BPEL - Access the variables in embedded Java (2)

How do you call getVariableData() if you have to accept a string value from the client and process it further in a Java code.

Problem:
I have used the following syntax -
String firstName = ((Element)getVariableData(“inputVariable”, “payload”, “/client:myBPELProcess/client:input”)).getNodeValue();

firstName is always coming out to be a null value even though I pass the input value as string say “test”(after deployment of the BPEL process).

If I am calling getNodeName() instead then it is correctly giving me the right node as “ns1:input”, but it seems getNodeValue() is having some problems.

Anwser:
The payload is a text element and the value is for the text element.

String firstName = ((Element)getVariableData( “inputVariable”, “payload”, "/client:myBPELProcess/client:input”)).getFirstChild().getNodeValue();