Reference Tracking

The cross-reference tracking system powers the callers, callees, references, and impact analysis queries. It is built during REFRESH CATALOG FULL and stored in the REFS table.

How References Are Collected

During a full catalog refresh, every document is analyzed for outgoing references:

Document Type	Reference Sources
Microflows	CALL MICROFLOW actions, RETRIEVE data sources, entity parameters, SHOW PAGE actions, association traversals
Nanoflows	Same as microflows (client-side)
Pages	Data source entities, microflow data sources, SHOW_PAGE actions, association paths, snippet calls
Snippets	Same as pages
Domain Models	Generalization references, association endpoints

Each reference is stored as a row in the REFS table:

INSERT INTO REFS (SourceName, SourceKind, TargetName, TargetKind, RefKind)
VALUES ('Sales.ProcessOrder', 'Microflow', 'Sales.Customer', 'Entity', 'Retrieve');

Query Commands

SHOW CALLERS

Find what calls a given element:

SHOW CALLERS OF Sales.ProcessOrder;

Returns all microflows, nanoflows, and pages that reference Sales.ProcessOrder.

Transitive callers follow the call chain recursively:

SHOW CALLERS OF Sales.ProcessOrder TRANSITIVE;

SHOW CALLEES

Find what a microflow calls:

SHOW CALLEES OF Sales.ProcessOrder;

Returns all microflows, entities, and pages referenced by Sales.ProcessOrder.

SHOW REFERENCES

Find all references to an element:

SHOW REFERENCES TO Sales.Customer;

Returns every document that references Sales.Customer in any way (data source, parameter, association, etc.).

SHOW IMPACT

Analyze the impact of changing an element:

SHOW IMPACT OF Sales.Customer;

Returns all direct and transitive dependents – everything that would potentially be affected by changing or removing the element.

SHOW CONTEXT

Assemble context for understanding a document:

SHOW CONTEXT OF Sales.ProcessOrder DEPTH 3;

Returns the element itself plus its callers and callees up to the specified depth, providing a focused view of the element’s neighborhood in the dependency graph.

CLI Commands

The same queries are available as CLI subcommands:

# Direct callers
mxcli callers -p app.mpr Sales.ProcessOrder

# Transitive callers
mxcli callers -p app.mpr Sales.ProcessOrder --transitive

# Callees
mxcli callees -p app.mpr Sales.ProcessOrder

# All references
mxcli refs -p app.mpr Sales.Customer

# Impact analysis
mxcli impact -p app.mpr Sales.Customer

# Context assembly
mxcli context -p app.mpr Sales.ProcessOrder --depth 3

Reference Kinds

The RefKind column in the REFS table categorizes the relationship:

RefKind	Meaning
`Call`	Microflow/nanoflow call action
`Retrieve`	Database retrieve with entity data source
`DataSource`	Page/widget data source reference
`ShowPage`	Show page action
`Parameter`	Microflow parameter type reference
`Association`	Association traversal
`Generalization`	Entity generalization (inheritance)
`SnippetCall`	Snippet embedded in a page
`Enumeration`	Enumeration type reference

Implementation

The reference tracker is implemented in the catalog package (mdl/catalog/catalog.go). It:

Parses each document’s BSON structure
Extracts all qualified name references
Classifies each reference by kind
Inserts into the REFS table with source/target/kind

Transitive queries use recursive SQL CTEs (Common Table Expressions) to follow reference chains.

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