MxBuild

1 Introduction

MxBuild is a Windows and Linux command-line tool that can be used to build a Mendix Deployment Package from a Mendix Project.

The version of MxBuild which you need is dependent on the version of the Mendix model you want to build. You can find the correct MxBuild download at a link with the format https://cdn.mendix.com/runtime/mxbuild-{mxversion}.tar.gz.

So, MxBuild for Mendix 7.18.1 is found at https://cdn.mendix.com/runtime/mxbuild-7.18.1.40272.tar.gz.

You can extract the files using your favorite archival tool, such as 7-Zip.

The system requirements for MxBuild are documented here: System Requirements.

2 Command Line

To build your package, you specify the Mendix Project file (.mpr) for which you want to build the deployment package (.mda) on the command-line. The file name may be preceded by a relative or absolute path. The project file should be located inside a Mendix project directory.

MxBuild takes a number of command-line options which control how the Mendix project is processed. These options precede the name of the project file.

In Windows, use the following format for the command line:

MxBuild --java-home="JDKDirectory" --java-exe-path="javaExecutable" [options] projectFile

You can also run MxBuild under Linux using the following command line format:

mono mxbuild.exe --java-home="JDKDirectory" --java-exe-path="javaExecutable" [options] projectFile

After creating the deployment package, the MxBuild process quits.

2.1 General Command-Line Options

2.2 Options When Creating a Package

For example, to create a deployment package out.mda in the current directory using the app MyApp using the Windows version of MxBuild, you could use the command:

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mxbuild --target=package --java-home="C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_144" --java-exe-path="C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_144\bin\java.exe" "C:\Users\username\Documents\Mendix\MyApp\MyApp.mpr"

3 Return Code

When MxBuild exits, one of the following codes will be returned:

If the exit code is larger than 0, MxBuild will also output a message describing the error.

4 Project Errors

When your Mendix project contains errors, deployment will fail and MxBuild will report these errors. You can use the --write-errors=FILENAME command-line option to tell MxBuild to write the errors to a file.

The errors are output as a JSON object that has one property: problems. The value of this property is an array of objects that each describe one error, warning, or deprecation in your project. For example:

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{
  "problems": [
    {
      "name": null,
      "severity": "Error",
      "message": "Start event cannot be the last object of a flow.",
      "locations": [
        {
          "elementId": "252e1008-d795-4e49-b3e3-2ba38eb0a56d",
          "unitId": "1a8a3593-6f01-43a3-bc22-bd22f9244983",
          "element": "Start event",
          "document": "Microflow 'MyMicroflow'",
          "module": "MyModule"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

The following table describes the various properties of the problems JSON object:

The location(s) associated with the problem have the following properties: