Custom widgets in Mendix

With the low-code approach in Mendix, developing applications has become quite simple. Various building blocks are available in the software to assemble an application. The building blocks for laying out a page are called widgets. Think of things like buttons and form fields. When your application's needs go beyond the available widgets, you can use other widgets. You can, for example, download these custom widgets, or 'pluggable widgets', from the Mendix Marketplace. They're published there by Mendix and other parties for free use. And what's great is that it's also possible to build your own custom widgets! Senior Consultant Laurens Offereins has built a few of them and tells you more about them in this blog.

Custom widgets from E-mergo

At E-mergo we use self-built custom widgets for various projects. The widgets are especially powerful when they're developed for a not-too-specific purpose. This means the widgets can be used well across multiple projects. Of these custom widgets, we've published three in the Mendix Marketplace so anyone can use them:

Form Field Info Tooltip

Use the Form Field Info Tooltip widget to add an icon with contextual information in a tooltip next to a form field. The icon is shown right next to the input field, so it fits neatly into a form's layout. In the widget's configuration, you can choose, among other things, which icon is shown and how and in which direction the tooltip becomes visible.

Sortable List Input

Use the Sortable List Input widget to use a form field in which the user can sort various values with drag and drop. The sortable values are selected from an object in the domain model. The result of the sorting is stored as a list in the selected attribute, just like with any other form field.

Actions Dropdown Menu

Use the Actions Dropdown Menu widget to use a dropdown menu that can contain multiple menu items and actions. For each menu item you can configure the dynamic label, conditional visibility, style, and the action to perform. It's also possible to create submenus. These combinations of options in a single menu aren't possible in Mendix by default.

Building your own custom widget

If you have a situation of your own where a custom widget could help, the Mendix Marketplace offers a large collection to search through. Didn't find what you're looking for? With the help of Mendix's documentation, it's also possible to get started yourself. Mendix also helps you start development with the Mendix Pluggable Widget Generator tool. If you also have the necessary knowledge of web development and the React framework, a lot is possible in terms of developing new functionality for your application. You can determine the configuration elements of your widget yourself, and with the help of external React libraries you can build almost anything you can think of.

Should it not work out, or would you rather not do it yourself, at E-mergo we have the knowledge to help you develop a custom widget. And if you have other needs for quickly and reliably building an application, you can always turn to E-mergo's low-code team.

Written by Laurens Offereins
Senior Consultant