public byte[] asJsonBytes() {
        try {
            return SlimeUtils.toJsonBytes(getSlime());
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Unable to encode metadata", e);
        }
    }
Returns the previously active generation at the point when this application was created.
config-model-api/src/main/java/com/yahoo/config/application/api/ApplicationMetaData.java