Re: Creating a plug-in based WebApp

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Thanks for your informative inputs Joseph,

Really appreciate the article you provided about setting additional probing
path, I did haven't noticed that before...

Mats,

Do you have further idea based on Joseph's experience sharing...

Regards,

Steven Cheng
Microsoft Online Support

Get Secure! www.microsoft.com/security
(This posting is provided "AS IS", with no warranties, and confers no
rights.)
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| From: "Joseph Ferris" <joseph.ferris@xxxxxxxxx>
| Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
| Subject: Re: Creating a plug-in based WebApp
| Date: 29 Nov 2005 07:38:43 -0800
| Organization: http://groups.google.com
| Lines: 89
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microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet:361488
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|
| Steven,
|
| I've been following this thread, as I have been working on a similar
| application to what Mats is describing. I have a CMS with a dynamic
| plugin architecture that hasn't gotten much beyond the proof of concept
| stage.
|
| But, what I have a question about is:
|
| > In addition, as for
| > =============
| > If I add <probing privatePath="AnotherBin"/> to my .config file and
| > touch a file there, will the application restart itself then too?
| > =============
| >
| > this is not possible, because the ASP.NET's runtime is a particular
| > customized CLR host, it is forced to use the "bin" as the only private
| > probing path (no matter what we set in the web.config....) .
|
| I have been able to get this to work, though. The catch is that you
| can not just add the values to the privatePath attribute, but you also
| must add an <%@ Assembly %> and <%@ Import %> directive on the ASPX
| page.
|
| There is a brief article about this at:
|
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=4d0ef4fb-f8ae-4355-a658-3c
0432c98dbe
|
| This did not work for me, as that defeated the purpose of dynamically
| included ASCXs. Touching the ASPX pages to include all possible
| controls (which are analyzed and have creation information stored in
| the database) would become make for a page that is too large and prone
| to error. This technique is more for a team of developers working on a
| single solution that is broken into multiple projects that might change
| at varying frequencies.
|
| What I ended up doing was (I am working off the top of my head, since I
| don't have access to my home development machine from the office), I
| created a base control class that inherited from UserControl, where I
| extended it with some creation and data loading code. I also created
| an Interface that all controls which inherit from my base must also
| implement, so that I ensure that the system can talk to them.
|
| To create them, I have implemented an Abstract Factory pattern and
| created an object which creates any control that implements my
| interface and also is a type of my object, based upon the information
| stored in the database and the type of content the page should be
| displaying. So far, it is working well - although I will be the first
| to admit that I have a long way to go until it does something useful
| (like return data to the screen!). ;-)
|
| Like you, Mats, I have been struggling with a way to organize my bin,
| as well as allow the worker process to be able to see my changes.
| Right now, my test app is able to load a control from a subdirectory of
| bin by using LoadControl. To be honest with you, I have no clue how I
| was able to get it to work. I had struggled with it for a better part
| of the weekend. ;-)
|
| The way that my solution is set up is that I have a "Library" project
| that contains my framework. I also have a main solution that is the
| web site itself. It is really small and lightweight, since most of the
| functionality is in the Library. My plugin that I have been playing
| with is stored in two places. The ASCX is in a subdirectory of the web
| site, in this particular case, it is in ./Template/Default. (My
| plugins can either be widgets, or templates, or a couple of other types
| of specific objects.) The DLL from the Plugin's project is in the bin
| folder of the web site at the moment.
|
| While it works, I was hoping to get a more granular structure, as well.
| I am not sure for your reasoning, but I am guessing that it is similar
| to mine. I am looking for plugin segragation. Since I might not be
| the one developing a plugin, I don't have control over things such as
| naming, etc. If I could "sandbox" them, I could have a little more
| piece of mind. Of primary concern is the use of third party controls
| in relation to a third party control from the app. Isn't that a
| confusing way to put it? ;-) What I meant to say is if PluginA uses
| CompanyZ's WonderWidget, as does PluginB, I now have to implement some
| sort of reference counting to be able to determine when I can remove
| the WonderWidget unless I can come up with a sound and secure way of
| organizing the plugin "installs".
|
| Anyhow, I have rambled on enough for you, I am sure. When I get to
| looking at my code again, I'll see if there is anything that I didn't
| mention. Unfortunately, taking the commute to work into account, I
| don't have much time for my project until the weekends.
|
| Thanks for reading!
|
| Joseph
|
|

.

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