In computing Computing, also known as computer science, is usually defined as the activity of using and improving computer technology, computer hardware and software. It is the computer-specific part of information technology. Computer science is the study and the science of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation, a plug-in is a set of software components Component-based software engineering (also known as component-based development (CBD)) is a branch of software engineering, the priority of which is the separation of concerns in respect of the wide-ranging functionality available throughout a given software system. This practice brings about an equally wide-ranging degree of benefits in both the that adds specific capabilities to a larger software application Application software, also known as software application, application or app, is computer software designed to help the user to perform singular or multiple related specific tasks. Typical examples are word processors, spreadsheets, media players and database applications. If supported, plug-ins enable customizing the functionality of an application. For example, plug-ins are commonly used in web browsers A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content. Hyperlinks present in resources enable users to easily navigate their browsers to to play video, scan for viruses, and display new file types. The image on the right is a screenshot A screenshot, screen capture, or screen dump is an image taken by the computer to record the visible items displayed on the monitor, television, or another visual output device. Usually this is a digital image taken by the host operating system or software running on the computer device, but it can also be a capture made by a camera or a device of common Firefox Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. As of June 2010[update], Firefox was the second most widely used browser, with 23.81% of worldwide usage share of web browsers, according to Net Applications. Other sources put Firefox's usage share between 20% and web browser plug-ins. The Adobe Acrobat Adobe Acrobat is a family of computer programs developed by Adobe Systems, designed to view, create, manipulate and manage files in Adobe's Portable Document Format . Some software in the family, particularly the creating software, are commercial, while others, like Adobe Reader (formerly Acrobat Reader), is available as a no-charge download from, QuickTime QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. It is available for Mac OS classic , Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows operating systems. The latest version is QuickTime X (10.0) and is currently only, and Microsoft Office 2007 Microsoft Office 2007 is the most recent Windows version of the Microsoft Office System, Microsoft's productivity suite. Formerly known as Office 12 in the initial stages of its beta cycle, it was released to volume license customers on November 30, 2006 and made available to retail customers on January 30, 2007. These are, respectively, the same plug-ins add the capability to display new file types inside the Firefox web browser.

Add-on is often considered the general term comprising snap-ins, plug-ins, extensions, and themes.^[1]

Purpose and examples

Applications support plug-ins for many reasons. Some of the main reasons include:

• to enable third-party developers In the video game industry, a first-party developer is a developer that is part of a company that actually manufactures a video game console. First-party developers may either use the name of the company itself, like Nintendo; have a specific division name like Sony's Polyphony Digital; or have formerly been an independent studio before being to create capabilities which extend an application
• to support easily adding new features
• to reduce the size of an application
• to separate source code In computer science, source code is any collection of statements or declarations written in some human-readable computer programming language. Source code is the means most often used by programmers to specify the actions to be performed by a computer from an application because of incompatible software licenses A software license is a legal instrument (by way of contract law) governing the usage or redistribution of software. All software is copyright protected, except material in the public domain. Contractual confidentiality is another way of protecting software. A typical software license grants an end-user permission to use one or more copies of.

Specific examples of applications and why they use plug-ins:

