Video: Jack Gudenkauf on the BCL and Add-ins [Jack Gudenkauf]

I was recently interviewed by James Vastbinder, an ISV Platform Strategy Advisor for Microsoft.

We discussed the needs of ISV’s and what’s new in the pending Orcas release (i.e., CLR v3.5 and Visual Studio 2008 v9.0).

And for those interested in hearing more on Application extensibility and the Add-in (Add in) model, including some newly released features, like WPF support, check out the following link.

Note the disclaimer on WinForms and WPF utilizing Crossbow over the CLR Add-In model.

Here is a bit more on this subject:

The use of "Crossbow" for WPF and WinForms interoperability has been a frequently asked question.

In Orcas, we haven't thoroughly tested Crossbow scenarios utilizing the WPF Add-In offering.

That said, WinForms applications with multiple AppDomains are supported as long as no WinForms controls are passed across the boundary. In the WPF Add-in implementation we do not pass Add-in controls across domains, therefore, the use of "Crossbow" *should* work. Your mileage may vary :-)

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 22, 2007
  Can you shed any light onto whether the Add-in model will be supported in Silverlight? This would greatly help us plan our product architecture (i.e. can we build a WPF core assembly that has Add-In hosting support or do we need to place it elsewhere).Thanks!
• Anonymous
  August 23, 2007
  Unfortunately there are no plans to bring the add-in model into the 1.1 release of silverlight. This was mainly due to a size/scenario constraint though. What were you thinking about using it for?--Jesse
• Anonymous
  October 20, 2007
  I know there are people interested in using the CLR Add-In model with traditional Windows Forms controls.  I have posted a sample solution using what I call a "leased-space" model.  There are still still some small kinks to work out around command keys, but I'm hoping that others can help fill in the gap and we can have a working model to leverage 3.5 add-ins with Windows Forms.http://softwaregreenhouses.com/blog/2007/10/20/windows-controls-extensibility-with-net-35-clr-add-ins-using-a-leased-space-model/-- Marty Nelson
• Anonymous
  October 30, 2007
  I think it would be great help if the addin can be supported for Silverlight application.We can have one set of architecture framework and design for both web and WPF clients instead of two. If it is not one, it will defnitely have a large portion of common designs and framework reuse.Joe Lee  
• Anonymous
  November 12, 2007
  On a tangential note, is there any guidance as to how to deploy an app using the add-ins infrastructure whereby add-ins can be automatically updated? I'm thinking something like Firefox, where the app itself updates pretty much automatically, but it also ensures add-ins are always kept up to date.