Building and Distributing Plugins

Building and Distributing Plugins

Copy after build

Place this target near the end of the plugin .csproj:

<Target Name="CopyPluginToSimulcastUtility" AfterTargets="Build">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <PluginName Condition="'$(SolutionName)' != ''">$(SolutionName)</PluginName>
    <PluginName Condition="'$(PluginName)' != ''">$(AssemblyName)</PluginName>
    <PluginName Condition="'$(PluginName)' == '' and '$(SolutionName)' == ''">Example_Plugin_Name</PluginName>
    <PluginDirectory>$(LOCALAPPDATA)\SimulcastUtility\Plugins\$(PluginName)</PluginDirectory>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <MakeDir Directories="$(PluginDirectory)" />

  <ItemGroup>
    <PluginFiles Include="$(TargetPath)" />
    <PluginFiles Include="$(TargetDir)$(AssemblyName).pdb" Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Debug' and Exists('$(TargetDir)$(AssemblyName).pdb')" />
    <PluginFiles Include="$(TargetDir)Your.Private.Dependency.dll" Condition="Exists('$(TargetDir)Your.Private.Dependency.dll')" />
  </ItemGroup>

  <Copy SourceFiles="@(PluginFiles)" DestinationFolder="$(PluginDirectory)" SkipUnchangedFiles="true" />
</Target>

Do not copy $(TargetDir)*.*; it includes host contracts and framework assemblies that should not be packaged.

Contract references

Set host references to Private=false:

<Reference Include="SimulcastUtility.Plugins">
  <HintPath>lib\SimulcastUtility.Plugins.dll</HintPath>
  <Private>false</Private>
</Reference>

Do the same for SimulcastUtility.Application and SimulcastUtility.Core. The host must supply these assemblies so plugin types share the same identity as application interfaces.

Include

• Main plugin DLL.
• Plugin-owned WPF resources not embedded as Page/Resource.
• Private managed dependencies not supplied by the host.
• Native runtime files required by private dependencies.
• .deps.json when required for dependency discovery.
• PDB files only in debug/developer packages.

Exclude

• SimulcastUtility.Plugins.dll
• SimulcastUtility.Application.dll
• SimulcastUtility.Core.dll
• Microsoft.Extensions.* assemblies already supplied by the target application unless a truly private/version-specific dependency requires otherwise
• WPF and .NET runtime assemblies
• Test assemblies, XML docs you do not intend to ship, and unrelated build output
• User data or developer-specific settings
• Plugin .pdb files if not in a debug environment

Package formats

Manage Plugins accepts a single DLL, a selected collection of DLLs, or a ZIP archive. Prefer ZIP for plugins with dependencies or native assets. Use one clearly named top-level folder and keep the main DLL easy to identify.

Example:

MyPlugin/
  MyPlugin.dll
  MyPlugin.deps.json
  ThirdParty.Library.dll
  runtimes/
    win-x64/
      native/
        native-library.dll

Release checklist

• Build Release for net10.0-windows and the target architecture requirements.
• Test import from a clean plugin directory.
• Test enable, disable, re-enable, refresh, directory reload, and deletion.
• Confirm no contract DLLs are included.
• Confirm settings survive restart and plugin-data directory changes.
• Confirm all UI follows default and custom themes.
• Confirm logs contain useful structured messages without secrets.
• Test with no receivers and with the selected receiver changing.
• Document application compatibility and plugin version.