best method for XML data in web service?

[Guest]

I developed a desktop app that reads an XML file into a dataset.
(The desktop app has the XML schema built in, so it already knows what
format the XML file should be in.)

My problem is that I want the desktop app to get
the same data from a web service.

I have a prototype working where the XML data that was in the file
is passed from the web service to the app as a string.
The app then loads it into the dataset by using the
DataSet.ReadXML(TextReader).
It works fine but I cant help feeling
that there should be a better way to pass the data.
(...by "better", I mean more type specific, as opposed to just a string.)

Is there a different type I could use?

I know the SOAP/XML standard doesn't have all the same types that .NET does,
but I haven't found any doc that shows alternatives.

So my question is, what's the best way to pass the contents of a dataset
from a web service to an application?

Thanks!
Steven S

 

[John Bailo]

What I do is create a method whose return type is XmlDocument.

From my smart client, I call the method, and store the XmlDocument in a
local variable of type XmlDocoment. Then I can use the data, and search
it using XPath, locally.

 

[William LaMartin]

Why not pass it as a dataset?