can anyone help me in finding a tutorial on this?

[Masterx]

hello all, its been awhile since i started to think about plugins and how to make a plugable ! ( if thats the correct term! )program, or how to make an application take advantage of plugin(s) and how to make that plugin!
i have no idea what to search! i gave it couple of tries! but no luck.
it would appreciate any kind of help on this
any kind of links, tutorials or samples is appreciated.
tanx in advance

[m37h0d]

they're basically just different implementations of polymorphic interfaces that are compiled into DLLs/SOs and loaded at runtime.

[Masterx]

so basically i should cover polymorphism ! first to be able to go through these stuff?
by the way , where can i find more information on these ? meaning how to work or implement a sample so called pluggable app!
tanx

[m37h0d]

yes. learn polymorphism. by the time you've mastered that, you'll probably be able to answer this question yourself.

[Masterx]

yes. learn polymorphism. by the time you've mastered that, you'll probably be able to answer this question yourself.

thanks alot dear m37hod.

[m37h0d]

np. stay safe over there

[Zlatko]

What application do you want to plug into? As stated above, a plugin is a dll or shared object (lets call them both libraries) that is read in by an application so that you can extend the the application with your own function. Do you want to do that or do you want to dynamically load in a library into your own application?

If you want to extend a commercial application, you will have to write your library to conform to the application's requirements. Say you want to extend Adobe Acrobat. You'd go to the Adobe web site, download the documentation for the plugin interface (API), download samples, read and run the samples to see how they work. Read the documentation, but if the documentation runs thousands of pages, then go back and forth between samples and docs. Visit the application's forums.

If you want to dynamically load a library into your own application, you need to open the library and look for functions you want to execute. How to do that depends on which operating system you're developing for. Let us know the details.

Good luck.

[CornedBee]

More generically, a plugin is a piece of loadable functionality. Dynamic libraries are the best way to pack loadable binary code, but not the only one; nor is binary code the only way to write plug-ins. Firefox's add-ons are packages composed of multiple parts, and only very few add-ons contain binary code. Most consist of XUL overlays (user interface description files) and JavaScript code.
Embedding a scripting engine is generally a very popular way of making applications pluggable, for many reasons. The simple development cycle in scripted languages makes it easy for end users, who are usually not trained programmers, to write their own plugins. Also, the sandbox environment in which these plugins run means that it's far harder for them to crash your application.
Good languages for embedding are Python, JavaScript and Lua.

[Masterx]

What application do you want to plug into? As stated above, a plugin is a dll or shared object (lets call them both libraries) that is read in by an application so that you can extend the the application with your own function. Do you want to do that or do you want to dynamically load in a library into your own application?

If you want to extend a commercial application, you will have to write your library to conform to the application's requirements. Say you want to extend Adobe Acrobat. You'd go to the Adobe web site, download the documentation for the plugin interface (API), download samples, read and run the samples to see how they work. Read the documentation, but if the documentation runs thousands of pages, then go back and forth between samples and docs. Visit the application's forums.

If you want to dynamically load a library into your own application, you need to open the library and look for functions you want to execute. How to do that depends on which operating system you're developing for. Let us know the details.

Good luck.

thank you , and about your first question, i just want to extend my apps functionality for now, just wana keep it simple and you know have a taste of it

[Masterx]

More generically, a plugin is a piece of loadable functionality. Dynamic libraries are the best way to pack loadable binary code, but not the only one; nor is binary code the only way to write plug-ins. Firefox's add-ons are packages composed of multiple parts, and only very few add-ons contain binary code. Most consist of XUL overlays (user interface description files) and JavaScript code.
Embedding a scripting engine is generally a very popular way of making applications pluggable, for many reasons. The simple development cycle in scripted languages makes it easy for end users, who are usually not trained programmers, to write their own plugins. Also, the sandbox environment in which these plugins run means that it's far harder for them to crash your application.
Good languages for embedding are Python, JavaScript and Lua.

tanx