What is the best way to implement a plugin architecture for asp.net webforms application?

Question

We have a 3-tier web application written in ASP.Net Webforms where we will not be able to port it - recession really sucks! - to MVC. Our goal is to implement a plugin architecture. One way would be to use the App_Code folder. Are there any better alternatives?

Answer 1

Make a plugin-loader assembly maybe? :)

Avoid business-level code in ASP.NET applications. Try to keep it as "presentation only"-alike as you can..

Answer 2

My plugin architecture is developed in a completely separate solution. I include a reference to the libraries in my web project. I use a plugin manager that runs in Application_Start and loads the plugin configuration from the web.config file. The configuration specifies the full name of the actual plugin being used and uses Activator.CreateInstance to instantiate the plugin. All plugins implement an IPlugin interface as well as an interface for each specific type of plugin.