--- a/flys-artifacts/src/main/java/de/intevation/flys/artifacts/datacage/templating/Builder.java	Wed Jan 02 15:24:18 2013 +0100
+++ b/flys-artifacts/src/main/java/de/intevation/flys/artifacts/datacage/templating/Builder.java	Wed Jan 02 15:42:22 2013 +0100
@@ -1,34 +1,36 @@
 package de.intevation.flys.artifacts.datacage.templating;
 
-import java.util.regex.Pattern;
-import java.util.regex.Matcher;
-
-import java.util.ArrayList;
-import java.util.List;
-import java.util.HashMap;
-import java.util.Map;
-import java.util.Deque;
-import java.util.ArrayDeque;
-
-import org.w3c.dom.Document;
-import org.w3c.dom.NodeList;
-import org.w3c.dom.Node;
-import org.w3c.dom.Element;
-
-import javax.xml.xpath.XPath;
-import javax.xml.xpath.XPathFactory;
-import javax.xml.xpath.XPathExpressionException;
-import javax.xml.xpath.XPathConstants;
-
-import java.sql.SQLException;
-import java.sql.Connection;
-
 import de.intevation.artifacts.common.utils.XMLUtils;
 
 import de.intevation.flys.utils.Pair;
 
+import java.sql.Connection;
+import java.sql.SQLException;
+
+import java.util.ArrayDeque;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.Deque;
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Map;
+
+import java.util.regex.Matcher;
+import java.util.regex.Pattern;
+
+import javax.xml.namespace.QName;
+
+import javax.xml.xpath.XPath;
+import javax.xml.xpath.XPathConstants;
+import javax.xml.xpath.XPathExpressionException;
+import javax.xml.xpath.XPathFactory;
+
 import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
 
+import org.w3c.dom.Document;
+import org.w3c.dom.Element;
+import org.w3c.dom.Node;
+import org.w3c.dom.NodeList;
+
 
 public class Builder
 {
@@ -82,7 +84,6 @@
         }
     } // class NamedConnection
 
-
     public class BuildHelper
     {
         protected Node                                     output;
@@ -402,7 +403,7 @@
             }
         }
 
-        protected Object evaluateXPath(String expr) {
+        protected Object evaluateXPath(String expr, QName returnType) {
 
             if (log.isDebugEnabled()) {
                 log.debug("evaluate: '" + expr + "'");
@@ -412,17 +413,17 @@
                 XPath xpath = XPATH_FACTORY.newXPath();
                 xpath.setXPathVariableResolver(frames);
                 xpath.setXPathFunctionResolver(FunctionResolver.FUNCTIONS);
-                return xpath.evaluate(expr, EVAL_DOCUMENT, XPathConstants.BOOLEAN);
+                return xpath.evaluate(expr, EVAL_DOCUMENT, returnType);
             }
-            catch (XPathExpressionException xfce) {
-                log.error("expression: " + expr, xfce);
+            catch (XPathExpressionException xpee) {
+                log.error("expression: " + expr, xpee);
             }
             return null;
         }
 
         protected Boolean evaluateXPathToBoolean(String expr) {
 
-            Object result = evaluateXPath(expr);
+            Object result = evaluateXPath(expr, XPathConstants.BOOLEAN);
 
             return result instanceof Boolean
                 ? (Boolean)result
@@ -442,16 +443,20 @@
             }
         }
 
+
         protected void variable(Element current) {
 
             String varName = expand(current.getAttribute("name"));
             String expr    = current.getAttribute("expr");
+            String type    = current.getAttribute("type");
 
             if (varName.length() == 0 || expr.length() == 0) {
                 log.error("dc:variable 'name' or 'expr' empty.");
             }
             else {
-                frames.put(varName.toUpperCase(), evaluateXPath(expr));
+                frames.put(
+                    varName.toUpperCase(),
+                    evaluateXPath(expr, typeToQName(type)));
             }
         }
 
@@ -563,6 +568,14 @@
         compileStatements();
     }
 
+    protected static QName typeToQName(String type) {
+        if ("number" .equals(type)) return XPathConstants.NUMBER;
+        if ("bool"   .equals(type)) return XPathConstants.BOOLEAN;
+        if ("node"   .equals(type)) return XPathConstants.NODE;
+        if ("nodeset".equals(type)) return XPathConstants.NODESET;
+        return XPathConstants.STRING;
+    }
+
     /** Handle <dc:statement> elements. */
     protected void compileStatements() {