DESCRIBE, SEARCH

While SHOW commands list elements by name, DESCRIBE gives you the full definition of a single element. SEARCH lets you find elements by keyword when you do not know the exact name.

DESCRIBE ENTITY

To see the complete definition of an entity, including its attributes, types, and constraints:

DESCRIBE ENTITY MyFirstModule.Customer;

Example output:

CREATE PERSISTENT ENTITY MyFirstModule.Customer (
  Name: String(200),
  Email: String(200),
  Phone: String(50),
  DateOfBirth: DateTime,
  IsActive: Boolean DEFAULT false
);

The output is valid MDL – you could copy it, modify it, and execute it as a CREATE OR MODIFY statement. This round-trip capability is one of the key design features of MDL.

DESCRIBE also shows associations and access rules when they exist:

DESCRIBE ENTITY MyFirstModule.Order;

CREATE PERSISTENT ENTITY MyFirstModule.Order (
  OrderNumber: AutoNumber,
  OrderDate: DateTime,
  TotalAmount: Decimal,
  Status: MyFirstModule.OrderStatus
);

CREATE ASSOCIATION MyFirstModule.Order_Customer
  FROM MyFirstModule.Order TO MyFirstModule.Customer
  TYPE Reference
  OWNER Default
  DELETE_BEHAVIOR DeleteRefSetOnly;

DESCRIBE MICROFLOW

To see the full logic of a microflow:

DESCRIBE MICROFLOW MyFirstModule.ACT_Customer_Save;

Example output:

CREATE MICROFLOW MyFirstModule.ACT_Customer_Save
  ($Customer: MyFirstModule.Customer)
  RETURNS Boolean
BEGIN
  IF $Customer/Name = empty THEN
    VALIDATION FEEDBACK $Customer/Name MESSAGE 'Name is required';
    RETURN false;
  END IF;

  COMMIT $Customer;
  RETURN true;
END;

This shows the parameters, return type, and the complete flow logic. For complex microflows, this can be quite long – but it gives you the full picture in one command.

DESCRIBE PAGE

Pages are shown as their widget tree:

DESCRIBE PAGE MyFirstModule.Customer_Edit;

Example output:

CREATE PAGE MyFirstModule.Customer_Edit
(
  Params: { $Customer: MyFirstModule.Customer },
  Title: 'Edit Customer',
  Layout: Atlas_Core.PopupLayout
)
{
  DATAVIEW dvCustomer (DataSource: $Customer) {
    TEXTBOX txtName (Label: 'Name', Attribute: Name)
    TEXTBOX txtEmail (Label: 'Email', Attribute: Email)
    TEXTBOX txtPhone (Label: 'Phone', Attribute: Phone)

    FOOTER footer1 {
      ACTIONBUTTON btnSave (Caption: 'Save', Action: SAVE_CHANGES, ButtonStyle: Primary)
      ACTIONBUTTON btnCancel (Caption: 'Cancel', Action: CANCEL_CHANGES)
    }
  }
};

DESCRIBE ENUMERATION

DESCRIBE ENUMERATION MyFirstModule.OrderStatus;

CREATE ENUMERATION MyFirstModule.OrderStatus (
  Draft 'Draft',
  Submitted 'Submitted',
  Approved 'Approved',
  Rejected 'Rejected',
  Completed 'Completed'
);

Each value is followed by its caption (the display label shown to end users).

DESCRIBE ASSOCIATION

DESCRIBE ASSOCIATION MyFirstModule.Order_Customer;

CREATE ASSOCIATION MyFirstModule.Order_Customer
  FROM MyFirstModule.Order TO MyFirstModule.Customer
  TYPE Reference
  OWNER Default
  DELETE_BEHAVIOR DeleteRefSetOnly;

Other DESCRIBE targets

The same pattern works for other element types:

DESCRIBE WORKFLOW MyFirstModule.ApprovalFlow;
DESCRIBE NANOFLOW MyFirstModule.NAV_GoToDetail;
DESCRIBE SNIPPET MyFirstModule.CustomerCard;
DESCRIBE CONSTANT MyFirstModule.ApiBaseUrl;
DESCRIBE NAVIGATION;
DESCRIBE SETTINGS;

Full-text search with SEARCH

When you do not know the exact name of an element, use SEARCH to find it by keyword. This searches across all strings in the project – entity names, attribute names, microflow logic, page captions, messages, documentation, and more.

SEARCH 'validation';

Example output:

MyFirstModule.ACT_Customer_Save (Microflow)
  "VALIDATION FEEDBACK $Customer/Name MESSAGE 'Name is required'"

MyFirstModule.ACT_Order_Validate (Microflow)
  "VALIDATION FEEDBACK $Order/OrderDate MESSAGE 'Order date cannot be in the past'"

MyFirstModule.Customer_Edit (Page)
  "Validation errors will appear here"

Search is case-insensitive and matches partial words.

Search from the command line

The CLI provides a dedicated search subcommand with formatting options:

# Search with default output
mxcli search -p app.mpr "validation"

# Show only element names (no context)
mxcli search -p app.mpr "validation" --format names

# JSON output for programmatic use
mxcli search -p app.mpr "validation" --format json

The --format names option is useful for piping into other commands:

# Find all microflows mentioning "email" and describe each one
mxcli search -p app.mpr "email" --format names | while read name; do
  mxcli -p app.mpr -c "DESCRIBE MICROFLOW $name"
done

Combining SHOW, DESCRIBE, and SEARCH

A typical exploration workflow looks like this:

1. Start broad with SHOW to see what exists:

   SHOW MODULES;
   SHOW ENTITIES IN Sales;
   

2. Zoom in with DESCRIBE on interesting elements:

   DESCRIBE ENTITY Sales.Order;
   DESCRIBE MICROFLOW Sales.ACT_Order_Process;
   

3. Search when you need to find something specific:

   SEARCH 'discount';
   

This workflow mirrors how you would explore a project in Mendix Studio Pro – browsing the project explorer, opening documents, and using Find to locate things.

Next, learn how to get a compact overview of the entire project with SHOW STRUCTURE.