I have an application that has many modules/plugins. I am using MEF with a Directory plugin to import them. Each user has a list of available modules stored in a database and each user can have multiple profiles controlling which modules are visible.
There is an overview area showing information from all visible modules with an [ImportMany(typeof(IModule)] attribute.
What is a good way of handling this so that invisible or inaccessible modules are not created in memory.
Lazy loading them will ensure they are not initialised or loaded into memory. Then use metadata to find the module names and details.
Using [ImportMany(typeof(IModule)] will create an instance of each module - that's just the way MEF works. So one approach would be for the constructors of your Modules to do nothing, and then call a Load method on each Module that you actually want to use, in which it can do whatever work it needs to do.
Alternatively, create a new interface called IModuleInfo which just has the information necessary for your overview area.
