Chapter 32. The Add-in Model

Add-ins (also known as plug-ins) are separately compiled components that your application can find, load, and use dynamically. Often, an application is designed to use add-ins so that it can be enhanced in the future without needing to be modified, recompiled, and retested. Add-ins also give you the flexibility to customize separate instances of an application for a particular market or client. But the most common reason to use the add-in model is to allow third-party developers to extend the functionality of your application. For example, add-ins in Adobe Photoshop provide a wide range of picture-processing effects. Add-ins in Firefox provide enhanced web surfing features and entirely new functionality. In both ...

Get Pro WPF in C# 2010: Windows Presentation Foundation in .NET 4 now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.