • Show advanced settings – The advanced settings control html2canvas, a backup screen capture tool the Mendix Feedback widget uses when the default browser screenshot tool fails. By default, this is set to No. If you select Yes, the following items appear:

      • Enable object rendering – By default, this is set to No. Only select Yes, when you experience problems with creating screenshots. Then it will enable the foreignObjectRendering method which helps rendering complex HTML, including styles, SVGs, and embedded elements.
      • CSS scrollable area– If your app does not use the default scrolling behavior in Studio Pro, the screenshot feature may not work correctly. You can add a CSS selector here to specify which element on your page scrolls the content.
  • Customize Button tab
    • Feedback and screenshot button labels – These are the labels for the buttons on the feedback form. You can change the captions for those button here.
    • Feedback Button Styling – This controls how the Feedback button is rendered. There are three options:
      • Side Tab – If this option is selected, the Feedback button hovers vertically at the right side of the screen. This is the default option.
      • Button – If this option is selected, the Feedback button shows as a horizontal button on the location the widget is set
      • Do not render – If this option is selected, the Feedback button does not show. You can still trigger the feedback flow through a custom button action.
    • Show in Design mode – If it is set to Yes, the Feedback button is shown in Design mode.

Customizing the Feedback Module

You can modify the feedback module. Here are a couple of examples of what is possible.

Edit the Styling of the Feedback Page

To edit the styling of the feedback page, you can add the necessary styling to the page ShareFeedback. You can find an example in the examples folder, where a custom logo is added to our feedback page. It is not possible to modify the annotation tool.

Connect to Another Feedback Service

You can connect the Feedback module to another service.

To do this, you set your own API call inside the microflow SUB_Feedback_SendToServer. Depending on the service, you may need to modify the payload. If you want to use your own server, you can find information on the payload we send in our API documentation.

Submitting Feedback on an App

When you click the Feedback icon, the Mendix Platform first checks if you are signed in. If you are not signed in, you will need to enter email address to continue as an Anonymous User to submit the feedback:

Click Enter Screenshot Mode to take a screenshot of your page or choose Upload From Computer to upload a selected image.

After clicking Submit, your feedback will go straight to the Feedback page of the app in Apps. Once you see the final page, you have successfully submitted your feedback.

Upgrading the Deprecated Feedback Widget to the Feedback Module

To update the deprecated Feedback widget to the Feedback module, download the latest version of the Mendix Feedback Module from the Marketplace. It will replace the deprecated feedback widget in your folder. You can encounter the following error:

When this happens, right-click the error message, and choose Update widget or Update all widgets. Then the name of the widget is changed to Feedback. The updated widget is ready for use.

If you are using MendixSSO3 for authentication, after upgrading to the module you can choose to continue using your microflow to configure the MendixSSO authentication or include and use the DS_GetCurrentIdToken microflow from the FeedbackModule folder.

Troubleshooting

Updating App ID on the Project Tab

The value of the App ID on the Project tab will be changed to your correct app ID automatically from the original value 1.

If it did not change to your app ID because of an unexpected error, you can update the app ID manually. You can find the app ID in your app’s Settings in Apps.

Feedback Item Does Not Show in Apps

If you cannot see your feedback items on the Feedback page after opening your app in Apps, it is possible that you have configured a wrong App ID or Feedback server location. Check if all the configurations are filled in per the Configuring the Feedback Widget section above.

Widget Cannot Be Read

If you see the following error, click close and then remove the duplicate old widget from your app’s folder ‘/widgets’. Look for ‘SprintrFeedbackWidget.mpk’.

Feedback Button isn’t visible in Design Mode / Hiding the Feedback Button

After you add the Feedback widget to a page of your app in Studio Pro, you can hide or show the Feedback button in Design mode.

To hide the Feedback button, do as follows:

  1. Double-click the Feedback button to open the Edit Feedback dialog box.
  2. Go to the Customize button tab.
  3. Set Show in Design mode to No.
  4. Click OK to save the change.

To show the Feedback button, do as follows:

  1. For Windows users, find the Feedback widget in the Structure mode. For Mac users (who do not have the Structure mode), go to the Page Explorer and find the Feedback widget.
  2. Double-click the widget to open the Edit Feedback dialog box.
  3. Go to the Customize button tab.
  4. Set Show in Design mode to Yes.
  5. Click OK to save the change.

Legacy Feedback Widget Docs

Introduction

The Mendix Feedback widget allows end-users of your application to directly submit feedback into your app. The feedback widget is fully integrated with the Feedback page in Apps, where you can review feedback and convert it into user stories to improve your app.

The Mendix Feedback widget is easy to set up and automatically attaches additional information to each submitted issue such as the user’s name, role, active form, browser version, and screen resolution.

