ADO.NET (vs ADO) uses XML to pass data between tiers ("disconnected" data access).

You could accomplish the same thing in VFP using CURSORTOXML() and XMLTOCURSOR().

>I have tried to get a clear understanding of what can and what cannot be done with VFP-ADO. Below is my current understanding of the subject. If anyone thinks anything is not correct or has any ideas I would appreciate a response.
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>If both application and database are VFP then it seems to me that using ADO for passing data between tiers is basically impossible or at least very inefficient.
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>I'm assuming here that we are using COM+ to serve server side logic, VFP database is used and all middle tier logic is built with VFP.
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>There are two possibilities for using ADO to access remote data. If data access is made through middle tier then client makes call to some middle tier object. This in response creates ADO Recordset fills it with data and then returns Recordset back to the client. With this approach the problem is that if we are returning object from VFP function then we actually return only a reference to the object.
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>In our environment this means that after client receives the Recordset all following calls (that read the contents) made to the Recordset are made to the server object. One good thing with COM+ is that is allows to use stateless logic. In the scenario described COM+ cannot release server object because client is still holding a reference to it hence we have STATEFUL components in server!
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>There is also another possibility for using ADO. In that case we basically create ADO connection in client and then create the Recordset we need using that connection. VFP database however is file server based so there is no way we could initiate a connection to VFP database remotely. So this strategy isn't either possible.
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>I have found several examples of using ADO with VFP but non of them can be used with multitier VFP database application.
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>Thanks!