You aren't the only one bitten by this array issue. Have you considered passing XML? That's what we do. Occasionally we see a weird glitch (e.g. a space inserted in an inconvenient location) but it's fairly quick and easy enough to debug. It also makes it very easy if you ever move any of your stuff into different layers or servers or need a php interface or whatever.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
