1 Introduction
Mendix Data Hub enables integration of available data sources from the different applications in an organization into your Mendix apps. This means that new apps can be created using shared datasets that are registered in the Data Hub Catalog. In Studio Pro, this is possible using the integrated functionality of Data Hub Catalog through the Data Hub pane.
The Data Hub pane enables you to search the Data Hub Catalog and discover the data sources available for your organization. Via this pane you can add the entities that are exposed in the OData services registered in the Data Hub Catalog into your app’s domain model customer where they are known as external entities. These external entities provide access to the data associated with the entities which can be utilized in your app.
Click View > Data Hub to display the Data Hub pane:
2 Data Hub Pane in the Domain Model
In the domain model, the Data Hub pane is used to search the Data Hub Catalog for services and entities that can be dragged and used:
The following functionality is available in the pane:
- Search – Enter a search string of alphanumeric characters to find a service, entity, or attribute in the Data Hub Catalog. Entities can be dragged from the search results into your domain model as external entities.
- Filter – By default, the search will search for services in production environments. Click the Filter icon to include non-production environments in the search.
- Search results – The items satisfying the search string will show the service name, service version, environment that the service was deployed to, and the entities in the service. Services and the entities that are currently being used in the current domain model are indicated with a green check-mark in the search results. You can drag entities from the search results into the domain model and use them as a data source for your app project.
When no search string has been specified, the Project pane displays the consumed services and the external entities used in the current project:
To add entities to your project model, see Adding an External Entity to a Project.
3 Searching the Data Hub Catalog
As you enter a search term, all the items in the Data Hub Catalog satisfying the search string are listed in the search results. You can do a wildcard search by entering * in the search area.
The search strings must be a minimum of 3 alphanumeric characters. Punctuation cannot be used as part of the search term except for the * character to perform a wildcard search in the Data Hub Catalog. For further details, see How to Search for Registered Assets.
By default, the search is restricted to apps and services deployed to a production environment. To include non-production environments in the search, click the Filter icon and check Show development environments:
When the development environments setting is checked, all subsequent searches will include search in non-production environments.
4 Viewing Search Results
For all items satisfying the search string, the following information is displayed:
Service name
An icon indicating the source of the service (Mendix, SAP, Siemens Teamcenter, or other non-Mendix apps)
Service version
The name of the environment that the service is deployed to (for non-production environments)
By default, search results will show deployments to production environments which will not be named in the search results. Only the names of non-production environments will be displayed.Green check-mark if the service or entity is already consumed by the project
Blue Update Service icon to indicate that there is a later version of the consumed service available in the Data Hub. Click to update the service that is consumed in the project to the contract that is now available:
If there is an OData Service update available, then the entities that are listed are those that are available in the currently consumed OData service. These entities will be “grayed-out” to indicate that they can no longer be dragged into the domain model as the originial contract is no longer available in the Data Hub Catalog and a different version of the consumed OData service must be retrieved using the Update button. Once the service has been Updated then the entities will be available from the new version of the Consumed OData service.
- Information icon to view further information on the service and to go directly to the Service Details screen in the Data Hub Catalog:
4.1 Selected Consumed Service
If you right-click a consumed service, you can do the following:
- View in Data Hub Catalog – click this to go to the Service Details page in the Data Hub Catalog
- Go to connection settings – click this to open the consumed OData service document
4.2 Selected Entity
If you right-click an entity in the search results and select View in Data Hub Catalog, it will take you to the entity details page in the Data Hub Catalog.
If you right-click a consumed entity and Go to entity, the domain model will be opened.