• Email clients An email client, email reader, or more formally mail user agent , is a computer program used to manage email use plug-ins to decrypt and encrypt email (Pretty Good Privacy Pretty Good Privacy is a computer program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication. PGP is often used for signing, encrypting and decrypting e-mails to increase the security of e-mail communications. It was created by Philip Zimmermann in 1991)
• Graphics software In computer graphics, graphics software or image editing software is a program or collection of programs that enable a person to manipulate visual images on a computer use plug-ins to support file formats and process images (Adobe Photoshop Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS . Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop. The CS rebranding also resulted in Adobe offering numerous software packages containing multiple Adobe programs for a reduced price. There are two versions of)
• Media players Media player is a term typically used to describe computer software for playing back multimedia files. Most software media players support an array of media formats, including both audio and video files use plug-ins to support file formats and apply filters (foobar2000 foobar2000 is a freeware audio player for Windows developed by Peter Pawlowski, a former freelance contractor for Nullsoft. It is known for its highly modular design and extensive SDK which allows third-party developers to do such things as completely replace the interface. While supporting a large number of audio file formats, it has many, GStreamer GStreamer is a pipeline-based multimedia framework written in the C programming language with the type system based on GObject, Quintessential, VST Steinberg's Virtual Studio Technology is an interface for integrating software audio synthesizer and effect plugins with audio editors and hard-disk recording systems. VST and similar technologies use Digital Signal Processing to simulate traditional recording studio hardware with software. Thousands of plugins exist, both commercial and freeware,, Winamp Winamp is a proprietary media player for Windows-based PCs, written by Nullsoft, now a subsidiary of AOL. It is freeware/shareware, multi-format, extensible with plug-ins and skins, and is noted for its graphical sound visualization, playlist, and media library features. Winamp was released by Justin Frankel in 1997, and its popularity grew, XMMS The X Multimedia System is a free software audio player very similar to Winamp, that runs on many Unix-like operating systems)
• Microsoft Office Microsoft Office is an office suite of interrelated desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. Microsoft Office was introduced by Microsoft in 1989 for Macintosh, with a version for Windows in 1990. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of Office uses plug-ins (better known as add-ins Microsoft Office is an office suite of interrelated desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. Microsoft Office was introduced by Microsoft in 1989 for Macintosh, with a version for Windows in 1990. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of Office) to extend the capabilities of its application by adding custom commands and specialized features
• Packet sniffers A packet analyzer is computer software or computer hardware that can intercept and log traffic passing over a digital network or part of a network. As data streams flow across the network, the sniffer captures each packet and, if needed, decodes and analyzes its content according to the appropriate RFC or other specifications use plug-ins to decode packet formats (OmniPeek)
• Remote sensing applications use plug-ins to process data from different sensor types (Opticks)
• Software development environments An integrated development environment also known as integrated design environment or integrated debugging environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of: use plug-ins to support programming languages A programming language is an artificial language designed to express computations that can be performed by a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine, to express algorithms precisely, or as a mode of human communication (Eclipse Eclipse is a multi-language software development environment comprising an integrated development environment and an extensible plug-in system. It is written primarily in Java and can be used to develop applications in Java and, by means of the various plug-ins, in other languages as well, including C, C++, COBOL, Python, Perl, PHP, and others, jEdit jEdit is a text editor for programmers, available under the GNU General Public License version 2.0, MonoDevelop MonoDevelop is an open source integrated development environment for the Linux platform, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows, primarily targeted for the development of software that uses both the Mono and Microsoft .NET framework. MonoDevelop integrates features similar to that of NetBeans and Microsoft's Visual Studio such as automatic completion,)
• Venue, a digital mixing console In professional audio, a Digital Mixing Console , is an electronic device for combining, routing, and changing the dynamics of digital audio samples. The digital audio samples are summed to produce a combined output architecture developed by Digidesign Digidesign is an American digital audio technology company. It was founded in 1984 by Peter Gotcher and Evan Brooks. The company began as a project to raise money for the founders' band, selling EPROM chips for drum machines. It is a subsidiary of Avid Technology, and during 2010 the Digidesign brand name will be phased out. Digidesign products and owned by Avid Technology Avid Technology, Inc is an American company specializing in video and audio production technology; specifically, digital non-linear editing (NLE) systems, management and distribution services. It was created in 1987 and became a publicly traded company in 1993. Avid is headquartered in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, allows third party plug-ins
• Web browsers A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content. Hyperlinks present in resources enable users to easily navigate their browsers to use plug-ins to play video and presentation formats (Flash Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to Web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements and games. More recently, it has been positioned as a tool for "Rich Internet Applications" ("RIAs"), QuickTime QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. It is available for Mac OS classic , Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows operating systems. The latest version is QuickTime X (10.0) and is currently only, Microsoft Silverlight Microsoft Silverlight is a web application framework that provides functionalities similar to those in Adobe Flash, integrating multimedia, graphics, animations and interactivity into a single runtime environment. Initially released as a video streaming plugin, later versions brought additional interactivity features and support for CLI languages, 3DMLW 3DMLW is an XML-based file format for representing 3-dimensional (3D) and 2-dimensional (2D) interactive content on the World Wide Web. 3DMLW engine is open-source licensed under GPL)

