Question

So I am creating a plugin system for my app.

I have the following components:
1) Main Application
2) PluginInterface.dll
3) Plugin(s).dll

The problem now is that, when I create my plugins and compile them, there are more then just the Plugin.dll file. It has other required files in the Release directory such as the PluginInterface.dll that it uses, an xml configuration file, etc.

So how can I make it so that it is just a single dll file that user can drop into a plugin directory?

OR

do you think it’s better to have the plugins be a folder? then, i have to scan all the folders for the right DLL…

Answer 1

The Managed Extensibility Framework is designed for plugin architectures. Before you go too far down your current path, check it out. It might serve you better.