form modules?

[mmatteson]

my friend just asked me if i knew how to do this. i didn't so now i'm here. this is what he asked.

you have one main app. and you have different for lake of better term Modules, plugins etc..that you could choose to be included in your app. for example. take trillian. you can add a weather plugin and then you have a weather form in your app to look at the weather. or you have a stock plugin that you can add and then veiw stocks. how would you do something like this. even the theory on how to would be great! thanks!

[Pirate]

Interfaces is what you are looking for . Search the forum for a post by Cander . It's very helpful .

[mmatteson]

thanks

[PeteD]

I would argue a case for including all the forms the same project, and having say, a licencing which handles which modules are available, and only shows some of the forms.

If you do have a common inteface for theses forms but these forms are in separate projects, then you loose flexibility in code re-use (i.e. it makes it more cumbersome to share data between forms in different projects and use inheritance). It would also make it easier to share forms between modules (e.g. all modules can use the same form, but some controls are disabled for some modules, and enabled for others).

[PT Exorcist]

you can use a mustinhertic class(known as abstract classes)

[Cander]

I would argue a case for including all the forms the same project, and having say, a licencing which handles which modules are available, and only shows some of the forms.

That goes completely against a plugin system which is what he wants. Its not a plugin if the main program comes with it.

[PeteD]

Originally posted by Cander
That goes completely against a plugin system which is what he wants. Its not a plugin if the main program comes with it.

I agree. You did answer what he asked. I just thought I'd mention this as in the past I was concidering writing plug-ins for my app, and decided against it in the end. I think it really depends on the situation. I think plugins are great if you want to allow other users /companies to add functinalty. If all of these plugins are going to be devloped internally, then (in my opinion) plugins are more trouble than they are worth.