REPOST: A question on why you shouldn't include XML in your webservice

[Anonymous]

Hallo, I originally posted this in microsoft.public.webservices but no
replys. Here is it again .

Hallo NG,
1. I have used a pretend e-mail address to stop spam.
2. I am new to web services and am following examples from a book and what
VS.Net creates for me automatically. Here is my simple web service code. It
works.

<%@WebService Language="VB" Class="test"%>

Imports System.Web.Services

Class test
<WebMethod()>public function addToDatabase(s As String) As boolean
'Adds s to database and returns
'true or false whether successful
addToDatabase=true
End Function
End Class
But I have found from Google search that it is bad practice to make "s" in
function above XML. It is meant to not be XML. Why is this? And if I wanted
to store XML in the database, how should I pass it to my webservice function
if not like this?
I hope this makes sence.
Thank you

Petra