Data Types

The Poppulo API represents data as either one of the following "built-in" types, an enumeration, or as an Entity.

Built-in types

• String/Text: Unicode character data.
• Numeric: Integer values.
• Date: An ISO 8691 encoded date.
• Boolean: A string literal with the value true or false.
• ETag: An opaque text string representing a HTTP ETag.
• Link: A tag representing a reference to another entity (see below)
• Phone Number: A text string, optionally beginning with a plus sign, comprising of numbers, hyphens, parentheses and spaces. E.g. +353 (21) 242-7277
• Email: A standard email address
• Short Code: A short code that identifies an object. Must be a valid domain fragment (e.g. {the short code}.newsweaver.com, i.e. alphanumeric characters interspersed with hyphens)
• Tag List (tag name): An inline listing of values (see below) Note that there are limits on the range of values that will be accepted, but these limits are different everywhere. For example, some areas might require non-negative numbers, others only positive ones. Some areas might require dates in the future only. Text data typically has an upper limit to the length accepted, and may also limit the set of characters allowed.

Link tags

Link tags represent connections or relationships with other entities. They are also used for paging.

• The href attribute can be requested to view the full entity.
• The rel attribute describes the type of the entity relationship.
• The title attribute is a human readable description of the linked entity.

Enumerations

Enumerations are essentially string/text values, but will only accept a restricted set of values. Some common enumerations are listed below.

• Country

Tag List

Some lists in our system are not important enough to warrant being full entity lists. These are represented as a tag list instead.

For example, in a Subscriber Entity, the custom fields are represented like this:

<custom_fields>
  <custom_field name="Custom Field A">Custom Value A</custom_field>
  <custom_field name="Custom Field B">Custom Value B</custom_field>
  <custom_field name="Custom Field C">Custom Value C</custom_field>
</custom_fields>