Overview

The package manifest (or metadata) file is a YAML (version 1.1) file named info.yaml, consisting of exactly two YAML documents: the file-type header and the actual application manifest.

The application-manager architecture is flexible enough to support other file formats such as e.g. XML, but the only meta-data loader currently implemented is based on this YAML format.

Dynamically installed applications are described by a single manifest file in their root directory, called info.yaml. Built-in applications, that are shipped as part of the System-UI are allowed to optionally have multiple aliases: these are comparable to a Microsoft Windows shortcut, in that they allow to start the same program using a different icon, name and commandline arguments. These files have to be in the same folder as the application's main info.yaml file and need to be named info-<descriptive name>.yaml. See below for a description of these alias manifests.

Basic Manifest

This is an example of a full-featured info.yaml file. It also shows that you can mix and match classic YAML and JSON style in YAML 1.1 documents:

%YAML 1.1
---
formatVersion: 1
formatType: am-application
---
id: 'com.pelagicore.radio'
icon: 'FM-Radio.png'
name:
  en: "FM Radio"
  de: "UKW-Rundfunk"
code: "radio.qml"

runtime: qml
runtimeParameters: { loadDummyData: true }
documentUrl: "fm"

mimeTypes: [ "x-scheme-handler/x-radio" ]

capabilities:
- cameraAccess
- locationAccess

version: '1.2.1-alpha3'

The meaning of the fields within the info.yaml file header (first YAML document) is as follows:

The meaning of the fields within the info.yaml actual manifest data (second YAML document) is as follows:

The runtimeParameters are specific to the actual runtimes, so the table below has an additional column specifying which runtime a configuration option applies to:

Alias Manifests

Here is an example of an alias manifest (info-am.yaml) for the info.yaml file in the chapter above. This way, you could have one single tuner application radio.qml running that can be started using two different entries (with different text and icons) in the application launcher. Starting an alias while the application is already running will not start another instance. Only if a documentUrl is set, the already running instance will receive the ApplicationInterface::openDocument signal containing the respective strings set via the documentUrl parameter and can then change its UI accordingly. The alias manifests have to be in the same folder as the application's main info.yaml file and need to be named info-<descriptive name>.yaml.

%YAML 1.1
---
formatVersion: 1
formatType: am-application-alias
---
aliasId: 'com.pelagicore.radio@am'
icon: 'AM-Radio.png'
name:
  en: "AM Radio"
  de: "Langwellenrundfunk"

documentUrl: "x-radio://am"

The meaning of the fields within the info-am.yaml file header (first YAML document) is as follows:

The meaning of the fields within the alias manifest data (second YAML document) is as follows: