Using and providing brokered services
A brokered service is a service acquired via an IServiceBroker, and is exposed as an RPC-compatible interface to enable the service and its client to exist in distinct AppDomains, processes or even across machines (in the case of Live Share).
VS Packages can offer services of their own by using the IBrokeredServiceContainer interface.
Visual Studio offers important brokered services, such as the following:
| Brokered service | Description |
|---|---|
| IOutputChannelStore | Allows streaming text to the output window. |
| IOpenDocumentService | Allows opening documents. |
| IFileSystem | Allows access to local or remote file systems. |
In this section
Brokered Service Essentials presents the important elements of a Visual Studio brokered service and how they differ from other Visual Studio services.
Discovering Available Brokered Services describes how to discover the available set of brokered services.
How to: Get a Brokered Service discusses how to request (consume) a brokered service.
How to: Provide a Brokered Service discusses how to provide a brokered service.
How to: Troubleshoot Brokered Services discusses common problems and presents solutions to them.