---
title: "Another article of mine published on MSDN: Search Dynamically for Plug-Ins"
url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2003/12/29/another-article-of-mine-published-on-msdn-search-dynamically.md"
canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2003/12/29/another-article-of-mine-published-on-msdn-search-dynamically.html"
published: "2003-12-29T16:52:00"
updated: "2003-12-29T16:52:00"
tags: [".Net Original", "Cool Articles"]
author: "Roy Osherove"
description: "Search Dynamically for Plug-Ins Summery: \"This article is an extension to my previous article about plug-ins . I encourage you to take a look at that before diving into this article. That said, my main goal in this…"
usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)."
license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
---

# Another article of mine published on MSDN: Search Dynamically for Plug-Ins

By Roy Osherove December 29, 2003 In [.Net Original](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-original), [Cool Articles](https://osherove.com/blog/category/cool-articles)

**Historical article** · Originally published December 29, 2003; technical details may be outdated.

[Search Dynamically for Plug-Ins](http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/using/building/components/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnaspp/html/searchforplugins.asp)

**Summery:**

"This article is an extension to [my previous article about plug-ins](http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/using/building/components/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnaspp/html/pluginframework.asp). I encourage you to take a look at that before diving into this article. That said, my main goal in this article is to rid the user of config files. The idea is to make sure that when your application loads, it can look through the .DLL files in its directory, find the ones that contain types supporting the **IPlugin** interface, and instantiate those plug-ins. No user intervention should be required, other than copying the .DLL file into the application's directory."

I'm proud and flattered. Again, I'd like to thank [Kent Sharkey](http://weblogs.asp.net/ksharkey/) for helping me publish this.

## More in .Net Original

[All posts in .Net Original](https://osherove.com/blog/category/net-original)

- Jan 9, 2004

    ### [IntelliJ IDEA blows my mind again](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/1/9/intellij-idea-blows-my-mind-again.html)

- Jan 9, 2004

    ### [Debugging Unit tests using the VS.net debugger](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/1/9/debugging-unit-tests-using-the-vsnet-debugger.html)

- Dec 27, 2003

    ### [Code: CRUD base classes for unit testing](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/12/27/code-crud-base-classes-for-unit-testing.html)

- Dec 25, 2003

    ### [My First \*real\* SQL optimization (and some good resources)](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/12/25/my-first-real-sql-optimization-and-some-good-resources.html)


---

## About the author

**Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery.

### Sites

- [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership.
- [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts.
- [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin.
- [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model.
- [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps.
- [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes).

### Social

- X: https://x.com/royosherove
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/

### Contact

- Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7

### License

Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/