.. _pages/application_structure/manifest#manifest.json:

Manifest.json
*************

%{qooxdoo}'s `Manifest files <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_file>`_ serve to provide meta information for a library in a structured way. Their syntax is in JSON. They have a more informational part (keyed ``info``), which is more interesting for human readers, and a technical part (named ``provides``) that is used in the processing of generator configurations. Here is a brief sample with all the possible keys:

Manifest files are referenced in application's `config.json` files (in the :ref:`pages/tool/generator/generator_config_ref#library` key), to identify the library they stand for.

Reference
=========

This is a sample file:

::

    {
      "info" : 
      {
        "name" : "Custom Application",

        "summary" : "Custom Application",
        "description" : "This is a skeleton for a custom application with qooxdoo.",

        "keywords" : ["custom"],
        "homepage" : "http://some.homepage.url/",

        "license" : "SomeLicense",
        "authors" : 
        [
          {
            "name" : "First Author (uid)",
            "email" : "first.author@some.domain"
          }
        ],

        "version" : "trunk",
        "qooxdoo-versions": ["trunk"],
        "sourceViewUri" : "https://github.com/someuser/custom/blob/master/source/class/%{classFilePath}#L%{lineNumber}"
      },

      "provides" : 
      {
        "namespace"   : "custom",
        "encoding"    : "utf-8",
        "class"       : "source/class",
        "resource"    : "source/resource",
        "translation" : "source/translation",
        "type"        : "application"
      }
    }

Description of Keys:
--------------------

* **info**: All entries in this section are optional.

  * **name**: Name of the library.
  * **summary**: Short summary of its purpose.
  * **description**: Descriptive text.
  * **keywords**: List of keywords, tags.
  * **homepage**: Homepage URL of the library.
  * **license**: License name(s) of the library.
  * **authors**: Author(s) of the library. A list of maps, each map containing the following fields:

    * **name** : Author name.
    * **email** : Author email address.

  * **version**: Version of  the library.
  * **qooxdoo-versions**: List of versions of the %{qooxdoo} framework this library is compatible with.
  * **sourceViewUri**: URL to view the library's class code online. This URL will be used in generated API documentation. It has a special syntax and allows for placeholders (e.g. for the class name and the source line number). See the :ref:`Apiviewer documentation <pages/application/apiviewer#linking>` for details.

* **provides**: Entries in this section are mandatory.
  
  * **namespace**: Library namespace (i.e. the namespace elements all class names in this library are prefixed with, e.g. ``foo`` for a main application class with name ``foo.Application``).
  * **encoding**: File encoding of source code files (should be utf-8).
  * **class**: Path to the library's class code relative to the Manifest.json file, up to but not including the root namespace folder (e.g. ``source/class``).
  * **resource**: Path to the library's resources relative to the Manifest.json file, up to but not including the root namespace folder (e.g. ``source/resource``).
  * **translation**: Path to the library's translation files relative to the Manifest.json file (e.g. ``source/translation``).
  * **type**: One of [``library``, ``application``].