Finding and Calling DLLs or Modules

Hi,

I am wondering whether it is possible for me to have a piece of code in VB which would scan a selected directory and allow the use of all the DLL files in that directory.

My program is basically an archive reader for many different file types. I want to allow people to write plugins for different archive types so my program can interperate them. The working of my program is pretty simple - if the user chooses a archive called myfile.red or something like that, my program will first see if it can understand that file. If not, it will look in the preset plugin directory for a dll called red.dll (ie, the name of the dll is the name of the file archive extension)

Is this possible to achieve? What about the dynamic inclusion of VB modules instead of DLL files? When I access these DLLs, will the DLL be able to access global variables in my VB program?


Thanks guys - I tried searching the forums but I didn't find anything too helpful :(

WATTO
[email protected]
http://www.watto.org

yeah you can do that, here is a sample

http://sandsprite.com/Sleuth/1.3plugins/

you could also dynamically include raw code modules
if you wanted by using the Microsoft Script Control.

your plugins can access your global form variables, form
objects and classes, but I dont think they can access
module subs or global application variables unless you
write a stub for them on a com object like a form or class

You gain access to these things by passing the plugin
a reference to your com object (calling a function with the
form as the argument)