navigationtree: a menu-document source is dropped by describe, replaced by exec, and Menu: is silently ignored

[tgolembiewski]

mxcli version: v0.24.0 and main (f18c3077); Mendix 11.12.1, MPR v2, macOS

Summary

A navigationtree can draw its items from either a navigation profile (Forms$NavigationSource) or a menu document (Forms$MenuDocumentSource). mxcli supports only the profile. A menu-document source is lost in three ways, and none of them produces a diagnostic:

1. describe drops it. Atlas_Core.Tablet_Sidebar's tree reads Atlas_Core.Tablet_Menu, and describe layout prints just navigationtree navigationTree3.
2. exec replaces it. Executing that output writes a Forms$NavigationSource with profile Responsive, so the tablet layout now shows the desktop menu.
3. Menu: is accepted and ignored. navigationtree nav (Menu: MyFirstModule.Side_Menu) passes check and exec, and is stored as Profile: 'Responsive'.

mx check reports 0 errors in every case.

Repro (blank project)

Round trip of a stock layout:

mxcli describe layout Atlas_Core.Tablet_Sidebar -p app.mpr \
  | sed 's/Atlas_Core.Tablet_Sidebar/MyFirstModule.Tablet_Copy/' > tcopy.mdl
mxcli exec tcopy.mdl -p app.mpr
mxcli describe layout MyFirstModule.Tablet_Copy -p app.mpr | grep navigationtree
#   navigationtree navigationTree3 (Profile: 'Responsive')
mxcli bson dump -p app.mpr --type layout --object Atlas_Core.Tablet_Sidebar     # MenuSource: Forms$MenuDocumentSource, Menu: Atlas_Core.Tablet_Menu
mxcli bson dump -p app.mpr --type layout --object MyFirstModule.Tablet_Copy     # MenuSource: Forms$NavigationSource, NavigationProfile: Responsive

Writing the source directly:

create or modify menu MyFirstModule.Side_Menu (
  menu item 'Home' page MyFirstModule.Home_Web;
);
create layout MyFirstModule.Side_Layout (layouttype: 'Responsive') {
  scrollcontainer layoutContainer {
    region left (Size: 232, SizeMode: 'Pixels') {
      navigationtree navSidebar (Menu: MyFirstModule.Side_Menu)
    }
    region center { placeholder Main }
  }
}

check → Check passed!; exec → Created layout; describe → navigationtree navSidebar (Profile: 'Responsive').

Eight other stock layouts carry a Forms$MenuDocumentSource: Phone_Sidebar's tree, and the SimpleMenuBar of Phone_Default, Phone_BottomBar, Tablet_Default, Tablet_BottomBar and the three Tablet_Split_* layouts. describe already flags SimpleMenuBar as not re-executable, so only the tree loses its source silently.

Cause

• buildNavigationTreeV3 (mdl/executor/cmd_pages_builder_v3.go) reads only Profile, so any other property is ignored.
• widgetToGen (mdl/backend/modelsdk/widget_write.go) always writes a NavigationSource and defaults an empty profile to "Responsive".
• cmd_pages_describe_parse.go reads MenuSource.NavigationProfile only, so a MenuDocumentSource comes out empty.

MenuBar has the same three paths.

Suggested fix

• Add Menu: Module.MenuName to navigationtree and menubar, written as Forms$MenuDocumentSource (Menu by name, as in the stock layouts).
• describe prints Menu: for such a tree, so the round trip keeps it.
• Menu: together with Profile: is an error.
• check --references resolves the menu document.

Happy to open the PR.

[github-actions]

Issue Triage

Summary:
The issue reports that navigationtree (and menubar) lose their menu‑document source when using describe, exec, or when specifying Menu: in MDL, with no diagnostics from mx check.

Checklist of required bug‑report information

Required info	Present?	Details
mxcli version	✅	v0.24.0 and main (f18c3077)
Mendix version	✅	11.12.1, MPR v2
Scenario (what the user was trying to do)	✅	Describing/executing layouts that use a menu‑document source; adding Menu: to a navigationtree
Expected output	✅	The menu‑document source should be preserved (shown as Menu: …) and round‑trippable
Experienced output	✅	describe drops the source, exec replaces it with a navigation profile, Menu: is ignored; mx check reports 0 errors
AI bug report (mxcli diag --bundle or session log)	❌	Not included

Missing information
To help reproduce and diagnose the problem, could you please provide the output of mxcli diag --bundle (or at least the session log) for the commands shown in the reproduction steps? This will give us the internal state and any hidden errors that might be useful for fixing the issue.

Thank you for the detailed report! Once the diagnostic bundle is added, we’ll be able to move forward with a fix.

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Automated triage via OpenRouter — workflow source

[tgolembiewski]

Fixed in main by #1193 (ako#573): navigationtree and menubar accept menu: Module.Menu, and describe round-trips a menu-document source. Thank you!