"Add ons" is a general term which comprises things such as plug-ins, extensions, and themes. You may have heard them related to web browsers as well as software applications. For an example we often experience that "adobe flash player plugin is missing in this computer" like massages. plugins add specific abilities to larger software applications. Add ons are also called as ActiveX controls, browser helper objects or tool bars. some of them provide users , some interactive multimedia contents such as animations, music and ability to watch video contents. It will be useful to know how add-ons actually work with the main application. below is a figure that simply explains it .
As you can see plugins can register themselves in the host application. for that it provides an interface to link with the host app. on the other hand host application also provides an interface to connect and exchange data with the plugin.(a kind of a protocol) Even though plugins add some extended functionality to the main application,they cannot function without having the services of the host app. Therefore at any time a user can disable the addon and use the general host app without any problem. some soft-wares provide an open API for developers to build useful extensions for their app.
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