Managed Extensibility Framework

UPDATED WIKI: Home

gblock — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:04:03 GMT

MEF is now on CodePlex along with full source.

You can get to it here http://www.codeplex.com/MEF. At the site you can start discussions as well as add new workitems, and vote on existing.

The Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) is a new library in .NET that enables greater reuse of applications and components. Using MEF, .NET applications can make the shift from being statically compiled to dynamically composed. If you are building extensible applications, extensible frameworks and application extensions, then MEF is for you.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

gblock — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:21:27 GMT

MEF is now on CodePlex along with full source.

You can get to it here http://www.codeplex.com/MEF.. At the site you can start discussions as well as add new workitems, and vote on existing.

The Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) is a new library in .NET that enables greater reuse of applications and components. Using MEF, .NET applications can make the shift from being statically compiled to dynamically composed. If you are building extensible applications, extensible frameworks and application extensions, then MEF is for you.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

gblock — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:20:14 GMT

MEF is now on CodePlex along with full source.

You can get to it here www.codeplex.com/MEF.. At the site you can start discussions as well as add new workitems, and vote on existing.

The Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) is a new library in .NET that enables greater reuse of applications and components. Using MEF, .NET applications can make the shift from being statically compiled to dynamically composed. If you are building extensible applications, extensible frameworks and application extensions, then MEF is for you.

NEW POST: MEF has been moved to codeplex

gblock — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:14:33 GMT

HI Guys

MEF is now on CodePlex along with full source.

You can get to it here www.codeplex.com/MEF.. At the site you can start discussions as well as add new workitems, and vote on existing.

Thanks
Glenn

NEW POST: Question about Calculator Example

CharlesCrain — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:51:10 GMT

Calculator and IValueStack

In the calculator example, why is the value stack exported as a singleton, instead of being passed into the Evaluate() method of IOperation? The reason I ask is that I have a similar use case for MEF, where I want to call into extension components, then have them call back into an interface that I provide to alter the state of the system. However, I want to do this in a multithreaded way -- I want to call multiple extensions in parallel from multiple threads, and have them all operate on separate instances of the interface I expose to them. I don't want to use a Singleton and just serialize access to it either, both for performance reasons, and because I truly want each thread to have a separate instance with different state.

It seems like the least-resistance path to this is to simple pass an interface into a method call in the extension's interface. But looking through the MEF examples, there is no instance of this being done. Exported interfaces always use built-in datatypes. Is there some reason things are done this way? Is it bad practice to pass complex datatypes like instances and interfaces across MEF exported interfaces?

NEW POST: Strong Naming

JamesMoorhouse — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:36:53 GMT

I installed MEF and worked up some examples of how we would implement it. I'm pretty impressed with the simplicity.

I was asked about it working with Strong Named assemblies, so I tried making some changed.

1. I made my calling app Strong Named and was no longer able to call MEF. MEF needed to be strong named at that point.
2. I made the MEF modules Strong Named but was unable to build the implementation because there is one dll with no source.
System.Reflection.StructuredValues.dll this is not strong named so I'm stuck at that point.

But I really just have a question. If/When MEF is strong named will it require that extension assemblies be strong named?

NEW POST: MEF vs OSGi

ildarb — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:01:48 GMT

It's hard to avoid comparisons with Java world.

As Java is moving(or already there) to OSGi and the idea of universal middleware.

Are we going to see something like that in .Net?

NEW POST: Comparison of CompositionContainer with traditional IoC Containers

brettryan — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:08:22 GMT

I'm also interested too. I'd like to know how this also relates to Composite WPF, where does MEF fit in with Composite WPF?

NEW POST: Roadmap

waday — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:51:58 GMT

Oh no. Wouldn't even try this with production code. I will be watching this closely though. I am just so impatient.

NEW POST: Roadmap

davkean — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 06:48:14 GMT

Glad to hear that you liked the samples.

We haven't announced any dates on when MEF is going to be released. However, be aware that this is a very early look and the API's will change significantly between now and the next CTP. I wouldn't take any dependency on this in any serious application (the EULA actually calls this this out), apart from playing around it with it as if it was a prototype.

Regards

David

NEW POST: Roadmap

waday — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:29:56 GMT

I have checked out the samples and I think that this is really awesome. Any idea on when/if the MEF is going to be released? I really want to start digging into this but am leery of using this when it's likely to change radically before release.

