Question

I am trying to write a plug-in for an application. The only thing I am provided with is a dll resource file which defines an interface; here’s the code:

using System;
using System.Drawing;

namespace App.Plugin.Resources.Interface
{
  public interface IAppPlugin
  {
    string Name { get; set; }

    string Description { get; set; }

    string Author { get; set; }

    string Version { get; set; }

    Icon MenuIcon { get; set; }

    EventHandler PluginEventHandler { get; set; }
  }
}

I then created a class that implemented this interface, made it display a message box, compiled the dll, placed it in the Plugins folder of the application and when the application executed and launched the plugin, it did display the message.

It seems to me that the software offers the means to execute external code (through the plugin system), but doesn’t actually give access to any of the application’s properties or methods.

Considering the above, my question is: Am I able to interact with the host process in any other way (e.g. get informed when a menu item is selected or even add a menu item myself to the main GUI) with the given resources or does this plugin system just act as an application launcher (by executing the code in the dll I’m providing)?

Answer 1

This seems just an application launcher, not a real plugin, unless there is some strategy implemented by convention: maybe the app looks at the plugin constructor with reflection, and pass some interfaces to the host system, or it looks for some properties marked with some custom attributes to pass some entry points.Another possible vehichle to pass the main application entry points is the PluginEventHandler, try to see in debug what you receive when the plugin is invoked. In addition, try to look with some tools as ILspy to see if there is something more in the plugin instantiation.