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How to: Create a Request-Reply Contract

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A request-reply contract specifies a method that returns a reply. The reply must be sent and correlated to the request under the terms of this contract. Even if the method returns no reply (void in C#, or a Sub in Visual Basic), the infrastructure creates and sends an empty message to the caller. To prevent the sending of an empty reply message, use a one-way contract for the operation.

To create a request-reply contract

  1. Create an interface in the programming language of your choice.

  2. Apply the ServiceContractAttribute attribute to the interface.

  3. Apply the OperationContractAttribute attribute to each method that clients can invoke.

  4. Optional. Set the value of the IsOneWay property to true to prevent the sending of an empty reply message. By default, all operations are request-reply contracts.

Example

The following sample defines a contract for a calculator service that provides Add and Subtract methods. The Multiply method is not part of the contract because it is not marked by the OperationContractAttribute class and so it is not accessible to clients.

using System.ServiceModel;

[ServiceContract]
public interface ICalculator
{
    [OperationContract]
    // It would be equivalent to write explicitly:
    // [OperationContract(IsOneWay=false)]
    int Add(int a, int b);

    [OperationContract]
    int Subtract(int a, int b);

    int Multiply(int a, int b)
}

  • For more information about how to specify operation contracts, see the OperationContractAttribute class and the IsOneWay property.

  • Applying the ServiceContractAttribute and OperationContractAttribute attributes causes the automatic generation of service contract definitions in a Web Services Description Language (WSDL) document once the service is deployed. The document is downloaded by appending ?wsdl to the HTTP base address for the service. For example, http://microsoft/CalculatorService?wsdl

See also