Service Operations

An operation is a single call made in a service that specifies what the service can do.

The operation is one part of the service interface, which typically consists of an operation, operation parameters, and operation parameter properties. The type of operation that can be used in an interface depends on the type of service you are developing. An operation can be one of two types:

One-way operation
Request-reply operation

As you develop a service, consider how your service will be exposed to an inbound transport. The types of operations supported in the service can be affected by the type of inbound transport the service uses.

Operations have different functionality, depending on the type of service:

A messaging service operation sends a message to a messaging system using a one-way operation.
A database service operation invokes a database stored procedure or a SQL query.
A Web service operation is a SOAP/HTTP request against a remote Web service.