When is a plugin constructor called?

[bgowland]

Well - I know that a constructor is called when an instance of an object is created but how does this apply to plugins?

I'm trying to work out where I should initialize various components, process the skin.xml, etc. etc. I'm currently doing this in the Activate method but that doesn't seem right - I have to use 'keep-alive' type flags to prevent Activate from re-initialising stuff if I exit the plugin then go back in. At the same time, I don't want my plugin to do a whole load of stuff every time the gbpvr main app. is started (if that is when the constructor is called).

Slightly confused.

Cheers,
Brian

[psycik]

The constructor is called when GBPVR starts if the plugin is being loaded. Putting a lot of stuff in here can slow down the start up of GBPVR. This is why a few people use the activate method since it's called when you actually use it.

[reven]

activate is called whenever the plugin is activated, ie when you enter it
deactivate is the reverse

so yeah just throw everything in the constructor, it will slow down gbpvr load time, but wont slow gbpvr when you are actually using it (which is the important thing).

[sub]

I do my initialization the first time activate is called. Its much friendlier to the resources used by the system.

Code:

public void Activate()
{
    if (!initialized)
    {    
        initialized = true;
        initialize();
    }
    ...
}

[bgowland]

Thanks guys for confirming what I think I thought I might have understood.

sub - have you thought about adding an Initialize method and Initialized property to IMenuTask?

[sub]

sub - have you thought about adding an Initialize method and Initialized property to IMenuTask?

Yes, but I hate breaking compatibility with things, so I probably wont.