diff --git a/haxe/ui/data/DataSourceFactory.hx b/haxe/ui/data/DataSourceFactory.hx
index 874143439..6c4f4f7f6 100644
--- a/haxe/ui/data/DataSourceFactory.hx
+++ b/haxe/ui/data/DataSourceFactory.hx
@@ -32,6 +32,24 @@ class DataSourceFactory<T> {
         return ds;
     }
 
+    public function fromStringToArray<T>(data:String):Array<T> {
+        var array:Array<T> = [];
+        if (StringTools.startsWith(data, "<")) { // xml
+            var xml:Xml = Xml.parse(data).firstElement();
+            for (el in xml.elements()) {
+                var o:Dynamic = xml2Object(el);
+                array.push(o);
+            }
+        } else if (StringTools.startsWith(data, "[")) { // json array
+            var json:Array<Dynamic> = Json.parse(StringTools.replace(data, "'", "\""));
+            for (o in json) {
+                array.push(o);
+            }
+        }
+
+        return array;
+    }
+
     private function xml2Object(el:Xml, addId:Bool = true):Dynamic {
         var o = {};
 
diff --git a/haxe/ui/macros/ComponentMacros.hx b/haxe/ui/macros/ComponentMacros.hx
index 5870a58a4..53d5b3254 100644
--- a/haxe/ui/macros/ComponentMacros.hx
+++ b/haxe/ui/macros/ComponentMacros.hx
@@ -957,10 +957,9 @@ class ComponentMacros {
     }
 
     private static function buildDataSourceCode(builder:CodeBuilder, c:ComponentInfo, dsVarName:String, componentVarName:String) {
-        var ds = new haxe.ui.data.DataSourceFactory<Dynamic>().fromString(c.dataString, haxe.ui.data.ArrayDataSource);
+        var items = new haxe.ui.data.DataSourceFactory<Dynamic>().fromStringToArray(c.dataString);
         builder.add(macro var $dsVarName = new haxe.ui.data.ArrayDataSource<Dynamic>());
-        for (i in 0...ds.size) {
-            var item = ds.get(i);
+        for (item in items) {
             var hasExpression:Bool = false;
             // lets first find out if any of the items are expressions
             for (f in Reflect.fields(item)) {