Mechanism

As shown in the figure, the host application provides services which the plug-in can use, including a way for plug-ins to register themselves with the host application and a protocol In computing and telecommunications, a protocol or communications protocol is a formal description of message formats and the rules for exchanging those messages. Protocols may include signaling, authentication and error detection and correction capabilities. In its simplest form, a protocol can be defined as the rules governing the syntax, for the exchange of data with plug-ins. Plug-ins depend on the services provided by the host application and do not usually work by themselves. Conversely, the host application operates independently of the plug-ins, making it possible for end-users to add and update plug-ins dynamically without needing to make changes to the host application.^[1][2]

Open application programming interfaces An Application Programming Interface is an interface implemented by a software program which enables it to interact with other software. It is similar to the way the user interface facilitates interaction between humans and computers. An API is implemented by applications, libraries, and operating systems to determine their vocabularies and (APIs) provide a standard interface, allowing third parties to create plug-ins that interact with the host application. A stable API An application programming interface is an interface implemented by a software program which enables it to interact with other software. It facilitates interaction between different software programs similar to the way the user interface facilitates interaction between humans and computers. An API is implemented by applications, libraries, and allows third-party plug-ins to continue to function as the original version changes and to extend the life-cycle A software release is the distribution of software code, documentation, and other support materials, either by physical media, such as compact discs, or by download. The software release life cycle is composed of discrete phases along that describe the software's maturity as it advances from planning and development to release and support phases of obsolete applications. The Adobe Photoshop Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS . Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop. The CS rebranding also resulted in Adobe offering numerous software packages containing multiple Adobe programs for a reduced price. There are two versions of and After Effects Adobe After Effects is a digital motion graphics and compositing software published by Adobe Systems. Its main purpose is for film and video post-production plug-in APIs have become a standard^[3] and competing applications such as Corel Paint Shop Pro Paint Shop Pro is a raster graphics editor and, later in the series, a vector graphics editor for computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system that was originally published by Minneapolis-based Jasc Software. In October 2004, Corel Corporation purchased Jasc Software and the distribution rights to Paint Shop Pro. PSP functionality can have adopted them.

Plug-ins and extensions

Extensions In computing, a plug-in is a small software computer program that extends the capabilities of a larger program. Plugins are commonly used in web browsers to enable them to play sounds and video clips, or automatically decompressing files. Add-on is often considered the general term comprising plug-ins, extensions, and themes as subcategories differ slightly from plug-ins. Plug-ins usually have a narrow set of capability. For example, the original impetus behind the development of Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. A Net Applications statistic put Firefox at 24.59% of the recorded usage share of web browsers as of April 2010[update], making it the second most popular browser in terms of current use worldwide after Microsoft's was the pursuit of a small baseline application, leaving exotic or personalized functionality to be implemented by extensions to avoid feature creep Feature creep is the proliferation of features in a product such as computer software. Extra features go beyond the basic function of the product and so can result in baroque over-complication rather than simple, elegant design. This is in contrast to the "kitchen sink" approach in its predecessors, the Mozilla Application Suite The Mozilla Application Suite is a cross-platform integrated Internet suite. Its development was initiated by Netscape Communications Corporation, before their acquisition by AOL. It is based on the source code of Netscape Communicator. The development was spearheaded by the Mozilla Organization from 1998 to 2003, and by the Mozilla Foundation and Netscape 6 and 7. Therefore, after integration, extensions can be seen as part of the browser itself, tailored from a set of optional modules.

