Block Reference Overview¶
Blocks is the foundation of the Backendless Codeless system. A single block represents one of the following:
- a logical operation;
- a programmable loop, which is a construct allowing to repeat one or more operations multiple times;
- a scalar value (number, boolean, string, date)
- a collection of values;
- an object, which is a collection of properties. Each property has a name and a corresponding value. The value can be a scalar, a list or an object;
- a variable which can be assigned a value;
- a math operation (addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, power of, square root, etc);
- a trigonometry function (sine, cosine, tangent, cotangent, etc);
- a string operation (to upper case, to lower case, substring, etc);
- a Backendless API call - there is a block for every single API available from Backendless;
- an API Service method - every single API service available in the app is represented by a block;
- a custom function;
Block Categories¶
All available blocks are grouped into categories in Logic Designer:
- Most frequent - a dynamic group of most frequently used blocks. Can be used as a shortcut to find/get most frequently used blocks.
- Custom Functions - contains library functions, which are general purpose custom blocks created for reusability. See Function Library for details.
- API SERVICES - contains a list of API Services deployed into the backend application. Each API Service category contains blocks representing its operations. As an example, the image above shows two API Services - "SampleService" and "CodelessShoppingCartService".
SYSTEM blocks
- Logic - blocks for executing conditional operations. Such as if/then, comparisons, negation, and the ternary operator.
- Loops - blocks for creating loops
- Date - blocks for date-related operations.
- Object - blocks for creating new objects, retrieving and setting object's properties.
- Math - math-related operations.
- Text - text-related operations (literal string values, concatenation, upper/lower case, substrings, length, etc.
- Lists - operations on lists and collection of data.
- Variables - blocks for declaring a new variable, assigning a value to a variable, retrieving variable's value.
- Functions - blocks for creating and using inner scope functions.
BACKENDLESS blocks
- Users API - blocks for using Backendless Users API providing the functionality for registering app users, login, logout, password recovery, etc.
- Data API - blocks for working with the Backendless database.
- Messaging API - blocks for publish/subscribe messaging and push notifications.
- Geo API - geolocation blocks - creating and retrieving geo points, geo searches.
- File API - blocks for working with Backendless Hosting - creating, copying, renaming and deleting files and directories. Retrieving directory listings.
- Logging API - block for logging a message in the Backendless log file.
- Counter API - blocks for working with the server-side (centralized) counters.
- Cache API - blocks for storing and retrieving data from the server-side cache.
- Network API - blocks for creating HTTP/HTTPS requests and retrieving content from a remote resource.