BorlandTalk.com Borland discussion newsgroups   Archives   FAQ   Search   Memberlist   Usergroups   Register   Profile   Log in to check your private messages   Log in  Eclipse-Like Plugins?          BorlandTalk.com Forum Index -> Delphi Non-Technical View previous topic :: View next topic   Author Message Alexander Adam Guest Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2005 11:57 pm    Post subject: Eclipse-Like Plugins? hi! I am evaluating the task to write an eclipse-alike plugin framework within a delphi application (no use of packages just pure dlls and a general and easy framework).. anyone has a startet on that one? Note that I am not looking for any tutorials or components or whatever but more on "theoretical" stuff as the eclipse plugin framework is somewhat complex. thanks alex Back to top Andrew Guest Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2005 10:24 pm    Post subject: Re: Eclipse-Like Plugins? Alexander Adam wrote: Quote: I am evaluating the task to write an eclipse-alike plugin framework within a delphi application (no use of packages just pure dlls and a general and easy framework).. anyone has a startet on that one? Note that I am not looking for any tutorials or components or whatever but more on "theoretical" stuff as the eclipse plugin framework is somewhat complex. thanks alex 6 years ago, I was able to build a plugin framework by following an article in The Delphi Magazine. I highly recommend their back issue CDROM, with many excellent how-to articles. You'll need a decent understanding of OOP concepts like metaclasses and inheritance, but that's pretty common nowadays. Cheers, Andrew Back to top Heiko Behrens Guest Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 12:42 pm    Post subject: Re: Eclipse-Like Plugins? Hi Alexander, Quote: I am evaluating the task to write an eclipse-alike plugin framework within a delphi application (no use of packages just pure dlls and a general and easy framework).. anyone has a startet on that one? Sounds a bit like my diploma thesis I am working on Based on a commercial plug-in system I am evaluating the possibility to extend not only your application but plug-ins themselves. Although I am concentrating on the delphi-way-of-development (using object inspector rather then external xml files and keep type-safety) I do have extension points as eclipse does. In my opinion this is one of the key features eclipse' rich client platform offers compared to most of today's monolithic approaches where a plug-in is a "large block". It seems to be more efficient to deal with fine-grained aspects that can be plugged into several plug-ins and to build up cross-concern functionality that way. Quote: Note that I am not looking for any tutorials or components or whatever but more on "theoretical" stuff as the eclipse plugin framework is somewhat complex. Unfortunately, there's not much "theoretical" stuff out there. A few years ago there was a boom about "componentware". Some guys wrote about affinity of plug-ins and self-configurating systems, but I guess that won't help you. You can find heaps of books dealing with COM and OLE. Also, there are some articles and chapters that explain how to write delphi-plug-ins for the IDE itself. You can study Microsoft's model of VBA-extensions or something as special as ModelMaker's API. If you are looking for a detailed description of eclipse' plug-in-system I suggest Shavor S., D'Anjou J. et. al. (2001) "The Java Developer's Guide to Eclipse" Addison Wesley There's the "Java Plug-in Framework (JPF) Project" by Dmitry Olshansky ([url]http://jpf.sourceforge.net/)[/url]. He tries to extract a plug-in mechanism that is similar to eclipse'. Also, some months ago the "JSR-198 Specification 1.0" was published ([url]http://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=198)[/url]. It tries to define a standard API that allows developers to implement plug-ins (again, java). Unfortunately, I haven't found any delphi-related articles that go beyond BPLs and the possibility of sharing classes. Do you known any? I would be pleased to talk about the topic "plug-ins with delphi". Let me know if you are interested. Regards, Heiko Behrens Back to top Heiko Behrens Guest Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 12:50 pm    Post subject: Re: Eclipse-Like Plugins? Hi Andrew, Quote: 6 years ago, I was able to build a plugin framework by following an article in The Delphi Magazine. are you willing to share your solution? Can you describe what you achieved with your framework? What did you use it for? Do you have any conclusion concerning the benefit of such a system? Regards, Heiko Behrens Back to top Andrew Guest Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 3:45 am    Post subject: Re: Eclipse-Like Plugins? Heiko Behrens wrote: Quote: are you willing to share your solution? Can you describe what you achieved with your framework? What did you use it for? Do you have any conclusion concerning the benefit of such a system? Hi Heiko, From your other post in this thread, it sounds like you would be interested in the article. Its called "Distributed Application Development With Packages" by Brian Long, and its from issue 46 (June 1999) of The Delphi Magazine. As I said, this is available on CDROM from the magazine's website. Using the principles and example code in the article, I developed a "batch" report printing program that watches a folder and parses CSV type files output by various processes into presentable reports for sending to customers. The logic and presntation of the reports themselves (as ReportBuilder reports) are each contained in their own binary file that "plugs in" to the main app. The plugins are loaded and un-loaded dynamically, according to the contents of the CSV currently being parsed. In this way, you can add a new type of report without having to re-compile (or even stop!) the main app. I would certainly use a plug-in architecture again if I encountered a situation where a high level of agility was needed in the final app. Cheers, Andrew Back to top Heiko Behrens Guest Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 7:06 am    Post subject: Re: Eclipse-Like Plugins? Hi Andrew Quote: From your other post in this thread, it sounds like you would be interested in the article. Its called "Distributed Application Development With Packages" by Brian Long, and its from issue 46 (June 1999) of The Delphi Magazine. As I said, this is available on CDROM from the magazine's website. thanks for this reference. I looked at my shelf and even found the printed version You might be interested in a German article that has been published recently, "Package-Generierung: Undokumentierte Features und Entwicklungstools" (Generating Packages: Undocumented features and development tools) by Olaf Th. Buck and André Gode from Issue 3.05 of Der Entwickler ([url]http://www.entwickler.com/)[/url]. This article deals with circular references, versioning, naming conflicts and some other problems that occur using Delphi packages to build up a plug-in-system. You might want to read this contribution before you "would certainly use a plug-in architecture again" ;) Am I right, in your scenario all plug-ins were identical concerning there structure? Therefore, the interfaces you used to control them kept stable? 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