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Compatibility with integrated software and extensions

Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 6:05 pm
by GameMusic
I'm writing a message board and I want it to be able to integrate with 3rd party programs (to design in an integration-friendly way, not necessarily integrating with any specific software) and support installing of extensions (as opposed to hacks). For now I can practice by integrating it with my own scripts and writing some features as extensions.

How can I do this or where can I learn how to do it? The methods I am considering so far are implementing most of it as base classes (so that extensions can be written as derived classes), writing server classes that can be used by client software, and making a general template class that could work with board templates and a site template.

Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 6:25 pm
by superdezign
There are a lot of available applications that work that way. You should look into them and the methods they use.

Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2007 10:16 pm
by alex.barylski
Have a look at Drupal, Mambo, Joomla, CMSMS, etc, etc...

They all implement extensions through modules. The idea is pretty basic and the flexibility is quite impressive.

Using derived classes as a way of implementing an end-user extension...would be nasty and result in hackish code.