A
Alan_Barclay_Uk
Guest
Hi Guys
I'm looking for some guidance for best method/practices developing an application that uses dynamic link libraries to provide specific functionality.
I currently have a VB.net application that has grown so much over the years with functionality that the source code is rapidly becoming unmanageable.
I've had the idea of splitting this up into separate dynamic link libraries to facilitate the ability of making changes to the functionality supplied by these libraries when needed that won't affect the main application.
To keep things simple, I'm looking at using a treeview in the main application form that gets populated on startup with all the dll's in the library folder and the functionality each contains e.g.
+ Load.dl
Excel
Word
+ Save.dll
Excel
Word
+ View.dll
Excel
Word
The above tree would get the root nodes from the contained dll's and the sub-nodes would be populated from the public functions the dll contains, so clicking Excel in the View.dll node would display an excel spread sheet using the Excel subrouting from the View.dll.
Note* the dll functionality may contain additional sub functionality as in View.dll Excel may have a version sub function. Currently this is done using a class - Public _View as c_View() which is then used _View .Excel() to display the spread sheet or _View .Excel.Version() to display the spread sheet version.
The end goal is to have the ability to add remove specific functionality purely by changing/adding/removing a dll file.
I've tried to keep this explanation as simple as possible that hopefully someone will be able to assist me with a solution instead of the barrage of the usual 'Why do you want to do this?' and "I'd do something totally irrelevant" responses!
Note* I've used Excel and Word in my example, however my application will be supporting a variety of custom industry file types from different vendors in the Controls & Automation sector each having different methods of storing/retrieving data. The dll method seems like a good method of keeping the independent vendor functionality separate from all the others and allowing the application to be distributed with only the required vendor support.
Thanks for any assistance in Advance.
Continue reading...
I'm looking for some guidance for best method/practices developing an application that uses dynamic link libraries to provide specific functionality.
I currently have a VB.net application that has grown so much over the years with functionality that the source code is rapidly becoming unmanageable.
I've had the idea of splitting this up into separate dynamic link libraries to facilitate the ability of making changes to the functionality supplied by these libraries when needed that won't affect the main application.
To keep things simple, I'm looking at using a treeview in the main application form that gets populated on startup with all the dll's in the library folder and the functionality each contains e.g.
+ Load.dl
Excel
Word
+ Save.dll
Excel
Word
+ View.dll
Excel
Word
The above tree would get the root nodes from the contained dll's and the sub-nodes would be populated from the public functions the dll contains, so clicking Excel in the View.dll node would display an excel spread sheet using the Excel subrouting from the View.dll.
Note* the dll functionality may contain additional sub functionality as in View.dll Excel may have a version sub function. Currently this is done using a class - Public _View as c_View() which is then used _View .Excel() to display the spread sheet or _View .Excel.Version() to display the spread sheet version.
The end goal is to have the ability to add remove specific functionality purely by changing/adding/removing a dll file.
I've tried to keep this explanation as simple as possible that hopefully someone will be able to assist me with a solution instead of the barrage of the usual 'Why do you want to do this?' and "I'd do something totally irrelevant" responses!
Note* I've used Excel and Word in my example, however my application will be supporting a variety of custom industry file types from different vendors in the Controls & Automation sector each having different methods of storing/retrieving data. The dll method seems like a good method of keeping the independent vendor functionality separate from all the others and allowing the application to be distributed with only the required vendor support.
Thanks for any assistance in Advance.
Continue reading...