Entry Points

Sometimes a plugin needs to expose more than its main class. For example, it might provide an EmojiReader that the app can use to read content. Mark that class as an entry point.

Mark a class

Add [EntryPoint] to a public class and give it a Name:

using ShadowPluginLoader.Attributes;

namespace ShadowExample.Plugin.Emoji;

[EntryPoint(Name = "EmojiReader")]
public class EmojiReader
{
}

Set Name yourself. You'll use it to find the entry point later.

What gets generated?

The tool writes entry points into the generated plugin.json. The main class goes in MainPlugin, and additional classes go in EntryPoints:

{
  "Id": "ShadowExample.Plugin.Emoji",
  "Name": "Emoji",
  "Version": "1.1.0",
  "SdkVersion": "[1.3, 1.4)",
  "DllName": "ShadowExample.Plugin.Emoji",
  "BuiltIn": false,
  "Dependencies": [],
  "MainPlugin": "ShadowExample.Plugin.Emoji.EmojiPlugin",
  "EntryPoints": [
    {
      "Name": "EmojiReader",
      "Type": "ShadowExample.Plugin.Emoji.EmojiReader"
    }
  ]
}

Use it in the loader

After loading the plugin, MetaData.EntryPoints gives you each entry point's name and Type. For example, find EmojiReader and register it with DI:

using System.Linq;
using DryIoc;

var reader = meta.EntryPoints.FirstOrDefault(x => x.Name == "EmojiReader");
if (reader?.EntryPointType is { } type)
{
    DiFactory.Services.Register(type, reuse: Reuse.Singleton);
}

Put this code in the loader's BeforeLoadPlugin(Type plugin, ExampleMetaData meta) method. Use Name to find the entry and EntryPointType to get its class.

If the class's constructor needs other services, register those too. See Custom Loading Logic for places to add your own code during loading.