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Plug-in Architectures

Plug-in Architectures. Presented by Truc Nguyen. What’s a plug-in?. “a type of program that tightly integrates with a larger application to add a special capability to it” - CNET “a set of software components that adds specific abilities to a larger software application” - Wikipedia.

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Plug-in Architectures

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  1. Plug-in Architectures Presented by Truc Nguyen

  2. What’s a plug-in? “a type of program that tightly integrates with a larger application to add a special capability to it” - CNET “a set of software components that adds specific abilities to a larger software application” - Wikipedia

  3. What’s a plug-in? • Component architectures • Semantics • Plug-ins • Extensions • Add-ons

  4. Plug-ins • Not hard-coded into host app • Unknown at compile time • Not a standalone application • One step further: compose an entire application out of plugins

  5. Why do have plug-ins? • Extensible • Modular • Customizable • Keep It Small and Simple!

  6. Traditional vs Pure

  7. Traditional Plug-in • Extend capabilities of base application • Not compiled into the application

  8. Pure Plug-in • Everything is a plug-in • Plug-ins extend other plug-ins • Where does that leave the base application? • A run-time engine for plug-ins • Plug-ins become hosts to other plug-ins by providing extension points • How do plug-ins play nicely with each other? • Abide by the framework’s or each other’s rules

  9. Pure Plug-in Engine • Keeping track of where the right plug-in code is and running it • Maintain a registry of plug-ins and functions that go with each • Manage extension model and dependencies between plug-ins

  10. Plug-in Design Patterns • Best practice solutions to solve a design problem • How to support dynamic loading of modules unknown during compilation

  11. Plug-in Pattern

  12. Eclipse • Well known as a Java IDE • Pure plug-in architecture • Runtime engine itself is a bunch of core plug-ins except for tiny bootstrap code • Universal plug-in architecture for creating “anything, but nothing in particular” • Each plug-in has a manifest

  13. Eclipse

  14. Gecko (NPAPI) • Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface • Plug-in is completely controlled by web page that calls it • On start, Gecko looks for plug-in modules in a specified locations on the system • On a page with certain embedded media, checks for plug-in with matching MIME type creates new instance and runs it

  15. Photoshop • Central Plug-in loader • Scans PiPL (Plug-in Property List) • Fixed types • filter, import, export, file format, automation • selection and parser (not implemented by 3rd party) • Non-Photoshop applications can support Photoshop plug-ins

  16. Chrome • Scripting API vs Browser API • Extensions can modify the DOM • Can have access to the history, current tabs, bookmarks, etc • Composed of files, can be packaged as .crx • manifest.json • HTML files • JavaScript • Other resources (e.g CSS, images)

  17. Chrome • Background pages • Persistent or event • Content scripts are JS that executes in the context of the page just loaded • Can change the DOM on the current page • Can’t change the DOM on the background page of parent extension • Callbacks execute on a user action

  18. Challenges • Installing and updating • Configuration plugin • Security • Concurrent plug-in version • Eclipse convention: Only plug-ins that contribute code libraries can coexist • Scalability

  19. Questions?

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