Hay all, anyone good at plugins?

Todd Messmann

18y4.2kSoftware Architecture/Engineering

I've got an app that I'm setting up to use plugins with. This is the first time I have ever attempted using plugins. I have it working, but I'm noticing that there is a lot of redundant code in the different plugins, and wanted to incorporate the common code in a core class located in the main program and utilize the magic of polymorphism to reduce the size of the plugins.

When I write everything in the main app, it works great, but when I write it as a plugin, everything falls apart. Has anyone done this before? I'm open to any suggestions or ideas, even if it means a large rewrite.

The reason for using the plugins is that this app will control a machine, and the plugins are the motion interface. Drives obsolete every few years as technologies advices. Since it will change regularly, I'm attempting to head off large rewrites of the main app by using plugins. Size matters since the plugins will be downloadable from the net.

While I can't release much of the code do to restrictions, I'm open to any input you all may have

My thanks to anyone who wants to help

Take care one and all, and stay safe.

5 Replies

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Malisa Ncube18y ago
Accepted answer
i'm currently developing an application using plugins as one of the most important items in the design, just like you. I'm still in the early stages, but what i know is that, you will need to use a lot of reflection and dynamic type discovery when you use plugins. You will need to have an interface which will be implemented by all your plugins so they have a uniform method of calling them.

I found this site quite good. http://www.codeproject.com/KB/macros/Net_AddinProjFrmwork.aspx

It will be nice to see an example where the Data Layer, Business Layer and the Interface have plugins and the application can be extended easily by placing the 3 plugins, and automatically using the same database session and seamlessly binding to the different interface areas.

It will be nice to use WPF, WCF.

Am just dreaming aloud, but that is what i want to do. Hope i get somewhere with it.
Mirko Meier17y ago
If you use spring, you will find some infos in the documentation.

It is an easy way, just to add a new Entry in your Spring configuration.
Miguel Barros17y ago
Thanks.. i was looking for someting like that...
Do you know where fo find some documentation about a plugin system architecture?
Mirko Meier17y ago
I think a good framework to use Plugins is Spring.NET.

It is very easy to extend an application by using xml.
Todd Messmann18y ago
Thanks for the link and hope. I was beginning to think I was the only one trying something like this. I have made some progress, but still am finding roadblocks to get around. It may take a bit of time, but I'm sure it is possible.

I can finally see the base class I want to use, but accessing, and using it the way I wanted is proving to be a bit more of a challenge. When I finally get it working, I'll post how I did it.

Admittedly, I'm not a top tear programmer yet, so there may be better way to do what I'm doing, so the feedback on it should be interesting and educational when I post it.

Good luck with your app. and thanks again.