Catalog System

The catalog is an in-memory SQLite database that indexes Mendix project metadata for fast querying, full-text search, and cross-reference navigation.

Purpose

Reading a Mendix project requires parsing BSON documents from the MPR file. The catalog pre-processes this data into relational tables, enabling:

SQL queries against project metadata (SELECT ... FROM CATALOG.ENTITIES)
Full-text search across all strings and source (SEARCH 'keyword')
Cross-reference tracking (callers, callees, references, impact analysis)
Lint rule evaluation (Starlark rules query catalog tables)

Building the Catalog

The catalog is populated by the REFRESH CATALOG command:

-- Quick refresh: basic tables (modules, entities, microflows, pages, etc.)
REFRESH CATALOG;

-- Full refresh: adds cross-references, widgets, and source tables
REFRESH CATALOG FULL;

The full refresh is required for:

SHOW CALLERS / SHOW CALLEES / SHOW REFERENCES / SHOW IMPACT
SHOW WIDGETS / UPDATE WIDGETS
SELECT ... FROM CATALOG.REFS
SELECT ... FROM CATALOG.SOURCE

Querying the Catalog

Use standard SQL syntax with the CATALOG. prefix:

-- Find large microflows
SELECT Name, ActivityCount
FROM CATALOG.MICROFLOWS
WHERE ActivityCount > 10
ORDER BY ActivityCount DESC;

-- Find all entity usages
SELECT SourceName, RefKind, TargetName
FROM CATALOG.REFS
WHERE TargetName = 'MyModule.Customer';

-- Search the strings table
SELECT * FROM CATALOG.STRINGS
WHERE strings MATCH 'error'
LIMIT 10;

Available Tables

Table	Contents	Populated By
`MODULES`	Module names and IDs	`REFRESH CATALOG`
`ENTITIES`	Entity names, persistence, attribute counts	`REFRESH CATALOG`
`MICROFLOWS`	Microflow names, activity counts, parameters	`REFRESH CATALOG`
`NANOFLOWS`	Nanoflow names and metadata	`REFRESH CATALOG`
`PAGES`	Page names, layouts, URLs	`REFRESH CATALOG`
`SNIPPETS`	Snippet names	`REFRESH CATALOG`
`ENUMERATIONS`	Enumeration names and value counts	`REFRESH CATALOG`
`WORKFLOWS`	Workflow names and activity counts	`REFRESH CATALOG`
`ACTIVITIES`	Individual microflow activities	`REFRESH CATALOG FULL`
`WIDGETS`	Widget instances across all pages	`REFRESH CATALOG FULL`
`REFS`	Cross-references between documents	`REFRESH CATALOG FULL`
`PERMISSIONS`	Security permissions (entity access, microflow access)	`REFRESH CATALOG FULL`
`STRINGS`	FTS5 full-text search index	`REFRESH CATALOG FULL`
`SOURCE`	MDL source text for all documents	`REFRESH CATALOG FULL`

Implementation

The catalog is implemented in mdl/catalog/catalog.go. It:

Creates an in-memory SQLite database
Iterates all modules and documents in the project
Inserts rows into the appropriate tables
Builds FTS5 indexes for full-text search
Builds the reference graph for cross-reference queries

The catalog lives for the duration of the mxcli session and is discarded on exit.

SQLite Schema – table definitions and indexes
FTS5 Full-Text Search – how full-text search works
Reference Tracking – callers, callees, and impact analysis

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