>>>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?

I'm saying a DataSet converted to XML is not friendly for a non-.NET consumer.

If your web service returns a Dataset object it is automatically converted to XML by the .NET plumbing (so there's not much point in going through the .WriteXML() step). A .NET client can simply cast this back to a Dataset which is great. But a non-.NET client if faced with parsing an overly complex and verbose piece of XML when a far simpler representation of the data could be provided
HTH,
Viv