Thanks mishaluba. That makes perfect sense!

Thanks also Gary and Craig. This has been quite helpful.

Thanks, Gary.

Indeed, I rebuilt from scratch, and it is working fine. Two final questions:

A) You ACTIVATE the CustomerRequestList queue (file: 080 EmployStaffManager.sql)

Why is there no need...

Very fine article.

Yet running the code, I never get entries in ExecutionLog, never receive @ReceivedReplyMessageType = N'//HardwareStore/ReplyMessage'.

Also, in File 070 StaffManager.sql (SP StaffManager)

-- Instruct worker to execute the request.

EXEC Worker...

Thanks. XQuery does the work!

I use OPENXML because it is faster, and the task occurs while online user waits. Any idea why it ignores this one element? ...