Custom widgets in Mendix

With the low-code approach in Mendix, developing applications has become fairly easy. The software offers various building blocks for putting an application together. The building blocks used to set up a page are called widgets. Think of buttons and form fields. When the requirements for your application go beyond the available widgets, it is possible to use other widgets. These custom widgets, or 'pluggable widgets', can for example be downloaded from the Mendix Marketplace. They have been published there by Mendix and other parties for anyone to use freely. And the nice thing is, you can also build custom widgets yourself! Senior Consultant Laurens Offereins has developed a number 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 in various projects. The widgets are extra powerful when they are developed for a purpose that is not too specific, which makes them easy to use in multiple projects. We have published three of these custom widgets in the Mendix Marketplace so that anyone can use them:

Form Field Info Tooltip

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

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 an enumeration 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 set the dynamic label, the conditional visibility, the style and the action to execute. It is also possible to create submenus. The combination of these options in a single menu is not possible by default in Mendix.

Building a custom widget yourself

If you have a situation where a custom widget could help, the Mendix Marketplace offers a large collection to search through. Didn't find what you are looking for? With the help of the Mendix documentation, you can also 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 when 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.

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