Add in module
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Hi. I want to develop an application where initially i have just an empty form with no functionality. Then, later, i can develop separate modules and when i install them, they plug themselves into the form with their functionality. Something like add ins. How can i do that?
Wamuti: Any man can be an island, but islands to need water around them! Edmund Burke: No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
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Hi. I want to develop an application where initially i have just an empty form with no functionality. Then, later, i can develop separate modules and when i install them, they plug themselves into the form with their functionality. Something like add ins. How can i do that?
Wamuti: Any man can be an island, but islands to need water around them! Edmund Burke: No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
One very common approach in .NET is via reflection/functional interfaces that add-ins should implement. Here's an 8 year old article on the topic: Using reflection to extend .NET programs[^] The concepts remain similar even today.
Regards, Nish
My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com Code Project Forums : New Posts Monitor This application monitors for new posts in the Code Project forums.
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Hi. I want to develop an application where initially i have just an empty form with no functionality. Then, later, i can develop separate modules and when i install them, they plug themselves into the form with their functionality. Something like add ins. How can i do that?
Wamuti: Any man can be an island, but islands to need water around them! Edmund Burke: No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
An additional just cause two are better than one ;) Plug-ins in C#[^]
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Hi. I want to develop an application where initially i have just an empty form with no functionality. Then, later, i can develop separate modules and when i install them, they plug themselves into the form with their functionality. Something like add ins. How can i do that?
Wamuti: Any man can be an island, but islands to need water around them! Edmund Burke: No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
Microsoft has produced the Managed Extensibility Framework[^] that might be appropriate. It doesn't do anything specific to making pluggable parts of forms, but it does the work of dealing with dependencies on plugins that may or may not be there, etc.
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Hi. I want to develop an application where initially i have just an empty form with no functionality. Then, later, i can develop separate modules and when i install them, they plug themselves into the form with their functionality. Something like add ins. How can i do that?
Wamuti: Any man can be an island, but islands to need water around them! Edmund Burke: No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
Ummm... with plugins? and XML. :cool:
Wamuti wrote:
they plug themselves into the form with their functionality
I hope they don't try to position themselves on the form. I've used plugins for background (non-UI) stuff, to populate a TabControl, and to populate a menu, but not for actual controls on a form.