What is a manifest file in Windows 8 Metro applications

The most important thing that you need to consider for Metro style application is its manifest file. After you create a new project from Metro application you will find a file with appmanifest extension.  This file represents an xml based manifest file which holds all metadata information about the application.

The application manifest file of Metro application defines the name of the application,  its version, its logo, its tile size etc. It also defines about capabilities and declarations of the application or even defines the packaging and deploying settings.  Just take a look at how appmanifest file looks like :

Some of the sections that you can see is the Identity of the application, its logo, description etc. The prerequisites is also defined, resources if any and the application settings.

But the best thing in Visual studio is that you do not need to remember the xml sections, but rather IDE provides a pretty handy interface to deal with this. The xml will be generated in background.  Lets see how the IDE tool looks like. If you double click on the appmanifest file in solution you will see :

The first tab shows the metadata information about the application,  the second shows capabilities, then declarations and finally Packaging. We will discuss each of them separately.

You can easily choose your own settings from this IDE component and work on it.

Thanks

Abhishek Sur

Abhishek Sur is a Microsoft MVP since year 2011. He is an architect in the .NET platform. He has profound theoretical insight and years of hands on experience in different .NET products and languages. He leads the Microsoft User Group in Kolkata named KolkataGeeks, and regularly organizes events and seminars in various places for spreading .NET awareness. He is associated with the Microsoft Insider list on WPF and C#, and is in constant touch with product group teams. He blogs at http://www.abhisheksur.com His Book : Visual Studio 2012 and .NET 4.5 Expert Development Cookbook. Follow Abhishek at Twitter : @abhi2434