1. A computer-implemented method comprising: providing first metadata associated with a first release of an application platform and defining business object entities, each business object entity associated with a respective one of a plurality of business objects, the first metadata associating a first plurality of the business object entities with a RELEASED release status code, and the first metadata associating a second plurality of the business object entities with a DEPRECATED release status code; and providing second metadata associated with a second release of the application platform and defining the business object entities, the second metadata associating one or more of the first plurality of the business object entities with a DEPRECATED release status code, and the second metadata associating one or more of the second plurality of the business object entities with a DELETED release status code that is different than the DEPRECATED release status code; wherein the second release of the application platform is different from and later in time than the first release of the application platform; the computer-implemented method further comprising: determining that a cardinality of a business object node action has changed while the business object node action is associated with the RELEASED release status code or that a cardinality of a business object node association has changed while the business object node association is associated with the RELEASED release status code; and in response to the determining that the cardinality of the business object node action has changed while the business object node action is associated with the RELEASED release status code or that the cardinality of the business object node association has changed while the business object node association is associated with the RELEASED release status code, raising a flag in a business application development environment to indicate that a constraint has been violated.
1. A computer-implemented method comprising: providing first metadata associated with a first release of an application platform and defining business object entities, each business object entity associated with a respective one of a plurality of business objects, the first metadata associating a first plurality of the business object entities with a RELEASED release status code, and the first metadata associating a second plurality of the business object entities with a DEPRECATED release status code; and providing second metadata associated with a second release of the application platform and defining the business object entities, the second metadata associating one or more of the first plurality of the business object entities with a DEPRECATED release status code, and the second metadata associating one or more of the second plurality of the business object entities with a DELETED release status code that is different than the DEPRECATED release status code; wherein the second release of the application platform is different from and later in time than the first release of the application platform; the computer-implemented method further comprising: determining that a cardinality of a business object node action has changed while the business object node action is associated with the RELEASED release status code or that a cardinality of a business object node association has changed while the business object node association is associated with the RELEASED release status code; and in response to the determining that the cardinality of the business object node action has changed while the business object node action is associated with the RELEASED release status code or that the cardinality of the business object node association has changed while the business object node association is associated with the RELEASED release status code, raising a flag in a business application development environment to indicate that a constraint has been violated. 15. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1 , wherein the determining that a cardinality of a business object node action has changed while the business object node action is associated with the RELEASED release status code or that a cardinality of a business object node association has changed while the business object node association is associated with the RELEASED release status code comprises: determining that a technical name of a query has changed while the query is associated with the RELEASED release status code; and wherein the raising a flag in a business application development environment to indicate that a constraint has been violated comprises: raising a flag in a business application development environment to indicate that a constraint has been violated in response to the determining that a technical name of a query has changed while the query is associated with the RELEASED release status code.