Described is a collection of type versions (objects) associated with an application program that lists only those type versions that can be bound to an application program. This ensures stability and security by preventing other type versions from being bound to the application program, unless overridden by policy. A type binding process only materializes objects for stored types that correspond to matching type versions in the application's known types collection. The type may be loaded from a local folder, or from a global cache, providing installation flexibility. A data container accessible to the application may be populated with data for fields defined on a type in the collection having a version not bound to the application program, and for fields of a related type not maintained in the collection. Default values are used to populate any unpopulated fields when policy specifies that a different type version be used.