OperationDescription Class
[ This article is for Windows Phone 8 developers. If you’re developing for Windows 10, see the latest documentation. ]
A contract that characterizes an operation in terms of the messages it exchanges.
Assembly: System.ServiceModel (in System.ServiceModel.dll)
The OperationDescription type exposes the following members.
| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
 | OperationDescription | Initializes a new instance of the OperationDescription class with a specified name and contract description. |
| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
 | BeginMethod | Gets or sets the begin method of the operation. |
| DeclaringContract | Gets or sets the contract to which the operation belongs. |
| EndMethod | Gets or sets the end method of the operation. |
| Faults | Gets a collection of the descriptions of the faults associated with the operation description. |
| IsOneWay | Gets a value that indicates whether an operation returns a reply message. |
| KnownTypes | Gets the known types associated with the operation description. |
| Messages | Gets or sets the descriptions of the messages that make up the operation. |
| Name | Gets or sets the name of the operation description. |
| SyncMethod | Gets or sets the service synchronization method of the operation description. |
| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Equals(Object) | Determines whether the specified Object is equal to the current Object. (Inherited from Object.) |
 | Finalize | Allows an object to try to free resources and perform other cleanup operations before the Object is reclaimed by garbage collection. (Inherited from Object.) |
| GetHashCode | Serves as a hash function for a particular type. (Inherited from Object.) |
| GetType | Gets the Type of the current instance. (Inherited from Object.) |
| MemberwiseClone | Creates a shallow copy of the current Object. (Inherited from Object.) |
| ToString | Returns a string that represents the current object. (Inherited from Object.) |
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 that 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 operation, such as whether the operation is one-way or request/reply. Each OperationDescription also describes the messages that make up the operation using a collection of MessageDescription objects. 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 OperationContractAttribute.