Firefox also supports plug-ins using NPAPI Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface is a cross-platform plugin architecture used by many web browsers. When the browser encounters references to content a plug-in specializes in, the data is handed off to be processed by that plug-in. Since there is generally a clear separation between the browser and the plug-in, the results are discrete objects embedded within a webpage. The same distinction between plug-ins and extensions is in use by other web browsers, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, where a typical extension might be a new toolbar, and a plug-in might embed a video player on the page. Since plug-ins and extensions both increase the utility of the original application, Mozilla uses the term "add-on" as an inclusive category of augmentation modules that consists of plug-ins, themes, and search engines.

History

Plug-ins appeared as early as the mid 1970s, when the EDT text editor running on the Unisys VS/9 operating system using the Univac 90/60 series mainframe computer provided the ability to run a program from the editor and to allow such program to access the editor buffer, thus allowing an external program to access an edit session in memory. The plug-in program could make calls to the editor to have it perform text-editing services upon the buffer that the editor shared with the plug-in. The Waterloo Fortran compiler used this feature to allow interactive compilation of Fortran programs edited by EDT.

Very early PC software applications to incorporate plug-in functionality included HyperCard and QuarkXPress on the Macintosh, both released in 1987. In 1988, Silicon Beach Software included plug-in functionality in Digital Darkroom and SuperPaint, and Ed Bomke coined the term plug-in.

Currently^[update], programmers typically implement plug-in functionality using shared libraries compulsorily installed in a place prescribed by the host application. HyperCard supported a similar facility, but more commonly included the plug-in code in the HyperCard documents (called stacks) themselves. Thus the HyperCard stack became a self-contained application in its own right, distributable as a single entity that end-users could run without the need for additional installation-steps.

Plug-in frameworks

Software developers can use the following plug-in frameworks (organized here by programming language) to add plug-in capability to their applications:

C++

• Boost Extension- Boost C++ plug-in framework, available from boost sandbox
• FxEngine Framework—Open C++ dataflow processing framework for audio, video, signal, etc.
• Qt Plug-Ins—part of Nokia's Qt Framework
• OmniPeek Plug-in Wizard—creates plug-ins for WildPackets' OmniPeek Network Analyzer
• Pugg open Source C++ framework for plug-in management
• OFX an open standard for visual effects plug-ins.

Delphi

• TMS Plug-in Framework

Java

• Java Plug-in Framework (JPF), a plug-in mechanism adapted from Eclipse's plug-in mechanism from its pre-OSGi era.
• OSGi, a standardized dynamic component system suited for plug-in programming, used in Eclipse, many commercial Java EE application servers, Spring Framework, and embedded applications.
• Rich Client Platform (RCP), platform for applications adapted from Eclipse, applications are written as plug-ins and may themselves have further plug-ins

Python

• Envisage
• Colony Framework, a plug-in framework that takes inspiration from OSGi and Eclipse RCP simplifying the concepts of both and adapting them to the Pythonic philosophy
• PyUtilib, a plug-in system that is based on Trac. Trac component architecture is simplified Zope Component Architecture
• Setuptools
• Sprinkles
• The Twisted Plug-in System
• Yapsy
• Zope Component Architecture

.NET

• .NET Add-In Team Blog
• AL Platform
• Code Project .NET Based Plug-in Framework
• Mono Add-ins—an add-in framework for .NET and Mono
• Plux.NET—A Platform for Building Plug-in Systems Under .NET
• Managed Extensibility Framework—Managed Extensibility Framework
• Compact Plugs— Compact Plugs

See also

• Applet
• Shared library

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Mozilla Firefox plugins - Description of the difference between Mozilla Firefox plugins and extensions under the general term add-on.
2. ^ Wordpress Plug-in API - Description of the Wordpress Plug-in architecture.
3. ^ Photoshop Plug-ins - Description of the siginificant impact of Photoshop Plug-in Architecture.

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