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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:

codeless-blocks-categories.zoom70

  • 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.