Mendix Overview and Version Support
What Is Mendix?
Mendix is a low-code development platform that encapsulates and manages many of the difficult and time-strenuous tasks for you. It allows us to focus on putting a product/solution out quickly while still allowing the developer a great deal of customization. Mendix is monolithic in nature, which means that it allows you to manage your app's own security, database, entity access, and front-end all through Mendix's IDE. As you continue along with the training, you will have a chance to experiment with many of its features.
We use Mendix for a variety of services at BYU. We work with on-campus partners to fulfill requests for features and fix bugs as they pop up. Later on in this training you will get the opportunity to practice fulfilling both of these types of requests in a test environment.
A Note About Mendix Versions:
As you go through the training you'll likely read or hear about different Mendix versions. Like other apps or languages, Mendix is continually receiving enhancements and updates. Each update or version change to Mendix will require you to install a new version of Mendix Studio Pro (Mendix's IDE). If you're a student working at the ITB you'll need to either open the Software Center app on your computer to download one of the approved versions of Studio Pro. In the event that you need to download or use a specific version of Studio Pro that isn't available in Software Center you should visit the Mendix website (https://marketplace.mendix.com/link/studiopro) and download the specific version you're looking for. After you've downloaded it, contact the campus CSRs to get admin permissions and run the setup file. You may have to do this repeatedly throughout your time at OIT. This is a non-issue for full-time employees.
MTS / LTS:
The newest version of Mendix you can download will always be a beta branch. Beta branches are subject to bugs and may have security problems. Mendix regularly comes out with versions called MTS (Medium-Term Support) or LTS (Long-Term Support) releases. MTS versions release about 6 months after a major update is made. These versions are stable compared to other versions and should be used when LTS releases aren't realistic. LTS versions of Mendix release right before a big version upgrade. They're regarded as the most stable versions and should be used for apps that are in production or apps that need to be as stable and secure as possible.