diff --git a/classes/xml/xmlquery/argument/Argument.class.php b/classes/xml/xmlquery/argument/Argument.class.php
index 1fe6a7409..d5046763b 100644
--- a/classes/xml/xmlquery/argument/Argument.class.php
+++ b/classes/xml/xmlquery/argument/Argument.class.php
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@
 				return $dbParser->parseExpression($value);
                         }
                         if(!isset($value)) return null;
-			if(in_array($this->type, array('date', 'varchar', 'char','text', 'bigtext'))){
+			if(in_array($this->getType(), array('date', 'varchar', 'char','text', 'bigtext'))){
 				if(!is_array($value))
 					$value = $this->_escapeStringValue ($value);
 				else {
diff --git a/classes/xml/xmlquery/argument/ConditionArgument.class.php b/classes/xml/xmlquery/argument/ConditionArgument.class.php
index 2094d9eeb..e11350aa1 100644
--- a/classes/xml/xmlquery/argument/ConditionArgument.class.php
+++ b/classes/xml/xmlquery/argument/ConditionArgument.class.php
@@ -40,8 +40,19 @@
                         }
 		}
 
+                /**
+                 * Since ConditionArgument is used in WHERE clause,
+                 * where the argument value is compared to a table column,
+                 * it is assumed that all arguments have type. There are cases though
+                 * where the column does not have any type - if it was removed from
+                 * the XML schema for example - see the is_secret column in xe_documents table.
+                 * In this case, the column type is retrieved according to argument
+                 * value type (using the PHP function is_numeric).
+                 *
+                 * @return type string
+                 */
                 function getType(){
-			return $this->type;
+			return $this->type ? $this->type : (!is_numeric($this->value) ? "varchar" : "");
 		}
 
                 function setColumnType($column_type){
diff --git a/test-phpUnit/db/xml_query/mysql/MysqlUpdateTest.php b/test-phpUnit/db/xml_query/mysql/MysqlUpdateTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e4264945d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test-phpUnit/db/xml_query/mysql/MysqlUpdateTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+<?php
+	require(_XE_PATH_ . 'test-phpUnit/config/config.inc.php');
+
+	class MysqlUpdateTest extends MysqlTest {
+
+                function _test($xml_file, $argsString, $expected, $columnList = null){
+                    $this->_testQuery($xml_file, $argsString, $expected, 'getUpdateSql', $columnList);
+		}
+
+                function test_document_updateDocumentStatus(){
+                        $xml_file = _XE_PATH_ . "modules/document/queries/updateDocumentStatus.xml";
+			$argsString = '$args->is_secret = \'Y\';
+                                       $args->status = \'SECRET\';
+                        ';
+                        $expected = 'update `xe_documents` set `status` = \'secret\' where `is_secret` = \'y\'';
+                        $this->_test($xml_file, $argsString, $expected);
+                }
+
+
+	}
\ No newline at end of file