Arrrggghhh!! You guys are making this way too complex! DataSet.GetXml() returns exactly what you posted Viv:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<People>
  <Person>
    <FirstName>Fred</FirstName>
    <LastName>Bloggs</LastName>
  </Person>
  <Person>
    <FirstName>Joe</FirstName>
    <LastName>Smith</LastName>
  </Person>
</People>

~~Bonnie




>>>>>>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
>>
>>Such as?
>For example this:

><?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
><People>
>  <Person>
>    <FirstName>Fred</FirstName>
>    <LastName>Bloggs</LastName>
>  </Person>
>  <Person>
>    <FirstName>Joe</FirstName>
>    <LastName>Smith</LastName>
>  </Person>
></People>
>

instead of:

>  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
> <DataSet xmlns="http://tempuri.org/">
> <xs:schema id="NewDataSet" xmlns="" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:msdata="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xml-msdata">
> <xs:element name="NewDataSet" msdata:IsDataSet="true" msdata:UseCurrentLocale="true">
> <xs:complexType>
> <xs:choice minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded">
> <xs:element name="People">
> <xs:complexType>
> <xs:sequence>
>  <xs:element name="FirstName" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0" />
>  <xs:element name="LastName" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0" />
>  </xs:sequence>
>  </xs:complexType>
>  </xs:element>
>  </xs:choice>
>  </xs:complexType>
>  </xs:element>
>  </xs:schema>
> <diffgr:diffgram xmlns:msdata="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xml-msdata" xmlns:diffgr="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xml-diffgram-v1">
> <NewDataSet xmlns="">
> <People diffgr:id="People1" msdata:rowOrder="0" diffgr:hasChanges="inserted">
>  <FirstName>Fred</FirstName>
>  <LastName>Bloggs</LastName>
>  </People>
> <People diffgr:id="People2" msdata:rowOrder="1" diffgr:hasChanges="inserted">
>  <FirstName>Joe</FirstName>
>  <LastName>Smith</LastName>
>  </People>
>  </NewDataSet>
>  </diffgr:diffgram>
>  </DataSet>
>

>Admittedly in this case it would make more sense to return a DataTable rather than a DataSet but.....