Thanks

NEW POST: Comparison of CompositionContainer with traditional IoC Containers

Stiiifff — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:18:20 GMT

Hello there,

Could you give us a summary of the responsilibities of the CompositionContainer? How does it compare with a 'traditional' IoC container (Unity, Windsor) ?

More specifically on the features:
- Will the CompositionContainer handle component creation in the future (or do we always have to pass an instance to it)?
- Is generic specialization part of the features CompositionContainer will support ?

Thanks,
Steve

UPDATED WIKI: Home

mtrofin — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:08:40 GMT

The Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) provides developers with a tool to easily add extensibility to their applications and with minimal impact on existing code. The application developer can define extension points according to the functionality required of an extension, while the extension developer uses those points to interact with the application.

MEF enables this extensibility to take place without creating a hard dependency in either direction. Applications can be extended at run time without recompilation, and extensions can be used by multiple applications sharing the same extension requirements. MEF also allows an application to delay the loading of an extension while still examining its metadata, enabling efficient traversal of large catalogs of extensions.

For more information, download the community technical preview (CTP) archive containing binaries, samples, and documentation!

One of the goals of the CTP is to get early feedback from the community. We'd love to hear from you - let us know what you think on the forum.

RELEASED: MEF CTP June 4, 2008 (Jun 04, 2008)

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:07:45 GMT

CREATED RELEASE: MEF CTP June 4, 2008 (Jun 04, 2008)

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:07:45 GMT

UPDATED WIKI: Home

mtrofin — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:16:39 GMT

The Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) provides developers with a tool to easily add extensibility to their applications and with minimal impact on existing code. The application developer can define extension points according to the functionality required of an extension, while the extension developer uses those points to interact with the application.

MEF enables this extensibility to take place without creating a hard dependency in either direction. Applications can be extended at run time without recompilation, and extensions can be used by multiple applications sharing the same extension requirements. MEF also allows an application to delay the loading of an extension while still examining its metadata, enabling efficient traversal of large catalogs of extensions.

For more information, Download the community technical preview (CTP) archive containing binaries, samples, and documentation!

One of the goals of the CTP is to get early feedback from the community. We'd love to hear from you - let us know what you think on the forum.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

mtrofin — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:14:07 GMT

The Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) provides developers with a tool to easily add extensibility to their applications and with minimal impact on existing code. The application developer can define extension points according to the functionality required of an extension, while the extension developer uses those points to interact with the application.

MEF enables this extensibility to take place without creating a hard dependency in either direction. Applications can be extended at run time without recompilation, and extensions can be used by multiple applications sharing the same extension requirements. MEF also allows an application to delay the loading of an extension while still examining its metadata, enabling efficient traversal of large catalogs of extensions.

For more information, Download the pre-release archive containing binaries, samples, and documentation!

One of the goals of this pre-release is to get early feedback from the community. We'd love to hear from you - let us know what you think on the forum.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

mtrofin — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:09:45 GMT

The Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) provides developers with a tool to easily add extensibility to their applications and with minimal impact on existing code. The application developer can define extension points according to the functionality required of an extension, while the extension developer uses those points to interact with the application.

MEF enables this extensibility to take place without creating a hard dependency in either direction. Applications can be extended at run time without recompilation, and extensions can be used by multiple applications sharing the same extension requirements. MEF also allows an application to delay the loading of an extension while still examining its metadata, enabling efficient traversal of large catalogs of extensions.

For more information, Download the CTP archive containing binaries, samples, and documentation!

CREATED RELEASE: MEF CTP June 4, 2008 (Jun 04, 2008)

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:08:15 GMT

UPDATED WIKI: Home

mtrofin — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:45:06 GMT

The Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) provides developers with a tool to easily add extensibility to their applications and with minimal impact on existing code. The application developer can define extension points according to the functionality required of an extension, while the extension developer uses those points to interact with the application.

MEF enables this extensibility to take place without creating a hard dependency in either direction. Applications can be extended at run time without recompilation, and extensions can be used by multiple applications sharing the same extension requirements. MEF also allows an application to delay the loading of an extension while still examining its metadata, enabling efficient traversal of large catalogs of extensions.

For more information, Download the CTP archive containing binaries, samples, and documentation!