Common Data Model
The Common Data Model (CDM) is a metadata-driven, open standard for representing and sharing business data across applications and services. Negroni is built on this standard, using CDM as the foundation for all entity and manifest definitions.
What CDM Provides
Standardized Entity Definitions
CDM defines a set of pre-built entities for common business concepts such as account, contact, order, and product. These entities come with standard attributes and can be used directly or extended to meet specific needs. Standardized entities reduce inconsistencies when data moves between systems.
Metadata-Driven Structure
All CDM data structures are defined in manifest files. A manifest describes the entities it contains, their attributes, inter-entity relationships, and additional metadata. This metadata-first approach makes data models self-describing and easier to evolve without breaking consumers.
Interoperability
Because CDM follows an open standard (originally from Microsoft), manifests exported from Negroni can be used with other CDM-compatible systems — including Microsoft Power Platform, data integration pipelines, ETL tools, and custom applications.
How Negroni Uses CDM
In Negroni, CDM is the primary organizational unit for data models. The two core CDM concepts used throughout the platform are:
- Entities — individual data objects with attributes and relationships
- Manifests — containers that group related entities and define their relationships
Negroni extends the CDM standard with a registry layer (CDM Registry) that makes manifests discoverable, versioned, and linked by dependency across an organization.
In This Section
- Entities — What entities are, types available, and how to manage them.
- Manifests — What manifests are and how to create, extend, and organize them.
- CDM Registry — How to register schemas, manage interfaces, and track dependencies.