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Navigation in Mendix 7.4 and Above
1 Introduction
The Navigation document can be found by expanding the Project node in the Project Explorer. It defines the navigation structure of the application for users. It also allows you to set the home page of your application and to define the menu structures that can be used in menu widgets. A user’s home page can vary based on their user roles.
2 Profiles
At the heart of the navigation model in Mendix, there are seven types of profiles: Responsive, Tablet browser, Phone browser, Hybrid tablet online app, Hybrid tablet onffine app, Hybrid phone online app, and Hybrid tablet offline app. Users that access the app via a particular device type are automatically redirected to the home page of the appropriate profile based on the profile type (for details, see 3 Redirection to Profiles).
In Mendix 7.4.0, separation for Tablet and Phone has been introduced for both Hybrid Online and Hybrid Offline apps.
In Mendix 7.2.0, the Hybrid Tablet and Hybrid Phone profiles were converted to profiles of the Hybrid App or Hybrid Offline App type, based on the offline enabled option.
In Mendix 7.0.2, the Offline device profile was replaced by the Hybrid Phone profile. In addition to this, a new device profile was made available, which was called the Hybrid Tablet profile. All the settings from the Offline device profile were automatically copied to the Hybrid Phone profile.
The device type of the currently logged-in user is available in microflows as the $currentDeviceType variable. The type of this variable is the enumeration System.DeviceType, which has the values Phone, Tablet, and Desktop. You can use the $currentDeviceType variable to perform different actions based on the device type. A typical example is to show different pages based on the device type.
2.1 Responsive
Every app always has one profile of a Responsive type which cannot be deleted. This is the default profile used by a Mendix app.
2.2 Tablet Browser
All the users accessing a Mendix app from a browser on a tablet will automatically be redirected to a profile of the Tablet browser type. If no profile exists of that type, the user will be redirected to the Responsive profile.
2.3 Phone Browser
All the users accessing the Mendix app from a browser on a phone will automatically be redirected to a profile of the Phone browser type. If no profile exists of that type, the user will be redirected to the Responsive profile.
2.4 Hybrid Profiles
A Mendix app can be installed on a tablet or phone as an app by creating a PhoneGap hybrid package. Hybrid profiles can be accessed from such a PhoneGap app. Hybrid app profiles are determined by device type (phone or tablet) and by the offline accessability feature enabled (online or offline). If no profile exists with the requested combination, an error will be displayed in the app.
Hybrid offline apps are designed to allow users to continue using their Mendix app even when they have no internet connection. However, certain restrictions apply. For an overview of the ramifications of running an offline device profile, see Offline.
Four different hybrid profiles are available:
- Hybrid tablet app online
- Hybrid tablet app offline
- Hybrid phone app online
- Hybrid phone app offline
3 Redirection to Profiles
Mendix Runtime automatically redirects users to the home page of the appropriate device type based on the device they are using. This happens by examining the User-Agent string that is sent by the device. The default configuration for this redirection is as follows:
| User-Agent String Regular Expression | Device Type |
|---|---|
| Android.*Mobile|iPhone|iPod|BlackBerry | Phone |
| Android|iPad | Tablet |
| (other) | Responsive |
To configure the regular expressions used to match phone or tablet users, see Custom Settings.
It is also possible to force the client to use a specific profile by adding a profile query string parameter to the URL when visiting a Mendix application. The possible values are the names of the profiles, which are Responsive, Tablet, Phone, HybridTablet, and HybridPhone. For example:
https://myapp.mendixcloud.com/index.html?profile=Responsive