Typical Usage Scenario

  • Gathers feedback from end-users in an acceptance or production environment
  • Reduces the length of the feedback loop

Features

  • Gathers detailed information about the client state

Limitations

  • This widget can only be used in combination with Mendix apps
  • In native mobile apps, some of the feedback metadata such as username, email address, and document name will be hard-coded, as they cannot be retrieved dynamically (to address this you can use the Native Feedback widget instead, located in Native Mobile Resources)

Configuration

You can configure the widget for certain actions in your app. All the configuration properties are explained on the various tabs of the properties dialog box for the widget. The feedback feature requires the following properties to be set:

  • Project tab

    • App ID – the unique identifier of your app, which you can find in your app’s Settings in Appsl

      Allow screenshots – controls whether the app user can take a screenshot or not

  • Advanced tab

    • Feedback server location – the URL of the feedback server (usually https://feedback-api.mendix.com), which you should only change when you are using a different environment
    • Screenshot Foreign Rendering
      • No (default)
      • Yes – only used when the page includes sensitive information

  • Authentication tab

    • MendixSSO – if Mendix SSO is applied and the following settings are configured correctly, the end-user can leave feedback without having to enter their name and email address

      • ID token microflow – recommended that you select the DS_GetCurrentIdToken microflow from the Mendix SSO module.
      • Decrypted Token Value – recommended that you select the Value attribute from it (the default if Value in the MendixSSO module).

      See the screenshot below for an example:

    • Custom Authentication – if you are using an SSO solution other than the Mendix SSO module, you should configure the following settings. With these settings, you can provide a microflow that should return a valid username and email when the end-user is signed in with your authentication solution. If the end-user is not signed in (meaning the User Object Provider microflow returns an empty username or an invalid email address) the end-user will have to manually enter their name and email address when they leave feedback.

      • User object microflow – selects the microflow that returns User entity from your module
      • User object – selects the User entity
      • User name attribute– selects the attribute of name from the User entity
      • Email attribute – selects the attribute of email from the User entity

      See the screenshot below for an example:

Usage

Adding the Widget to Your app

You should use the latest version of the Mendix Feedback widget, as it will provide the most up-to-date features for leaving feedback and communicating with the team. To ensure you have the latest version of the widget included in your app, follow these steps:

  1. Download the latest version of the Mendix Feedback widget from the Marketplace. You are strongly encouraged to use version 8.6.0 or above of the widget.
  2. When the widget is included in your app, ensure that it is added to all the layouts used in the application.

Submitting Feedback on an App

When you click the Feedback icon, the Mendix Platform first checks if you are signed in. If you are not signed in, you will need to either Sign in to Mendix or Continue as a guest to enter feedback mode:

Once you are in feedback mode, you can click anywhere on the screen to leave a comment:

And voila! A screenshot of the current page is created, which you can choose to attach to your feedback. After clicking Submit, your feedback will go straight to the Feedback page of the app in Apps.

When you have left your feedback, you need to exit the feedback mode by clicking Exit Feedback Mode:

Upgrading the Widget

To upgrade your Mendix Feedback widget, follow the instructions in Using Marketplace Content. You can encounter the following error:

When this happens, right-click the error message, and choose Update widget or Update all widgets. Then the name of the widget is changed to Feedback. The updated widget is ready for use.

Troubleshooting

Updating App ID on the Project Tab

The value of the App ID on the Project tab will be changed to your correct app ID automatically from the original value 1.

If it did not change to your app ID because of an unexpected error, you can update the app ID manually. You can find the app ID in your app’s Settings in Apps.

Page Does Not Scroll in the Screenshot Image

The Feedback widget uses the HTML2Canvas library which attempts to make an image of a web page based on the content currently loaded on the page. Since HTML2Canvas tries to repaint the current content, it can make mistakes while doing so. There are two solutions for the issue:

  • Turn off Screenshot foreign rendering
  • Change the CSS selector for a scrollable container - Some variations are difficult to spot for HTML2Canvas. This sometimes causes the image to render incorrectly. Fixing this requires significant CSS, HTML, and JS knowledge, but it is possible to fill in a CSS selector that will determine where the scrolling is happening.

Feedback Item Does Not Show in Apps

If you cannot see your feedback items on the Feedback page after opening your app in Apps, it is possible that you have configured a wrong App ID or Feedback server location. Check if all the configurations are filled in per the Configuration section above.

Creating a New Microflow to Retrieve DecryptedToken

⚠ In MendixSSO 3, the Microflow DS_GetCurrentIdToken is deprecated. You will need to create a new microflow in your own module to retrieve the DecryptedToken. Place SUB_GetDecryptedTokenByTypeForCurrentSession in this new microflow, and then use it in MendixSS authentication:

The tokenType argument is MendixSSO.TokenType.ID_TOKEN:

Widget Cannot Be Read

If you see the following error, click close and then go to your widget folder to remove the duplicate old widget.