What are datasets used for now in Mendix 10?

[dan-covaliu]

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Page link: datasets

Document link: _index.md

In Mendix 8 Datasets were used in "reports in Pages"
In Mendix 9 Reports were deprecated (without any indication on how to replace them!); and in Mendix 10 they are not supported anymore. So, are datasets really useful?

[MarkvanMents]

Hi Dan,
Thanks for your question.
Now that Reports have been removed the only way to use Datasets is through Java actions; there is no longer a native "low-code" way of using them. This does mean that the documentation has to stay for those people who use Java actions.
In the near future, Mendix is planning to introduce a concept of entities which can present the results of OQL queries and be used as if they were actual Mendix entities. This is the low-code successor to Datasets. I do not have a firm launch date for this, but I understand that work is well advanced on it, so keep an eye out.
In the meantime, I am working on a lot of new documentation around OQL and related subjects like Datasets and I hope the result will be a much clearer explanation of all these topics.
Thanks very much for getting in touch. If you spot anything else in the documentation that could be clearer please let us know.
Yours
Mark van Ments

[dan-covaliu]

Hi Mark,
Thanks for the quick response. My intent was NOT to remove the documentation, but to specify the purpose of datasets. In the documentation for Mx8 and 9, the first line of the 1 Introduction specifies the intent:

A dataset can be used to ...

The current Mx10 documentation only specifies how datasets are defined. OK... so what? A Mx newbie arriving on the doc page would say to him/herself "OK, now that I know how datasets are defined... what can I DO with them?"

My suggestion was to add a short description about the Java actions like you mentioned, as the first line in the 1 Introduction section to show the purpose of Datasets

[MarkvanMents]

Hi Dan,
Thanks for the clarification and suggestion. I'll look into the best text to put here until such time as we update the whole Dataset/OQL section.
I'll reopen this issue to remind me to pick it up.
Yours
Mark van Ments