Mediator in C#

Mediator is a behavioral design pattern that reduces coupling between components of a program by making them communicate indirectly, through a special mediator object.

The Mediator makes it easy to modify, extend and reuse individual components because they’re no longer dependent on the dozens of other classes.

Learn more about Mediator

Complexity:

Popularity:

Usage examples: The most popular usage of the Mediator pattern in C# code is facilitating communications between GUI components of an app. The synonym of the Mediator is the Controller part of MVC pattern.

Conceptual Example

This example illustrates the structure of the Mediator design pattern. It focuses on answering these questions:

What classes does it consist of?
What roles do these classes play?
In what way the elements of the pattern are related?

Program.cs: Conceptual example

using System;

namespace RefactoringGuru.DesignPatterns.Mediator.Conceptual
{
    // The Mediator interface declares a method used by components to notify the
    // mediator about various events. The Mediator may react to these events and
    // pass the execution to other components.
    public interface IMediator
    {
        void Notify(object sender, string ev);
    }

    // Concrete Mediators implement cooperative behavior by coordinating several
    // components.
    class ConcreteMediator : IMediator
    {
        private Component1 _component1;

        private Component2 _component2;

        public ConcreteMediator(Component1 component1, Component2 component2)
        {
            this._component1 = component1;
            this._component1.SetMediator(this);
            this._component2 = component2;
            this._component2.SetMediator(this);
        } 

        public void Notify(object sender, string ev)
        {
            if (ev == "A")
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Mediator reacts on A and triggers following operations:");
                this._component2.DoC();
            }
            if (ev == "D")
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Mediator reacts on D and triggers following operations:");
                this._component1.DoB();
                this._component2.DoC();
            }
        }
    }

    // The Base Component provides the basic functionality of storing a
    // mediator's instance inside component objects.
    class BaseComponent
    {
        protected IMediator _mediator;

        public BaseComponent(IMediator mediator = null)
        {
            this._mediator = mediator;
        }

        public void SetMediator(IMediator mediator)
        {
            this._mediator = mediator;
        }
    }

    // Concrete Components implement various functionality. They don't depend on
    // other components. They also don't depend on any concrete mediator
    // classes.
    class Component1 : BaseComponent
    {
        public void DoA()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Component 1 does A.");

            this._mediator.Notify(this, "A");
        }

        public void DoB()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Component 1 does B.");

            this._mediator.Notify(this, "B");
        }
    }

    class Component2 : BaseComponent
    {
        public void DoC()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Component 2 does C.");

            this._mediator.Notify(this, "C");
        }

        public void DoD()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Component 2 does D.");

            this._mediator.Notify(this, "D");
        }
    }
    
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // The client code.
            Component1 component1 = new Component1();
            Component2 component2 = new Component2();
            new ConcreteMediator(component1, component2);

            Console.WriteLine("Client triggers operation A.");
            component1.DoA();

            Console.WriteLine();

            Console.WriteLine("Client triggers operation D.");
            component2.DoD();
        }
    }
}

Output.txt: Execution result

Client triggers operation A.
Component 1 does A.
Mediator reacts on A and triggers following operations:
Component 2 does C.

Client triggers operation D.
Component 2 does D.
Mediator reacts on D and triggers following operations:
Component 1 does B.
Component 2 does C.

Mediator in C#

Conceptual Example

Program.cs: Conceptual example

Output.txt: Execution result

Mediator in Other Languages