custom widgets as plugins

[cwalsh]

Hi all,

What is the correct strategy for creating a graphical component as a plugin?

For example, if I have an application with two components in the main window, (a browse tree on the left, and a viewing pane on the right), I want to implement each component as a plugin, so that I can drop in new components withou re-compiling my main app.

So I get the view plugin:

ViewInterface *iView = qobject_cast<ViewInterface *>(plugin);

ViewInterface *iView = qobject_cast<ViewInterface *>(plugin);

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Then get an instance of the view widget:

if (iView){
	viewWidget = iView->createWidget(this);
}

if (iView){
	viewWidget = iView->createWidget(this);
}

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where viewWidget is a QWidget*

So now I can insert the plugin into my layout, but I can't access any of the plugins methods because it's now a QWidget, not a Viewer!

I guess this question is more conceptual than technical... any advice?

-Chris