When purchasing any business software the ability to fine-tune the application to the specialized processes of your business is an important consideration. Many applications provide this functionality by making their source code available. This allows
you to reprogram the system to include the specialized processes of your business. Unfortunately it also prohibits you from being able to take advantage of any updates and bug fixes without having to reprogramming your changes in again.
To overcome the problems associated with customizing the source code, Interprise Suite was designed with an extendable "Plug-in" architecture that allows you to easily separate custom written code from the main application code via .NET user controls that have been designed to plug-in to the Interprise Suite forms.
In Interprise Suite every form is comprised of a base form that contains multiple .NET user controls (plug-ins) for the presentation of the user interface. By replacing one or more of the existing plug-ins with your own custom plug-in(s) you can change the functionality associated with that part of the form. As new updates and upgrades are available, you simply re-apply your custom plug-ins and your customizations are back in place.
This approach greatly simplifies a developer's ability to keep their customized application up to date while proving the customizations needed. In addition to the extendable architecture, Interprise Suite also contains a number of pre-written code objects that greatly simplify common tasks such as searching for data, reading data, saving data etc. By using these prewritten objects as much as possible you are able to take advantage to the enhancements of these objects as the .NET platform evolves allowing your
customized application to move to 64bit windows and Microsoft Longhorn much easier.
The Plugin Manager
Interprise Suite includes a plugin manager to manage system plugins as well as custom plugin applications within the main application.
Sample of Plugin Architecture
A simple case where plugins may be used in the application:
Through the User Role, registered plugins are added easily to a form or dashboard in Interprise Suite. You can reapply plugins every time you upgrade to another version of Interprise Suite.
When purchasing any business software the ability to fine-tune the application to the specialized processes of your business is an important consideration. Many applications provide this functionality by making their source code available. This allows
you to reprogram the system to include the specialized processes of your business. Unfortunately it also prohibits you from being able to take advantage of any updates and bug fixes without having to reprogramming your changes in again.
