How to build a C # framework?

Question

I would like to implement a plug-in platform for a C # application; so the application does not have to know about all available .DLLs at compile time, but then can dynamically bind at runtime. I expect that I will need to configure some expected parameters for transferring information to and from plugins, but I'm not sure what else is needed or how to do it in C #. Could you point me to a template for this implementation or a framework that I can implement to achieve this goal (if an API is required, an Open Source license is required)?

Answer 1

The Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) is what you want to take a look at. It was developed by Microsoft, and a stable release version is included in .NET 4.0 and later.

Answer 2

You should take a look at the Mono.Addins library . It is open source, easy to use and really powerful (I think it is even used by MonoDevelop itself).