Simple Introduction to Extensible Applications with the Managed Extensions Framework

re: Simple Introduction to Extensible Applications with the Managed Extensions Framework

Bill Sithiro — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:12:30 GMT

Good programmers have been implementing similar approaches to this since like... forever! Not that I don't like it, I think it would be great if this becomes mainstream in the .NET world having a common way of implementing plug-in/add-in/extentending architecture. But, I have a question, what if the class with the color text output that came later could apply the same behaviour to the earlier monochrome ones. How hard would that be to implement?

Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) Demo

Brad Abrams — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:10:26 GMT

The Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) is a new feature of .NET 4 (and will work on 3.5 as well) that

Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) Demo

Brad Abrams — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:55:54 GMT

The Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) is a new feature of .NET 4 (and will work on 3.5 as well) that

Extensible Applications with MEF

Guy kolbis — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 14:41:25 GMT

MEF stands for " M anaged E xtensions F ramework". The idea behinds it is to allow reuse and

re: Simple Introduction to Extensible Applications with the Managed Extensions Framework

Glenn Block — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:37:16 GMT

Hi Dave

Here is a snippet which we've been toying with just to illustrate the thinking

In your Main method of your program you would do something like:

static void Main(args[] string) {

var CompositionHost = new CompositionHost(".\");

CompositionHost.Run(args)

}

this would then import an IApplicationStart that has a Start method and would kick off composition.

[Export(typeof(IApplicationStart))

public class ApplicationStart : IApplicationStart

{

void Run(string[] args){}

[Import]

ISomeService Service{get;set;}

}

The host class would manage the container behind the scenes, automatically import the App Start and execute it. Having the App Start part imported would being the composition satisfying any it's imports, it's imports imports, and so on.

Because App Start is an interface, you can host it wherever you like for example in an App.Xaml.cs, or the Main for a winform app, or even in a Web Service host.

Does this seem useful? Any feedback would be appreciated.

Excellent Article on Managed Extensions Framework and writing Addin-based Applications from Brad Abrams

Thoughts and Ideas on Semantics and Contexts — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:42:50 GMT

hi there, also I've talked a little bit in this blog on practical writing of Add-in-based applications,

re: Simple Introduction to Extensible Applications with the Managed Extensions Framework

Cleve Littlefield — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:07:56 GMT

I would love to see another article under the same writing approach that compares MEF to System.AddIn (as one other person commented) and/or any generic IoC container like StructureMap, Unity, Castle Windsor...

What are the overlaps, dependencies, differences?

re: Simple Introduction to Extensible Applications with the Managed Extensions Framework

Richie Scott — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:10:54 GMT

Excellent blog Brad - can you tell me where you think MEF fits with Unity, replace or complement?

Thanks

使用托管扩展性框架（MEF）创建可扩展应用的简介

Joycode@Ab110.com — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:15:11 GMT

【原文地址】 Simple Introduction to Extensible Applications with the Managed Extensions Framework 【原文发表日期】

re: Simple Introduction to Extensible Applications with the Managed Extensions Framework

Dave R. — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:43:10 GMT

Hi Glenn,

Many thanks for the response. The 'syntactic sugar' you mention is exactly the sort of thing that sounds very useful, especially if it shields us mere mortals from having to do a lot of the plumbing for simple scenarios.

It would be fantastic if you could share some of the API mock-ups with us - I'm passionate about this after reading Brad's FDG book ;)