Would like to have responded to this thread sooner, but I have been out of the office for a week or so. I would like to set some expectations regarding XMLToCursor()functionality. First of all, the ADO issue. XMLToCursor() is designed to work with ADO XML (see example at end of this mail). We do not recognize hierarchical recordsets, and I would be interested in knowing about any other table configurations that we choke on, and we will look into it. Otherwise, this is what you should know about the functionality of this feature:

We implemented recognition of our own schemas, ADO Recordset schemas, and some SQL XML. Due to the time constraints imposed by our freeze for RTM, we implemented XSD schema that conformed to the W3C working draft at the time, as implemented by Microsoft. The W3C made a final recommendation subsequent to our freeze date. There should be a note in either the Doc's or the Readme that note that the final implementation of XSD schema will not be until a later Service Pack or Release of Visual FoxPro. Thus, in our RTM release, we are not fully compatible with VS .Net or SQL XML, as we knew that both of these products would be changing and/or implementing XSD schema after our RTM date. Thus, it is our goal to be as fully interoperable as possible with VS .Net and SQL Server XML in the VS .Net RTM timeframe.

Further, we already had plans to enhance the function to allow for over-riding of existing schema by pointing to another schema or to a table structure. The exact implementation of how we will do this is yet to be decided.

Also, it is important to note that it will take some time for other applications to recognize and be able to deal with XSD Schemas. Since XSD is now an official "Recommendation" of the W3C, most companies that wish to interop should be able to produce and consume XML that is described by an XSD schema. So, the bottom line is that XMLToCursor() will contain more functionality in a subsequent release. We did not want to hold back the function altogether (which was an option we discussed), because we felt that it had value - perhaps not to everyone, but to enough customers to make it worthwhile to include this in VFP 7.0. As XSD schema takes hold in the XML community, more and more third party applications should recognize same, and be able to work with our XML and schemas, and vice-versa.


Note I will be at San Diego DevCon, and would be happy to hear your suggestions and issues. I will be back in the office on 9/13.

Here is some short ADO code that uses Employees on SQL Server (Northwind):

* ado recordsets to XMLToCursor
clear
local oConn as "adodb.connection"
local oRS as "adodb.recordset"
local oSt as "adodb.stream"
oConn = createobject('adodb.connection')
oRS = createobject('adodb.recordset')
oSt = CREATEOBJECT('adodb.stream')
oConn.ConnectionString = "Provider=SQLOLEDB;Data Source=FOXSQL2K; User Id=sa;Password=*******;Initial Catalog=Northwind;"
oConn.Open()

ors.Open("select employeeid,lastname,firstname,title,birthdate,notes from employees where employeeid <=2",oConn,3,3)
oRs.Save(oSt,1)

cXML=oSt.ReadText(ost.Size)
oSt.Close()
oRS.Close()
oConn.Close()
oConn = NULL

cThisXML = cXML
? XMLTOCURSOR(cThisXML, 'MyCursor',0)
BROWSE


Gene Goldhammer
Visual FoxPro Data PM