Using external libraries in C# to make program development easier.

I've been working on a project for about two weeks to help me handle customers and invoices.

Originally it was going pretty well until I got to the point of adding invoice functionality. I had already added customer management but the idea of adding invoicing to my existing mess of code didn't seem too appealing.

I thought about it for a bit and realized it would be really nice if I could build simple external components and add them to my program as needed. That way I could keep major parts of the program separate. This would allow me better organization and management of my code. So I started exploring the idea of external Dynamic Link Libraries or DLLs.

I did a bit of research of ways to add external libraries and the option I decided to use would allow me to write libraries for my program without the need of any source code from the main program.

So I wound up scrapping what I had already done and I wrote a main program to handle some primary functions. Then I created a contact management library the the main program loads when it runs.

It turned out to be easier than I thought. One really cool feature was the ability of the main program to pass objects and classes to the library, in essence, exposing only specific functions in the main program to the library.

As long as I maintain persistence in how database, printing and other primary functions are accessed I wouldn't have to worry about those things when I wrote a new component as they're already taken care of.

This eliminates the worry of, “How am I going to implement these tedious but necessary things when I have an idea for a new component?” I can focus on what I want the component to do.

Best,

Jeff

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