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Manifests

A manifest is the top-level organizing unit in Negroni's CDM implementation. It groups a set of related entities that represent a business or organizational domain — such as customers, orders, products, or personnel.

What a Manifest Contains

A CDM manifest holds:

  • Entity references — the entities that belong to the manifest
  • Sub-manifests — nested manifests for hierarchical organization
  • Relationships — how entities relate to one another across the manifest
  • Metadata — descriptions, version information, and additional properties
  • Build configuration — settings that control how the manifest is exported

Manifest Types

Type Description
CDM Library Manifest A pre-built manifest template based on Microsoft CDM or Negroni's standard library. Non-editable but extensible.
Custom Manifest A manifest you define from scratch with your own entities and structure.
Sub-Manifest A manifest nested inside another manifest. Can reference CDM library manifests or custom ones.

Manifest Lifecycle

flowchart TD
    A[Create manifest] --> B[Add/import entities]
    B --> C[Configure build settings<br/>API, SQL, Services, Properties]
    C --> D[Export as Martini Package / CDM Schema / Database Schema / Data Model]
    D --> E[Optional: Submit for approval and publish to CDM Library]

Managing Manifests