>How about a table on the server side that stores a record for each persisted piece of "state", with an ID identifying it for future use, and a MEMO field containing XML? Should perform pretty fast, especially with Rick Strahl's fast wwXML class to parse the XML in and out to a cursor.

Wow, for each persisted piece of "state", a table could get real big real fast and then there are possible corruption / maintenance issues. From what I gather, the next version of SQL Server (Shilo) will address these concerns.

What about passing some sort of XML message back and forth between the client and biz objects. Eric and some other folks were talking about this. I quess it's time to take a hard look at XML. But then there is the problem of the emerging XML standards - not that it's a problem, but that I hate putting things on hold.

>Now just need a generic mechanism for identifying changed items and we're in business.

Yup

>>Quiz - What country song does has this verse:
>>... ladies love outlaws like babies love a bunch of stray dogs ...

>I have absolutely no idea. Most of the country songs I can remember have to do with pickup trucks ("That's not my pickup in your yard...", etc).

ROLF