The Event Aggregator Pattern

The Event Aggregator Pattern aggregates events in complex systems or systems with a large number of events.

Pluralsight's Design Patterns Library course has a module on the Event Aggregator Pattern from Glenn Block.

The Event Aggregator Pattern simplifies events by providing a single storage place for those events. It decouples publishers and subscribers and makes it very easy to introduce new events.

This pattern is most applicable in a composite application (an application broken up into several modules) or an application with complicated screens and/or lots of events/publishers/subscribers. "It may be overkill for simple systems."

Essentially, the Event Aggregator sits between publishers and subscribers. Subscribers observe the Event Aggregator (rather than a publisher), and publishers know about the Event Aggregator (but not about the subscribers). The publishers publish their notifications to the aggregator, which passes them on to the interested subscribers.

The aggregator is used as a dependency and generally implements an interface. This makes it very easy to test.

The Event Aggregator Pattern also ensures that the system can adhere to the Open/Closed Principle. It is related to the Observer Pattern.

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