Services

Register global runtime services in your BoxLang module (Java only)

Services require Java. There is no BoxLang-only mechanism for registering global runtime services.

Global services extend the BoxLang runtime with persistent, singleton functionality available across the entire application lifecycle.

Creating a Service

Implement the IService interface and register via ServiceLoader:

File: src/main/java/ortus/boxlang/modules/mymodule/services/MyService.java

import ortus.boxlang.runtime.services.IService;
import ortus.boxlang.runtime.BoxRuntime;
import ortus.boxlang.runtime.scopes.Key;

public class MyService implements IService {

    @Override
    public Key getName() {
        return Key.of( "MyService" );
    }

    @Override
    public void onStartup( BoxRuntime runtime ) {
        System.out.println( "MyService started!" );
    }

    @Override
    public void onShutdown( Boolean force ) {
        System.out.println( "MyService shutting down!" );
    }

    @Override
    public void onConfigurationLoad() {
        // Called when configuration is loaded
    }
}

ServiceLoader Config: src/main/resources/META-INF/services/ortus.boxlang.runtime.services.IService

ortus.boxlang.modules.mymodule.services.MyService

Accessing Services

Once registered, your service can be accessed via:

// From Java
MyService service = (MyService) BoxRuntime.getInstance()
    .getGlobalService( Key.of( "MyService" ) );

// From BoxLang
var service = boxRuntime.getGlobalService( "MyService" )

Service Lifecycle

Services follow the same lifecycle as the runtime:

1. onConfigurationLoad() — Called when boxlang.json is loaded
2. onStartup() — Called when the runtime starts
3. onShutdown() — Called when the runtime shuts down

Services are registered during module registration and activated during module activation. See Lifecycle for details.

Next Steps

• Schedulers — Scheduled task management (Java only)
• Cache Providers — Custom caching backends (Java only)
• JDBC Drivers — Database driver registration (Java only)