>>>>>I'm doing an app which is initially a C# WinForms app where the users will connect via VPN.
>>>>>At some point in the future it will be converted to a web app, so I want to use a WS up front.
>>>>>
>>>>>I'm fairly new at this, and I've seen some examples, as well as prior postings with you and Bonnie
>>>>>that got me going this way.
>>>>>
>>>>>I didn't think you could pass a dataset through a WS into the back end.
>>>>
>>>>.NET to .NET you can pass pretty much anything. As long as the client understands the type it can be completely transparent.
>>>>
>>>>But, as I said to Mike, if you anticipate that non-NET clients will be using your WS then passing back a DataSet as XML is not particularly consumer friendly.
>>>>OTOH (and I don't know if it's just me but) I find I'm dealing with a lot of web services that do just that. Great if you're a .NET consumer; pain if you're not......
>>>
>>>
>>>Not sure I understand. You're saying that XML is not consumer friendly?
>>
>>.NET DataSet created XML isn't - it's kind of a mess.
>
>But wouldn't it be easier to pass around than a data set, as it's a string?

Yes, to me it would be easier to pass around. I think what we are trying to say is DataSet.WriteXML creates "Microsoftized" XML, the same way Frontpage creates "Microsoftized" HTML. I have tried to pass .NET created XML to VFP and VFP created XML to .NET with little success. If you want to create a web service that returns a truly generic XML string, you are probably better off manually constructing the string.