Index: XMLDecoder.java
===================================================================
--- XMLDecoder.java	(revision 477840)
+++ XMLDecoder.java	(working copy)
@@ -29,6 +29,10 @@
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 
+// aw
+import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
+import java.util.Date;
+
 import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder;
 
 import org.apache.cayenne.CayenneRuntimeException;
@@ -232,23 +236,33 @@
                 return ret;
             }
 
-            // If we hit here, then we should be encoding "simple" properties, which are
-            // basically
-            // objects that take a single arg String constructor.
-            Constructor c = objectClass.getConstructor(new Class[] {
-                String.class
-            });
-            if (c != null) {
-                // Create a new object of the type supplied as the "type" attribute
-                // in the XML element that
-                // represents the XML element's text value.
-                // E.g., for <count type="java.lang.Integer">13</count>, this is
-                // equivalent to new Integer("13");
-
-                return c.newInstance(new Object[] {
-                    XMLUtil.getText(child)
-                });
-            }
+			// aw: handle Date with a special constructor
+			// Cayenne does store it in this format: "Mon Nov 06 22:46:30 CET 2006"
+			if(objectClass == Date.class)
+			{
+				SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("E MMM dd hh:mm:ss z yyyy");
+				return sdf.parse(XMLUtil.getText(child));
+			}
+			else
+			{
+				// If we hit here, then we should be encoding "simple" properties, which are
+				// basically
+				// objects that take a single arg String constructor.
+				Constructor c = objectClass.getConstructor(new Class[] {
+					String.class
+				});
+				if (c != null) {
+					// Create a new object of the type supplied as the "type" attribute
+					// in the XML element that
+					// represents the XML element's text value.
+					// E.g., for <count type="java.lang.Integer">13</count>, this is
+					// equivalent to new Integer("13");
+					
+					return c.newInstance(new Object[] {
+						XMLUtil.getText(child)
+					});
+				}
+			}
         }
         catch (Exception e) {
             throw new CayenneRuntimeException("Error decoding tag '"