XMLDocument I/O With DataTables And TableAdapters (final Version?)

The test sub below operates on a SQL Server Table  with an xml-type field ("xml").  The purpose of the sub is to learn about storing and retrieving a whole xml document as a single field in a SQL Server table row.

When the code saves to the xml field, it somehow automagically strips the xml.document.declaration (<?xml...>).  So when it reads the xml field back and tries to create an xmldocument from it, it halts at the xmldocument.load.

I order to  get the save/retrieve from the xmlfield to work, I add the <?xml declaration to
the string when I read it back in from the xml field (this is in the code below).

At that point the quickwatch on the string I'm attempting to load into the xmldocument is this:
-----------------------------------------------------
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16" ?><Control
type="TypeA"><Value1><SubVal1A>Units</SubVal1A><SubVal1B
type="TypeA">Type</SubVal1B></Value1><Value2><SubVal2A>Over</SubVal2A><SubVal2B>Load</SubVal2B>
</Value2></Control>
-----------------------------------------------------
The original xml document string is this:
-----------------------------------------------------
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16" ?>
<Control type="TypeA">
     <Value1>
          <SubVal1A>Units</SubVal1A>
          <SubVal1B type="TypeA">Type</SubVal1B>     
     </Value1>
     <Value2>
          <SubVal2A>Over</SubVal2A>
          <SubVal2B>Load</SubVal2B>
     </Value2>
</Control>
-----------------------------------------------------
which seems to have all the same characters as the quickwatch result above, but clearly is formatted differently because of the indenting.

THE FIRST QUESTION:  Is there a simpler way to do this whole thing using more appropriate methods that don't require adding the xml.document.declaration back in after reading the .xml field, or don't require using the memorystream to convert the .xml field in order to load it back to the XML document.

THE SECOND QUESTION:  Why does the original document open in the browser with "utf-16", but when I write the second document back to disk with "utf-16" it won't open...I have to change it to "utf-8" to open the second document in the browser.

Here's the test sub
'============================================
          
     Public Sub XMLDSTest()
          '===========================================
          Dim ColumnType As String = "XML"          

          '===========================================

          '----------Set up dataset, datatable, xmldocument

          Dim wrkDS As New DSet1()
          Dim wrkTable As New DSet1.Table1DataTable
          Dim wrkAdapter As New DSet1TableAdapters.Table1TableAdapter

          Dim wrkXDoc As New XmlDocument
          wrkXDoc.Load(SitePath & "App_XML" & "XMLFile.xml")

          Dim str1 = wrkXDoc.OuterXml
          Dim wrkRow As DSet1.Table1Row
          wrkRow = wrkTable.NewRow

          '=======WRITE to SQL Server==============
          '------ build new row
          With wrkRow
               Dim wrkG As Guid = System.Guid.NewGuid
               TestKey = wrkG.ToString
               .RecordKey = TestKey
               .xml = wrkXDoc.OuterXml     '<<< maps to SQL Server xml-type field
          End With

          '----- add row to table and update to disk
          wrkTable.Rows.Add(wrkRow)
          wrkAdapter.Update(wrkTable)
          wrkTable.AcceptChanges()
          '----- clear table
          wrkTable.Clear()

          '=======READ From SQL Server ==============
          '----refill table, read row,
          wrkAdapter.FillBy(wrkTable, TestKey)
          Dim wrkRow2 As DSet1.Table1Row = _
             wrkTable.Select("RecordKey = '" & TestKey & "'")(0)

          '=====  WRITE TO New .xml FILE ===========================
          Dim wrkS1 As New StringBuilder
          Select Case ColumnType
               Case "XML"
                    '---if xml build xml declaration:  
                    '---add this to xml from sql table   =>  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16" ?>
                    wrkS1.Append("<?xml version=" & Chr(34) & "1.0" & Chr(34))
                    wrkS1.Append(" encoding=" & Chr(34) & "utf-16" & Chr(34) & " ?>")
                    wrkS1.Append(wrkRow2.xml)
          End Select

          Dim wrkBytes As Byte() = (New UnicodeEncoding).GetBytes(wrkS1.ToString)
          Dim wrkXDoc2 As New XmlDocument
          Dim wrkStream As New MemoryStream(wrkBytes)
          wrkXDoc2.Load(wrkStream)
          '===========================================
          '---- this just shows that the file actually was touched
          Dim wrkN2 As XmlNode = wrkXDoc2.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Text, "ss", "TestNode2")
          wrkN2 = wrkXDoc2.SelectSingleNode("//Value1/SubVal1B")
          wrkN2.Attributes("type").Value = "This was from the xml field"
          '----------------
          '------  update the encoding....otherwise the file won't open in the browser with utf-16
          Dim wrkN1 As XmlNode = wrkXDoc2.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Element, "ss", "TestNode")
          wrkN1 = wrkXDoc2.FirstChild
          wrkN1.InnerText = Replace(wrkN1.InnerText, "utf-16", "utf-8")

          '------------Now write the file back as an .xml file
          Dim wrkFilePath As String = SitePath & "App_XML" & "XMLFile2.xml"
          Dim wrkXW As XmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(wrkFilePath)
          wrkXDoc2.WriteContentTo(wrkXW)
          wrkXW.Close()

     End Sub



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