Attribute-based find/filter list operations can roundtrip as invalid expressions

[hjotha]

Summary

find($List, Attribute = expression) and filter($List, Attribute = expression) can be described correctly but rebuilt as expression-based list operations. The resulting MPR can then fail Studio Pro validation with CE0117 on the list operation activity.

Expected behavior

When the MDL condition is an equality comparison on a list member, mxcli exec should rebuild the same attribute-based list operation shape that Studio Pro stores as Microflows$Find or Microflows$Filter.

Actual behavior

The builder always creates FindByExpression / FilterByExpression, and the writer does not serialize the attribute-based variants. This loses the stored operation shape even when the text output looks equivalent.

Proposed fix

Detect Attribute = expression conditions during build, resolve the member as an attribute or association from the input list type, build FindByAttributeOperation / FilterByAttributeOperation, and serialize them as Microflows$Find / Microflows$Filter.

Related

Part of the broader microflow roundtrip validity tracker #332.

[github-actions]

Issue Triage

Summary:
The issue reports that find/filter expressions built from MDL are always serialized as expression‑based operations, causing Studio Pro validation errors (CE0117) when the original attribute‑based list operation should be preserved.

Checklist for bug report completeness

Required info	Present?	Details
mxcli version	❌	Not mentioned
Mendix version	❌	Not mentioned
Scenario (what the user was trying to do)	❌	No description of the MDL script or CLI command used
Expected output	✅	Described: attribute‑based list operation shape should be rebuilt
Experienced output	✅	Described: MPR fails Studio Pro validation with CE0117
AI bug report (mxcli diag --bundle or session log)	❌	Not provided

What’s missing:
Please add the mxcli version (output of mxcli --version), the Mendix version of the project you’re processing, the exact scenario (the MDL snippet or mxcli exec command you ran), and, if possible, a diagnostic bundle (mxcli diag --bundle) or at least the session log from the run that produced the error.

Once those details are included, the issue will be complete and easier to investigate. Thank you for contributing!

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