AlterNET Extensibility Studio - extending .NET application with user-defined logic.
Computers & Technology → Technology
- Author Andrew Medvedev
- Published May 7, 2017
- Word count 538
Like many other .NET software developers we love Visual Studio - it's fast, robust, efficient and fun to use.
With a variety of supported platforms and a rich set of standard controls (not to mention third-party controls from well-known vendors, which cover anything and everything, from simple buttons and editors to advanced controls like charts, grids and schedulers), a little bit of time and resources can let you create whatever application you can imagine.
But what about making some of the power Visual Studio provides available to the users of your application? Well, most apps out there will not need that power, but there are some, just to name a few, like Microsoft Office, Solid Works and Adobe Photoshop, which provide the Software Development Kit (SDK), so developers or power users can program custom logic for these platforms. It may be just simple macros in Microsoft Office that capture repetitive tasks in the form of a Visual Basic for Application script and replay them when needed, or full-featured Adobe Photoshop graphic filters.
Leaving aside the way these SDKs are implemented, the basic idea behind is more or less the same - there are some internal application APIs that are made available to the writer of user-defined plugins or scenarios and a set of programming tools that allows these APIs to be utilized. For some applications you might need a proper development platform, such as Visual Studio itself, but some come with their own set of tools - like the VBA for writing macros in Microsoft Office Word or Excel.
So, the real question is, what feasible options does a .NET developer if he decides that his application has to provide such functionality via some sort of scripting language (so the power users can extend that application)? Well, he will face a choice of either programming this feature himself, or shopping around and finding already existing solutions from some of the previously mentioned third-party controls and components vendors.
There are, of course, bits and pieces scattered around allowing to assemble such solutions - as an example, executing .NET scripts is actually relatively straight-forward; finding some kind of text editor enabling to write these scripts is not a problem either; however, once you go through the first few steps, different questions might rise up, like: how these scripts can be debugged; how the user can define custom user interface and hook it up to the script; how to make the code editor to recognize application-defined objects and provide valid code completion guidance as user types. Well, searching through what's available suggests that there are no simple answers to these questions.
AlterNET Extensibility Studio was developed to solve this problem - and bring all these bits and pieces together under the same umbrella. It consists of the following component libraries designed to work together:
-
Scripter provides an engine to run, C# and Visual Basic scripts with an ability to access application objects, and Script Debugger engine allowing to debug these scripts.
-
Code Editor supports all the features needed for efficient code editing, such as syntax highlighting, code completion, code folding, etc.
-
Visual Form Designer permits creating custom user interfaces, which can be hooked up to the user code.
AlterNET Software is an Australian software development company focused on developing leading-edge products and solution allowing to extend .NET applications with user-defined logic, code-editing functionality and custom user interfaces.
Article source: https://articlebiz.comRate article
Article comments
There are no posted comments.
Related articles
- Top 10 Features You Didn't Know Existed in Product Configurators for Business Central
- From Paper to Digital: Transforming QA with Dynamics 365 Business Central
- Elevate Your Business Central Experience with Free Barcoding Integration
- Choosing the Best SMS Gateway Provider: 5 Essential Features for Success
- Designing Easy to Use Software: Understanding the Basics of UX Testing in Quality Assurance
- The Link: Merging Brains and Computers
- Machine translation vs AI translation: What sets them apart?
- Navigating the Path to Data Excellence: A Guide to Choosing the Right Power BI Consultant with GTH Cloud 365
- The Future of AI: Exciting Times, Big Questions
- The Evolving Landscape of SEO in 2024: Navigating the Digital Frontier
- Customize Your Gaming Console To Optimize Your Gaming Experience
- Data Recovery Complications
- Unveiling the Power of Digital Platforms
- Revolutionizing Connectivity: Digital Transformation in the Telecom Industry
- An Introduction to MacBook Pro
- Cultivating Efficient Partition Management with NTFS Recovery Toolkit 23
- Create Business or Personal Disk Replication with Active@ ISO Manager 23
- Essential Phone Security Tips for Your New Gadget
- Never lose your data again due to a lousy format. Use Active@ UNFORMAT 23
- Generative AI Aims to Bring Efficiency to the Production Process
- The Developer's Dream: AI-Powered Software Solutions Unveiled!
- BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY
- Unlocking Peak Efficiency: The Ultimate Guide to AI Productivity Accelerator
- AI-Powered Applications in 2023: A Year of Lessons and Reflections
- What exactly are metaverse domains?
- Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) in Videos
- Streamline Operations and Enhance Patient Experience
- The Revolutionary Impact of Digital Platforms on the Finance Industry.
- Streamlining Finances with QuickBooks Desktop 2024
- Monopoly go mod apk unlimited dice latest version