How to: Register a Service

The managed package framework (MPF) provides attributes to control the registration of managed services. The RegPkg utility uses these attributes to register a service with Visual Studio.

Example

The code that follows is from Visual Studio Extensibility Samples.

<DefaultRegistryRoot("Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0Exp")> _
<PackageRegistration(UseManagedResourcesOnly:=True)> _
<ProvideService(GetType(SMyGlobalService))> _
<System.Runtime.InteropServices.Guid("d695001c-f46a-407b-a1c9-54c35ef8ce87")> _
Public NotInheritable Class ServicesPackage
    Inherits Package

[DefaultRegistryRoot(@"Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0Exp")]
[PackageRegistration(UseManagedResourcesOnly = true)]
[ProvideService(typeof(SMyGlobalService))]
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.Guid("d695001c-f46a-407b-a1c9-54c35ef8ce87")]
public sealed class ServicesPackage : Package

The ProvideServiceAttribute registers the SMyGlobalService service with Visual Studio. For more information about DefaultRegistryRootAttribute and PackageRegistrationAttribute, see How to: Register a VSPackage.

To register a service that replaces another service with the same name, use the ProvideServiceOverrideAttribute instead of the ProvideServiceAttribute.

Robust Programming

To make it easier to recompile a service provider without changing the service client, or vice versa, you can define the service and its interfaces in a separate assembly module. The following code is from the IMyGlobalService.cs file in the Reference.Services (C#) sample.

<Guid("fafafdfb-60f3-47e4-b38c-1bae05b44240")> _
Public Interface SMyGlobalService
End Interface

<Guid("ba9fe7a3-e216-424e-87f9-dee001228d03")> _
<ComVisible(True)> _
Public Interface IMyGlobalService
    Sub GlobalServiceFunction()
    Function CallLocalService() As Integer
End Interface

[Guid("fafafdfb-60f3-47e4-b38c-1bae05b44240")]
public interface SMyGlobalService { }

[Guid("ba9fe7a3-e216-424e-87f9-dee001228d03")]
[ComVisible(true)]
public interface IMyGlobalService
{
    void GlobalServiceFunction();
    int CallLocalService();
}

The ComVisibleAttribute is required to obtain the interface from unmanaged code.

See Also

Concepts

Service Essentials

Other Resources

Registering VSPackages