New program Architecture

[j0hnj0hn]

I am in the position of creating a brand new program that will be used to
track material through our plant. The material takes many forms and is
processed in individual cells. The material has some commonality amoung all
product lines and all product lines require the same programming to report
deviations, sending samples to the labs, program login security, etc. I want
to create the "core" engine of this system with all the built in shared
functionality, then "plug in" the seperate cells that contain cell specific
formulas, steps, requirements, and UI. Test the cell, certify it, then plug
the cell into the engine and have it show up when they install the program.
This would allow me to develop the cells independantly and do a roll out in
an incremental fashion.

I looked at and played around with the System.Addin namespace, but find it
convoluted and difficult to implement. I have looked at reflection to some
degree, but wanted to throw this out to the group and see what I can get.
Does anyone have a plugin type architecture or framework or know of one that
I can use or extend? Does anyone have any suggestions for a starting point.

John

 

[Tim Patrick]

You might be interested in Microsoft's new Managed Extensibility Framework,
or MEF. It is available at the following web site, with full source code
if you like that kind of thing.

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/mef

 

[j0hnj0hn]

Thanks, I'll look in to it.

You might be interested in Microsoft's new Managed Extensibility Framework,
or MEF. It is available at the following web site, with full source code
if you like that kind of thing.

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/mef