Microsoft Extensibility Framework (MEF) is used to dynamically load Plugins into the UBIK Kernel.
Basic Prerequisites
If you want to create a Plugin which can be loaded in UBIK you have to refer to System.ComponentModel.Composition.
UBIK Injection Managemnt provides access to all the basic features used by the Kernel to identifiy and categorize the available Plugins. This management is provided by a library called UBIK.Injection. You have to refer to this library as well.
References:
- System.ComponentModel.Composition
- UBIK.Injection
Interface UBIK.Injection.IUbikPlugin
Your plugin must implement the Ubik Plugin Interface. To register your plugin for MEF composition by defining the export contract via an Attribute.
public class myPlugIn : UBIK.Injection.IUbikPlugin
{
}
MetaData
Ubik needs some Meta Information to manage plugins correctly. The available MetaInformation are defined by the interface UBIK.Injection.IUbikInjectionMetaData
Mandatory information
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ID | string | Unique ID of the Plugin |
| Type | System.Type | Systemtype of the Plugin. Used for filtering the Plugins during loading. |
Optional information
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Name | string | Name of the plugin (for UI Presentation) |
| Description | string | Name of the plugin (for UI Presentation) |
| Version | int | Version of the plugin. As there are more plugins with the same ID, only the plugin with the highest Version is available. |
| TargetApplication | PluginTargetApplication | Possibility to limit the plugin for a single type of application. |
| MinimumKernelVersion | string | Minimum required Kernel version: Format x.x.x.x |
| MinimumDatabaseVersion | string | Minimum required Database version: Format x.x.x.x |
| Company | string | Information about the Company (for UI Presentation) |
| Copyright | string | Copyright Information (for UI Presentation) |
Example:
[ExportMetadata("ID", "23B72354-A26F-449E-A7DA-F874B4167248")]
[ExportMetadata("Type", typeof(myPlugIn))]
[ExportMetadata("Name", "my Plugin")]
[ExportMetadata("Description", "does fancy things in version 2.4")]
[ExportMetadata("Version", 3)]
[ExportMetadata("MinimumKernelVersion", "2.4.0.0")]
[ExportMetadata("MinimumDatabaseVersion", "2.4.0.0")]
[ExportMetadata("Company", "Augmensys GmbH")]
[ExportMetadata("Copyright", "2014, Augmensys GmbH")]
public class myPlugIn : UBIK.Injection.IUbikPlugin
{
}