Hello,
I need to write a SDK to allow other programmers to write Plug-Ins for my application using Visual C++ (maybe in the future other languages as well). In fact, I've seen some samples on the net like Wiamp, Netscape, 3D-FTP... but they are all too complex. Wasabi (the Winamp SDK), for example, is all written with raw Win API calls and programmers need to know C++ to be able to write the plug-ins.
I thought about writing something more simple like an MFC frame work application (exe) to load into itself ActiveX Controls at run-time (Saurabh Dasgupta wrote an article about that in
Along with this executable file and also being part of the SDK, I intend to distribute some DLL's to provide access to the business rules of my application. I want these DLL's to be called from any language, not only Visual C++. I am still to decide if I use COM or create a "Universal" DLL as described by Jonathan Wood in the article exposed in Any other suggestion or your opinion on this issue will be apreciated a lot.
In order to prevent the main application from hosting dummy controls, or controls that have nothing to do with the application itself, I will implement a component category that will also allow me to add a 'Plug & Play' plug-in feature, so every time the main program starts, it will look for new registered components based on that category and if found add them to its database.
The standardisation that the ActiveX technology provides is nice because it will make the development of the plug-ins easier and language-independent, but in the other hand it is unfavorable because I would not like to see pieces of my application running in Internet Explorer, Microsoft Word or other third-party tools. Actually, I need to ensure that the unique way to run the plug-ins is using the host application I provide, otherwise the project's purposes will no be achieved.
Please, let me know your opinion here.
Thanks in advance
Lewin Schwarzwasser
Software Developer
I need to write a SDK to allow other programmers to write Plug-Ins for my application using Visual C++ (maybe in the future other languages as well). In fact, I've seen some samples on the net like Wiamp, Netscape, 3D-FTP... but they are all too complex. Wasabi (the Winamp SDK), for example, is all written with raw Win API calls and programmers need to know C++ to be able to write the plug-ins.
I thought about writing something more simple like an MFC frame work application (exe) to load into itself ActiveX Controls at run-time (Saurabh Dasgupta wrote an article about that in
Along with this executable file and also being part of the SDK, I intend to distribute some DLL's to provide access to the business rules of my application. I want these DLL's to be called from any language, not only Visual C++. I am still to decide if I use COM or create a "Universal" DLL as described by Jonathan Wood in the article exposed in Any other suggestion or your opinion on this issue will be apreciated a lot.
In order to prevent the main application from hosting dummy controls, or controls that have nothing to do with the application itself, I will implement a component category that will also allow me to add a 'Plug & Play' plug-in feature, so every time the main program starts, it will look for new registered components based on that category and if found add them to its database.
The standardisation that the ActiveX technology provides is nice because it will make the development of the plug-ins easier and language-independent, but in the other hand it is unfavorable because I would not like to see pieces of my application running in Internet Explorer, Microsoft Word or other third-party tools. Actually, I need to ensure that the unique way to run the plug-ins is using the host application I provide, otherwise the project's purposes will no be achieved.
Please, let me know your opinion here.
Thanks in advance
Lewin Schwarzwasser
Software Developer
