Services

A service is a plugin component loaded on demand when your plugin calls the getService() method of corresponding ComponentManager instance (see Types). The IntelliJ Platform ensures that only one instance of a service is loaded even though it is called several times. Services are used to encapsulate logic operating on a set of related classes or to provide some reusable functionality that can be used across the plugin project, and conceptually don't differ from the service classes in other languages or frameworks.

A service must have an implementation class that is used for service instantiation. A service may also have an interface class used to obtain the service instance and provide the service's API.

A service needing a shutdown hook/cleanup routine can implement Disposable and perform necessary work in dispose() (see Automatically Disposed Objects).

Types

The IntelliJ Platform offers three types of services: application-level services (global singleton), project-level services, and module-level services. For the latter two, a separate instance of the service is created for each instance of its corresponding scope, see Project Model Introduction.

Constructor

Project/Module-level service constructors can have a Project/Module argument. To improve startup performance, avoid any heavy initializations in the constructor.

Light Services

A service not going to be overridden does not need to be registered in plugin.xml (see Declaring a Service). Instead, annotate service class with @Service. Project-level services must specify @Service(Service.Level.PROJECT). The service instance will be created in scope according to the caller (see Retrieving a Service).

Light Service Restrictions

None of these attributes is required: os, client, overrides, id, preload.
Service class must be final.
Constructor injection of dependency services is not supported.
If application-level service is a PersistentStateComponent, roaming must be disabled (roamingType = RoamingType.DISABLED).

Use these inspections to verify these and highlight services that can be converted (2023.3):

Plugin DevKit | Code | Light service must be final
Plugin DevKit | Code | Mismatch between light service level and its constructor
Plugin DevKit | Code | A service can be converted to a light one and corresponding Plugin DevKit | Plugin descriptor | A service can be converted to a light one for plugin.xml

Examples

Application-level light service:

@Service
public final class MyAppService {
  public void doSomething(String param) {
    // ...
  }
}

Project-level light service example:

@Service(Service.Level.PROJECT)
public final class MyProjectService {
  private final Project myProject;

  public MyProjectService(Project project) {
    myProject = project;
  }

  public void doSomething(String param) {
    String projectName = myProject.getName();
    // ...
  }
}

Application-level light service:

@Service
class MyAppService {
  fun doSomething(param: String) {
    // ...
  }
}

Project-level light service example:

@Service(Service.Level.PROJECT)
class MyProjectService(private val project: Project) {
  fun doSomething(param: String) {
    val projectName = project.name
    // ...
  }
}

Declaring a Service

To register a non-Light Service, distinct extension points are provided for each type:

com.intellij.applicationService - application-level service
com.intellij.projectService - project-level service
com.intellij.moduleService - module-level service (not recommended, see Note above)

To expose service API, create separate class for serviceInterface and extend it in corresponding class registered in serviceImplementation. If serviceInterface isn't specified, it's supposed to have the same value as serviceImplementation. Use inspection Plugin DevKit | Plugin descriptor | Plugin.xml extension registration to highlight redundant serviceInterface declarations.

To provide custom implementation for test/headless environment, specify testServiceImplementation/headlessImplementation additionally.

Example

Application-level service:

Interface:
public interface MyAppService { void doSomething(String param); }
Implementation:
public class MyAppServiceImpl implements MyAppService { @Override public void doSomething(String param) { // ... } }

Project-level service:

Interface:
public interface MyProjectService { void doSomething(String param); }
Implementation:
public class MyProjectServiceImpl implements MyProjectService { private final Project myProject; public MyProjectServiceImpl(Project project) { myProject = project; } public void doSomething(String param) { String projectName = myProject.getName(); // ... } }

Application-level service:

Interface:
interface MyAppService { fun doSomething(param: String) }
Implementation:
class MyAppServiceImpl : MyAppService { override fun doSomething(param: String) { // ... } }

Project-level service:

Interface:
interface MyProjectService { fun doSomething(param: String) }
Implementation:
class MyProjectServiceImpl(private val project: Project) : MyProjectService { fun doSomething(param: String) { val projectName = project.name // ... } }

Registration in plugin.xml:

<extensions defaultExtensionNs="com.intellij">
  <!-- Declare the application-level service -->
  <applicationService
      serviceInterface="com.example.MyAppService"
      serviceImplementation="com.example.MyAppServiceImpl"/>

  <!-- Declare the project-level service -->
  <projectService
      serviceInterface="com.example.MyProjectService"
      serviceImplementation="com.example.MyProjectServiceImpl"/>
</extensions>

Retrieving a Service

Getting a service doesn't need a read action and can be performed from any thread. If a service is requested from several threads, it will be initialized in the first thread, and other threads will be blocked until it is fully initialized.

MyAppService applicationService =
    ApplicationManager.getApplication().getService(MyAppService.class);

MyProjectService projectService =
    project.getService(MyProjectService.class);

Service implementations can wrap these calls with convenient static getInstance() or getInstance(Project) method:

MyAppService applicationService = MyAppService.getInstance();

MyProjectService projectService = MyProjectService.getInstance(project);

val applicationService = service<MyAppService>()

val projectService = project.service<MyProjectService>()

Getting Service Flow

Sample Plugin

To clarify how to use services, consider the maxOpenProjects sample plugin available in the code samples.

This plugin has an application service counting the number of currently opened projects in the IDE. If this number exceeds the maximum number of simultaneously opened projects allowed by the plugin (3), it displays an information message.

See Code Samples on how to set up and run the plugin.

Last modified: 25 September 2023