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ContractDescription Class

Describes a contract that specifies what an endpoint communicates to the outside world.

System.Object
  System.ServiceModel.Description.ContractDescription

Namespace:  System.ServiceModel.Description
Assembly:  System.ServiceModel (in System.ServiceModel.dll)
public class ContractDescription

The ContractDescription type exposes the following members.

  Name Description
Public method Supported by Portable Class Library ContractDescription(String) Initializes a new instance of the ContractDescription class with a specified name.
Public method Supported by Portable Class Library ContractDescription(String, String) Initializes a new instance of the ContractDescription class with a namespace-qualified name specified.
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  Name Description
Public property Behaviors Gets the behaviors associated with the contract description.
Public property Supported by Portable Class Library CallbackContractType Gets or sets the type of callback contract that the contract description specifies.
Public property Supported by Portable Class Library ConfigurationName Gets or sets the configuration name for the contract description.
Public property Supported by Portable Class Library ContractType Gets or sets the contract type that the contract description specifies.
Public property HasProtectionLevel Gets a value that indicates whether the contract has had a protection level set.
Public property Supported by Portable Class Library Name Gets or sets the name of the contract.
Public property Supported by Portable Class Library Namespace Gets or sets the namespace for the contract.
Public property Supported by Portable Class Library Operations Gets the collection of operation descriptions associated with the contract.
Public property ProtectionLevel Gets or sets the level of security protection associated with the contract.
Public property SessionMode Gets or sets a value that indicates whether a session is required by the contract.
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  Name Description
Public method Supported by Portable Class Library Equals(Object) Determines whether the specified Object is equal to the current Object. (Inherited from Object.)
Protected method Supported by Portable Class Library Finalize Allows an object to try to free resources and perform other cleanup operations before it is reclaimed by garbage collection. (Inherited from Object.)
Public method Static member GetContract(Type) Returns the contract description for a specified type of contract.
Public method Static member GetContract(Type, Object) Returns the contract description for a specified type of contract and service implementation.
Public method Static member GetContract(Type, Type) Returns the contract description for a specified type of contract and a specified type of service.
Public method Supported by Portable Class Library GetHashCode Serves as a hash function for a particular type. (Inherited from Object.)
Public method GetInheritedContracts Returns a collection of contract descriptions that are inherited by the current contract description.
Public method Supported by Portable Class Library GetType Gets the Type of the current instance. (Inherited from Object.)
Protected method Supported by Portable Class Library MemberwiseClone Creates a shallow copy of the current Object. (Inherited from Object.)
Public method ShouldSerializeProtectionLevel Returns a value that indicates whether the ProtectionLevel property has changed from its default value and should be serialized.
Public method Supported by Portable Class Library ToString Returns a string that represents the current object. (Inherited from Object.)
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A contract is a collection of operations that specifies what the endpoint communicates to the outside world. Each operation is a message exchange. For example, a request message and an associated reply message form a request/reply message exchange.

A ContractDescription object is used to describe contracts and their operations. Within a ContractDescription, each contract operation has a corresponding OperationDescription that describes aspects of the each operation that is part of the contract, such as whether the operation is one-way or request/reply. Each OperationDescription also describes the messages that make up the operation using a MessageDescriptionCollection. ContractDescription contains a reference to an interface that defines the contract using the programming model. This interface is marked with ServiceContractAttribute and its methods that correspond to endpoint operations are marked with the OperationContractAttribute.

A duplex contract defines the following logical sets of operations:

  • A set that the service exposes for the client to call.

  • A set that the client exposes for the service to call.

The programming model for defining a duplex contract is to split each set in a separate interface and apply attributes to each interface. In this case, ContractDescription contains a reference to each of the interfaces that groups them into one duplex contract.

Similar to bindings, each contract has a Name and Namespace that uniquely identify it in the metadata of the service.

The following example shows a number of ways to create or retrieve a ContractDescription object. It then displays the various pieces of information that are stored in the ContractDescription object.


Uri baseAddress = new Uri("http://localhost:8001/Simple");
ServiceHost serviceHost = new ServiceHost(typeof(CalculatorService), baseAddress);

serviceHost.AddServiceEndpoint(
    typeof(ICalculator),
    new WSHttpBinding(),
    "CalculatorServiceObject");

// Enable Mex
ServiceMetadataBehavior smb = new ServiceMetadataBehavior();
smb.HttpGetEnabled = true;
serviceHost.Description.Behaviors.Add(smb);

serviceHost.Open();

ContractDescription cd0 = new ContractDescription("ICalculator");
ContractDescription cd1 = new ContractDescription("ICalculator", "http://www.tempuri.org");
ContractDescription cd2 = ContractDescription.GetContract(typeof(ICalculator));
CalculatorService calcSvc = new CalculatorService();
ContractDescription cd3 = ContractDescription.GetContract(typeof(ICalculator), calcSvc);
ContractDescription cd4 = ContractDescription.GetContract(typeof(ICalculator), typeof(CalculatorService));
ContractDescription cd = serviceHost.Description.Endpoints[0].Contract;         

Console.WriteLine("Displaying information for contract: {0}", cd.Name.ToString());

KeyedByTypeCollection<IContractBehavior> behaviors = cd.Behaviors;
Console.WriteLine("\tDisplay all behaviors:");
foreach (IContractBehavior behavior in behaviors)
{
    Console.WriteLine("\t\t" + behavior.ToString());
}

Type type = cd.CallbackContractType;

string configName = cd.ConfigurationName;
Console.WriteLine("\tConfiguration name: {0}", configName);

Type contractType = cd.ContractType;
Console.WriteLine("\tContract type: {0}", contractType.ToString());

bool hasProtectionLevel = cd.HasProtectionLevel;
if (hasProtectionLevel)
{
    ProtectionLevel protectionLevel = cd.ProtectionLevel;
    Console.WriteLine("\tProtection Level: {0}", protectionLevel.ToString());
}


string name = cd.Name;
Console.WriteLine("\tName: {0}", name);

string namespc = cd.Namespace;
Console.WriteLine("\tNamespace: {0}", namespc);

OperationDescriptionCollection odc = cd.Operations;
Console.WriteLine("\tDisplay Operations:");
foreach (OperationDescription od in odc)
{
    Console.WriteLine("\t\t" + od.Name);
}

SessionMode sm = cd.SessionMode;
Console.WriteLine("\tSessionMode: {0}", sm.ToString());

Collection<ContractDescription> inheretedContracts = cd.GetInheritedContracts();
Console.WriteLine("\tInherited Contracts:");
foreach (ContractDescription contractdescription in inheretedContracts)
{
    Console.WriteLine("\t\t" + contractdescription.Name);
}

Console.WriteLine("The service is ready.");
Console.WriteLine("Press <ENTER> to terminate service.");
Console.WriteLine();
Console.ReadLine();

// Close the ServiceHostBase to shutdown the service.
serviceHost.Close();


.NET Framework

Supported in: 4, 3.5, 3.0

.NET Framework Client Profile

Supported in: 4, 3.5 SP1

Portable Class Library

Supported in: Portable Class Library

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2

The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.
Any public static (Shared in Visual Basic) members of this type are thread safe. Any instance members are not guaranteed to be thread safe.
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