The road to a Mendix MVP

Colleague Coen Spinhoven was recently named Mendix MVP, in part because of his contribution to the Mendix community with the development of the Bizzomate DevTool. With this free suite of tools, Mendix developers get faster insight into their application, its performance and key security settings. This recognition is awarded to the most engaged, active and passionate Mendix developers. In addition, Mendix MVPs are actively involved by Mendix in the development of new products by regularly asking them for feedback, getting early access to new releases and exclusive sessions with product management. A great honor, but for Coen mostly a result of his drive to create something he can use to help others move forward.

The Bizzomate DevTool complements Mendix’s standard functionality. It allows developers to check for common vulnerabilities during and after application development. The tool generates tables that show developers what they are allowed to see in a Mendix application, based on their user permissions. It also allows developers to quickly browse through relevant data, statuses and information in a user-friendly way and helps to quickly show relationships between different objects. In addition, performance monitoring can help identify potential bottlenecks so that problems can be resolved quickly.

Coen initially developed the tools as a passion project, looking for ways to speed up his development process: “I just enjoy building and creating things and I’ve always been curious about how Mendix works under the hood. At Bizzomate, we are fortunate to be able to spend 10 percent of our time on personal projects, and one of the things I delved into during this time was to really understand and experiment with the Mendix client. Once I saw its potential, I was eager to create a tool that could make not only my own life, but that of my colleagues easier. This led to the development of the “Bizzomate Mendix DevTools.”

“I developed the first version of DevTools in my spare time in a span of about six weeks. I also immediately got the opportunity to beta test my own creation because I was actively involved in a full-time Mendix project at the time.”

“When I saw that the tool really helped others in their work, we got together at Bizzomate to see what else we could do with it. After some time, we decided to expand and share it and release it for free to the community so it could help others develop better and more secure Mendix applications as well.”

The Bizzomate DevTool has been out for a year now and Coen has received a lot of positive feedback from the community. “Many devops engineers have contacted me to say they couldn’t live without the tool and that it has made their lives much easier. It gets a lot of good reviews in the Mendix marketplace, and people I meet also often tell me how much they enjoy using the tool.”

“My motivation to apply for the Mendix MVP role was driven by an interest and passion for pushing the boundaries of the Mendix platform. I wanted to create innovative development tools and share them with the community. Having previously connected with the Mendix team and community, I wanted to be more actively involved in the development process of the Mendix platform there. I can do that by sharing my insights and ideas for possible improvements and new additions.”

After his application, Coen was eventually appointed Mendix MVP, which brings with it a number of advantages: “I like to be aware of the underlying technology and know what the roadmap of the platform is. As an MVP, you get more insight into that and you can work on it earlier because you have earlier access to new releases. In addition, feedback from the MVPs is often included, which allows me to contribute to the future of the platform.”

“Earning the title of Mendix MVP is a recognition of one’s contributions to the community. From my perspective, however, projects like DevTools are simply an extension of my curiosity and motivation to create things. Nevertheless, it is satisfying to be recognized for the time and effort taken and I look forward to making similar contributions in the future.”