We have released FxCop rules to verify view and contract assemblies. This should make it much easier to create views and contracts that follow the version-resilience and isolation guidelines. Head on over to our CodePlex site on http://www.codeplex.com...

Aren’t AppDomains too Slow? “Aren’t AppDomains too slow?” This is one of most common questions we get when we recommend AppDomain or Process isolation to someone building an extensible application. For some applications the answer is yes, which is why...

We've just release the first update to our Pipeline Generator to Codeplex: https://www.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ProjectName=clraddins&ReleaseId=9222 This release addresses many of the issues/suggestions the community filed with the...

This has been one of the most requested features we've had since people started learning more about our model and playing with the bits and I'm very happy to announce that we have published this on CodePlex: http://www.codeplex.com/clraddins/Wiki/View...

We’ve been receiving a lot of questions recently regarding the support for Windows Forms based add-ins and hosts in a multi-AppDomain environment. Now that we’ve released .NetFX 3.5 with the support for passing WPF controls across AppDomains the lack...

I was recently interviewed by James Vastbinder, an ISV Platform Strategy Advisor for Microsoft. We discussed the needs of ISV’s and what’s new in the pending Orcas release (i.e., CLR v3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 v9.0). And for those interested in hearing...

Earlier Jack announced an exciting new feature in our beta2 release in the ability host WPF controls across AppDomain boundaries. This will allow add-ins to generate their own UI and to pass it back for display within the hosts window. Ever since the...

We just released VS 2008 and .Net 3.5 Beta 2 (code name "Orcas"). You may download the release here . What’s new? 1. UI extensibility By far the most requested feature has been UI extensibility built upon the Add-In model. We are very happy to announce...

A good question to ask when evaluating a design is ‘how is the lifetime of this object or component managed?’ That is, · How do you know it isn’t needed anymore? · Is it possible to release the resources while the object is still in use? · Is it possible...

Let’s discuss the specifics of the construction of the add-in, the isolation boundary and the pipeline in the add-in model – i.e. activation. I’ll be referring to the discovery and activation as discussed here and the segments of the add-in pipeline as...

Last time we discussed some issues to be aware of when trying to build hosts that are resilient to failures in their add-ins. The central idea was to subscribe to the UnhandledException event on the hosts AppDomain and to use the "sender" parameter to...

One of the nice aspects of isolating add-ins in a different AppDomain is that it makes it easier to prevent failures in the Add-In from impacting the host and at the same time improves your ability to detect when a problem has occurred and which piece...

First off I'd like to apologize for the long pause between posts. We've been working heads down on some pretty exciting add-in stuff that we can't announce just yet and haven't had as much time as we'd like to spend on this blog. We're wrapping that work...

We've had a few questions internally and externally from people who were having problems running some of our earlier samples on the March CTP so I wanted to give everyone a heads up on what has changed and how to move forward any sample code you may have...

Introduction to Adapters If two types (A and B) have to version independently, they cannot have static references between them. Instead an adapter is needed to sits between A and B. It enables them to communicate without a direct reference and thus providing...

Some of you may have noticed already but for those who haven't I'd like to announce one of the major new System.AddIn features that made it into March's Orcas CTP . We've now made it possible for hosts to activate add-ins in a seperate process with the...

The core foundation of the Managed Add-In Framework is a “Contract”. Contracts are non-versioning interfaces that define the protocol for communicating across the boundary between to the host and the add-in. In order for these contracts to be valuable...

One of the key benefits of our new managed add-in model is the architecture our system uses to connect the host to the add-in. Our system defines something we call the Add-In Communication Pipeline that defines a series of abstractions that allow hosts...

The second of two articles we wrote for MSDN magazine was published online today (and available in news stands now): http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/07/03/CLRInsideOut/default.aspx This article discusses the System AddIn pipeline and we promised...

Details about the System.AddIn’s Implementation of Add-In Discovery Last time we discussed several common approaches to add-in discovery and some of the pros and cons of each. We reviewed type hierarchy, custom attribute, and xml manifest based discovery...

One of the first problems you try to solve when adding extensibility to your application is that of discovery: how do you find the add-ins to your application? Depending on the application, and what happens to pop into your head at the time, you may go...

Jason He is one of our team members and has an interesting series of blog posts describing his efforts to use the add-in model from Paint.Net. You can check these out here: http://blogs.msdn.com/zifengh/ He goes step by step through the entire process...

The first of two articles we wrote for MSDN magazine was published online today (and available in newstands now): http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/07/02/CLRInsideOut/default.aspx This article introduces you to our APIs and walks through a sample...

We’re a new feature team in the CLR that is tasked with making it easy for managed applications to host add-ins (and plug-ins, add-ons, extensions, ...) . These features will first be included in the Orcas version of Visual Studio and the .Net Framework...