About Application Manifest Files

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About Application Manifest Files

Manifest files are used by Microsoft Speech Server (MSS) to identify:

  • The Start page to load for an application. This information is used by Speech Application Deployment Service (SADS), which manages application deployment for MSS.

  • Application resources to preload and cache, for improved performance. This information is used by Speech Engine Services (SES), to ensure that large resources are fetched and loaded into available engines before they are required by the user.

The SASDK creates a manifest file, Manifest.xml, by default when a new speech Web application is created. The manifest file, along with other application files, is then deployed to the application virtual directory on the Web server.

Before a deployed speech application can be managed by MSS, both SES and SADS must be able to read the entries from the application manifest file.

Note   SADS takes the entries from each individual manifest file to create one manifest file for the managed MSS group, SESManifest.aspx. SES should directly read this file, while SADS must read each application manifest file.

SES reads the entries in the manifest file at service startup, when the cache is cleared, or when there is an indication that the file may be out of date or invalid.

Clearing the cache causes SES to check the validity of the currently loaded manifest file. When SES identifies a change to the manifest file, SES loads it, and then loads and unloads resources as needed. Clearing the cache also causes the Start page to reload. For information about clearing the cache, see Clearing Cached Resources for Speech Engine Services.

See the following additional topics:

See Also

Configuring Speech Engine Services | About Start Pages | Administering SADS | Understanding WMI Scripting