JavaScipt is a weakly typed language and has little need for types like you would see in languages such as C# or Java. This gives the programmer a great deal of flexibility, but it also makes it harder to infer the intended structure of any given variable. As Popfly wants to help the users to create mashups easily, it needs to know about the structure of a given variable and information about its intended use. For example, a block might return URLs that are links to images; in JavaScript these URLs would be strings. Popfly doesn’t need to know that they’re URLs, but that the URLs point to images. This way Popfly can recommend that the user mash the block with an image display block. Attached in this kit is an XML Schema Definition (XSD) of the type system which contains all the valid types. A list is included below along with a brief description.
EditAllowed Types
| Name | Description |
| title | A short string that describes the object - should not contain HTML |
| url | Any URL that doesn’t fit one of the other URL types |
| color | A hex value color such as #FF0000 |
| imageUrl | A URL pointing to a full sized image |
| feedUrl | A URL pointing to an RSS/ATOM feed |
| description | A description of the object - can contain HTML of any length |
| latitude | A latitude value in decimal format |
| longitude | A longitude value in decimal format |
| thumbnailUrl | A URL pointing to a thumbnail image |
| location | A string that represents an address |
| custom | A custom object that needs to be declared in the manifest file of that block |
| videoUrl | A URL pointing to a video file - should not be a flash video, but rather the actual video that could be played in any viewer |
| ipAddress | An IP address |
| name | The name of something - should be short and not contain HTML |
| firstName | The first (given) name of a person |
| lastName | The last (family) name of a person |
| emailAddress | An email address |
| phoneNumber | A phone number - should include country code |
| city | The name of a city |
| state | The name of a state, US only |
| countryOrRegion | The name of a country or region |
| zipCode | The ZIP code of a location, US only |
| ISBN | An International Standard Book Number (ISBN) |
| UPC | An Universal Product Code (barcode) number |
| stockSymbol | A stock ticker symbol |