Hi,
Did you solve this?,
Best,
Viv

>I have a varchar(max) field in SQL 2008 Dataset_XML. My strongly typed business object is mapped to that column, and returns
>

><dsPolicies xmlns="http://tempuri.org/dsPolicies.xsd" /> 
>

>for a null. ( this is because I am adding this field to a current app an have to allow nulls, but I could script this as a value for all null values and then not allow nulls if that would help)
>
>dsPolicies is dropped on the form and the instance is names dsPolicies1.
>
>The dataset is typed with 8 tables. and the XSD file seems to be working as I am using bindingsources for each table and the datagridviews are showing the right columns.
>
>In the parentform_loading event of the business object on the Policies form I am trying to deserialize the XML stored in Me.PoliciesBO1.Dataset_XML ( which has the default value shown above) using this code :
>
>

>    Private Sub PoliciesBO1_ParentFormLoading() Handles PoliciesBO1.ParentFormLoading
>
>        Me.PoliciesBO1.fillall()
>
>        If Me.PoliciesBO1.Count > 0 Then
>
>            Me.DsPolicies1 = _ CType(InsurtecPW.Base.Utility.SmartDeSerialize(Me.PoliciesBO1.Dataset_XML), InsurtecPW.dsPolicies)
>
>        End If
>
>    End Sub
>

>
>and this is the deserialize routine :
>

>    Public Shared Function SmartDeSerialize(ByVal serialized As String) As DataSet
>        Dim __ds As DataSet = New DataSet
>        ' needed to create an XML TextReader 
>        Dim nt As NameTable = New NameTable
>        Dim nsmgr As XmlNamespaceManager = New XmlNamespaceManager(nt)
>        Dim context As XmlParserContext = New XmlParserContext(Nothing, nsmgr, Nothing, XmlSpace.None)
>        Dim tr As XmlTextReader = New XmlTextReader(serialized, XmlNodeType.Document, context)
>        Try
>
>            __ds.ReadXml(tr)
>
>            Return __ds
>        Finally
>            If Not (tr Is Nothing) Then
>                tr.Close()
>                tr = Nothing
>            End If
>            context = Nothing
>            nsmgr = Nothing
>            nt = Nothing
>
>        End Try
>
>    End Function
>

>
>As you see, this returns a dataset, but I don't seem to be able to cast the return value as the dsPolicies that I need.
>
>Unable to cast object of type 'System.Data.DataSet' to type 'InsurtecPW.dsPolicies'.
>
>I have also tried a directcast of the returned dataset and got the same result.
>
>This approach seemed to work find when I was using an untyped dataset.
>
>I'd appreciate any thoughts on this. I'm pretty clueless about possible differences between the dataset class and a typed dataset or if my problem is the value I am returning if the column is empty.
>
>I am open to any approach (including serializing to a byte array) which will allow me to write and entire dataset to a sql column and bring it back.
>
>Suggestions very much appreciated.
>
>TIA