Browse Integration Services and Contracts

This skill covers discovering external services, browsing cached contracts, and querying integration assets via the MDL CATALOG (local project metadata).

⚠️ NOTE: This covers the MDL CATALOG keyword (SELECT ... FROM CATALOG.entities), NOT the Mendix Catalog CLI (mxcli catalog search). See .claude/skills/mendix/catalog-search for the external service registry.

When to Use This Skill

• User asks what external services are configured in the project
• User wants to see available entities or actions from an OData service
• User wants to browse a business event contract (AsyncAPI)
• User asks about integration catalog tables
• User wants to find entities available in a contract but not yet imported

Discovery: List All Services

-- All OData clients (consumed services)
show odata clients;

-- All published OData services
show odata services;

-- All consumed REST services
show rest clients;

-- All published REST services
show published rest services;

-- All business event services
show business event services;

-- All database connections
show database connections;

-- All external entities (imported from OData)
show external entities;

-- All external actions used in microflows
show external actions;

Contract Browsing: OData $metadata

create odata client auto-fetches and caches the $metadata XML from HTTP(S) URLs or reads it from local files. Browse it without network access:

Note: MetadataUrl supports:

• https://... or http://... — fetches from HTTP endpoint
• file:///abs/path — reads from local absolute path
• ./path or path/file.xml — reads from local relative path (resolved against .mpr directory)

Local metadata files enable offline development, reproducible testing, and version-pinned contracts. create odata client auto-fetches and caches the $metadata XML. Browse it without network access:

-- List all entity types from the contract
show contract entities from MyModule.SalesforceAPI;

-- List actions/functions
show contract actions from MyModule.SalesforceAPI;

-- Inspect a specific entity (properties, keys, navigation)
describe contract entity MyModule.SalesforceAPI.PurchaseOrder;

-- Generate a CREATE EXTERNAL ENTITY statement from the contract
describe contract entity MyModule.SalesforceAPI.PurchaseOrder format mdl;

-- Inspect an action's signature
describe contract action MyModule.SalesforceAPI.CreateOrder;

Contract Browsing: AsyncAPI (Business Events)

Business event client services cache the AsyncAPI YAML:

-- List channels
show contract channels from MyModule.ShopEventsClient;

-- List messages with payload info
show contract messages from MyModule.ShopEventsClient;

-- Inspect a message's payload properties
describe contract message MyModule.ShopEventsClient.OrderChangedEvent;

Catalog Queries (requires REFRESH CATALOG)

refresh catalog;

-- All contract entities across all OData clients
select ServiceQualifiedName, EntityName, EntitySetName, PropertyCount, Summary
from CATALOG.CONTRACT_ENTITIES;

-- All contract actions
select ServiceQualifiedName, ActionName, ParameterCount, ReturnType
from CATALOG.CONTRACT_ACTIONS;

-- All contract messages
select ServiceQualifiedName, MessageName, ChannelName, OperationType, PropertyCount
from CATALOG.CONTRACT_MESSAGES;

-- Find available entities NOT YET imported
select ce.EntityName, ce.ServiceQualifiedName, ce.PropertyCount
from CATALOG.CONTRACT_ENTITIES ce
left join CATALOG.EXTERNAL_ENTITIES ee
  on ce.ServiceQualifiedName = ee.ServiceName and ce.EntityName = ee.RemoteName
where ee.Id IS null;

-- All REST operations across all consumed services
select ServiceQualifiedName, HttpMethod, path, Name
from CATALOG.REST_OPERATIONS
ORDER by ServiceQualifiedName, path;

-- Cross-cutting: all integration services in a module
select ObjectType, QualifiedName
from CATALOG.OBJECTS
where ObjectType in ('ODATA_CLIENT', 'REST_CLIENT', 'ODATA_SERVICE',
  'PUBLISHED_REST_SERVICE', 'BUSINESS_EVENT_SERVICE', 'DATABASE_CONNECTION')
and ModuleName = 'Integration';

Workflow: Import Entities from a Contract

Bulk import (all or filtered)

-- Import all entity types at once
create external entities from MyModule.SalesforceAPI;

-- Import into a different module
create external entities from MyModule.SalesforceAPI into Integration;

-- Import only specific entities
create external entities from MyModule.SalesforceAPI entities (PurchaseOrder, Supplier);

-- Idempotent re-import (updates existing)
create or modify external entities from MyModule.SalesforceAPI;

Single entity (with customization)

1. Browse available entities:

   show contract entities from MyModule.SalesforceAPI;
   

2. Inspect the entity you want:

   describe contract entity MyModule.SalesforceAPI.PurchaseOrder;
   

3. Generate the CREATE statement:

   describe contract entity MyModule.SalesforceAPI.PurchaseOrder format mdl;
   

4. Copy, customize (remove unwanted attributes), and execute:

   create external entity MyModule.PurchaseOrder
   from odata client MyModule.SalesforceAPI (
       EntitySet: 'PurchaseOrders',
       RemoteName: 'PurchaseOrder',
       Countable: Yes
   )
   (
       Number: long,
       status: string(200),
       SupplierName: string(200),
       GrossAmount: decimal
   );