Database != Database — Mendix and Me

The default database in the Mendix Cloud is Postgresql. Most Mendix applications will probably run on this database. Unlike other components required to run a Mendix application, Postgresql is not installed with Mendix Studio Pro. Instead, Mendix Studio Pro uses a different built-in database.

If you develop an application it is of course tempting to use the built-in database locally instead of installing an extra database server. Nevertheless, I would recommend doing the latter in any case. If you want your application to behave the same way locally as in the production environment, you should make sure that the conditions are as equal as possible.

A few differences

Postgresql is much more performant than the built-in database.
Ok, this is probably not surprising at all. Nevertheless, it is something you should consider. Applications with a high database load should not be run on the built-in database. The memory consumption of these quickly reaches the limit and leads to unexpected errors.

Queries do not behave the same in all databases.
Different databases process queries differently. For example, queries in Postgresql are Case Sensitive, the built-in database is not.

• [StringAttribute = ‚ABC’]
• [StringAttribute = ‚abc’]

In the database that comes with Mendix, these two queries return the same result. In Postgresql, these two queries return different results.

So if you want to be sure that the program logic you have tested locally still works on the cloud environment, it is advisable to work on the same database system.

Click here to get to know more about database management at Mendix applications.

Originally published in german language at https://mendixandme.de on February 24, 2020.