NetworkInspector.Plugins 0.19.0

NetworkInspector.Plugins

The core-tier plugin contract of NetworkInspector. A plugin is a class library with one entry class that implements IPlugin. It adds protocols, heuristic parsers, post-parsers, sources, exporters, and settings to every application that loads it, such as the ni command-line tool or your own application with NetworkInspector.Plugins.Loader. Sources and exporters are the Core types (IFrameSource, IFrameListener, IPacketListener), and options and settings are Core settings, so there is no second set of interfaces to learn.

Install

dotnet add package NetworkInspector.Plugins

The application that loads your plugin already contains this package and NetworkInspector.Core, so reference them with Private="false" in a project reference (or exclude their runtime assets in a package reference). That keeps both assemblies out of your plugin folder; a second copy next to your plugin would be ignored by the loader anyway.

Write a plugin

public sealed class MyPlugin : IPlugin
{
    public PluginInfo Info { get; } = new("My.Plugin", "1.0.0", "MIT", "My protocol on UDP 40000.", []);

    public void Configure(IPluginBuilder builder)
    {
        // Runs for every stack the application builds: create fresh protocol objects in every call.
        builder.AddStackContribution(static stack =>
        {
            MyProtocol protocol = new();
            ProtocolId id = stack.RegisterProtocol(protocol);
            protocol.RegisterFields(stack, id);
            stack.WhenProtocolTableRegistered("udp.port", table => stack.RegisterParserInU64Table(table, 40000, id));
        });
        builder.AddSettings(SettingScope.Application, static registrar =>
        {
            registrar.RegisterGroup("my", "My plugin", "Settings of My.Plugin.");
            registrar.RegisterStringSetting("my.greeting", "Greeting", "my", "Hello");
        });
    }
}

The entry class must be public, non-abstract, non-generic, have a public parameterless constructor, and list IPlugin in its own interface list (a class that only inherits the interface from a base class is not found). Build the plugin against the same or an older NetworkInspector version than the application that loads it. Register the folder with ni settings set plugins.paths <folder> --scope application and check the result with ni plugins list:

My.Plugin  1.0.0  core  Loaded  -  /opt/ni-plugins/my/My.Plugin.dll  MIT  load 6.0 ms  Protocol 1, Setting 1

From then on every ni command decodes the protocol, filters on its fields, and lists the setting in ni settings.

What the contract contains

The sample plugin samples/Sample.Protocol uses every part of the contract. Read the plugin guide for the steps from project setup to distribution, the protocol chapter for writing protocols, and the contract reference for one entry per type.