diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index a8b680063..622a57fb3 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 	<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 	<groupId>org.culturegraph</groupId>
 	<artifactId>metafacture-core</artifactId>
-	<version>3.1.3-dswarm-SNAPSHOT</version>
+	<version>3.1.4-dswarm-SNAPSHOT</version>
 	<name>metafacture.core</name>
 	<description>Core package of the metafacture tool suite</description>
 	<licenses>
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/culturegraph/mf/morph/maps/SqlMap.java b/src/main/java/org/culturegraph/mf/morph/maps/SqlMap.java
index 65a8ec54a..e2e109493 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/culturegraph/mf/morph/maps/SqlMap.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/culturegraph/mf/morph/maps/SqlMap.java
@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@
 import java.sql.SQLException;
 
 import org.culturegraph.mf.exceptions.MorphException;
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
 /**
  * A map implementation that queries an sql database.
@@ -35,21 +37,32 @@
 public final class SqlMap extends AbstractReadOnlyMap<String, String> implements
 		Closeable {
 
+	private static final Logger LOG = LoggerFactory.getLogger(SqlMap.class);
+
+	public static final String JDBC_PREFIX_IDENTIFIER = "jdbc";
+	public static final String COLON                  = ":";
+	public static final String SLASH                  = "/";
+
 	private boolean isUninitialized = true;
 
 	private Connection conn;
-	private String host;
-	private String login;
-	private String password;
-	private String database;
-	private String query;
-	private String driver;
+	private String     host;
+	private String     port;
+	private String     login;
+	private String     password;
+	private String     database;
+	private String     query;
+	private String     driver;
+	private String     databaseType;
 
 	private PreparedStatement preparedStatement;
 
 	public void init() {
 
 		try {
+
+			LOG.debug("generate a prepared statement with the following query string '{}'", query);
+
 			preparedStatement = getMySqlConnection().prepareStatement(query);
 		} catch (final SQLException e) {
 			throw new MorphException(e);
@@ -72,15 +85,26 @@ public void close() throws IOException {
 	private Connection getMySqlConnection() {
 
 		try {
-			Class.forName(driver);
+			Class.forName(driver).newInstance();
+
+			final StringBuilder urlSB = new StringBuilder();
+			urlSB.append(JDBC_PREFIX_IDENTIFIER).append(COLON)
+					.append(databaseType).append(COLON).append(SLASH).append(SLASH)
+					.append(host).append(COLON).append(port).append(SLASH).append(database);
+
+			final String url = urlSB.toString();
 
-			conn = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:mysql://" + host + "/"
-					+ database + "?" + "user=" + login + "&" + "password="
-					+ password);
+			LOG.debug("try to connection to database with connection string '{}'", url);
+
+			conn = DriverManager.getConnection(url, login, password);
 		} catch (final ClassNotFoundException e) {
 			throw new MorphException(e);
 		} catch (final SQLException e) {
 			throw new MorphException(e);
+		} catch (final InstantiationException e) {
+			throw new MorphException(e);
+		} catch (final IllegalAccessException e) {
+			throw new MorphException(e);
 		}
 		return conn;
 	}
@@ -93,10 +117,10 @@ public String get(final Object key) {
 		String resultString = null;
 		final ResultSet resultSet;
 		try {
-			preparedStatement.setString(1, key.toString());
+			preparedStatement.setObject(1, key.toString());
 			resultSet = preparedStatement.executeQuery();
 			if (resultSet.first()) {
-				resultString = resultSet.getString(1);
+				resultString = resultSet.getObject(1).toString();
 			}
 			resultSet.close();
 		} catch (final SQLException e) {
@@ -129,4 +153,11 @@ public void setQuery(final String query) {
 		this.query = query;
 	}
 
+	public void setPort(final String port) {
+		this.port = port;
+	}
+
+	public void setDatabaseType(final String databaseType) {
+		this.databaseType = databaseType;
+	}
 }
diff --git a/src/main/resources/schemata/metamorph.xsd b/src/main/resources/schemata/metamorph.xsd
index d7f9a8eb1..b13d1d567 100644
--- a/src/main/resources/schemata/metamorph.xsd
+++ b/src/main/resources/schemata/metamorph.xsd
@@ -614,6 +614,10 @@
 	</element>
 
 	<element name="sqlmap">
+		<annotation>
+			<documentation>
+				<![CDATA[Does a lookup in a SQL table via a prepared SQL statement, i.e., the statement needs to include some variable parts. Furthermore, the connection string to the SQL database can be defined via the following attributes: "databaseType" = the type of the database, e.g., 'mysql'; "host" = the host of the database, e.g., 'localhost' (default = "localhost"); "port" = the port of the database, e.g., "3306" (default = "3306"); "database" = the name of the database; "login" = the username that should be utilised to connect to the database; "password" = the password that should be utilised to connect to the database; "query" = the prepared SQL statement that should be utilised to retrieve the value for a given key, e.g. "SELECT value FROM mytable WHERE key = ?"; "driver" = the JDBC driver that should be utilised to connect to the database (default = "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"; note: the database driver needs to be part of the classpath of the execution environment).]]></documentation>
+		</annotation>
 		<complexType>
 			<attribute name="name" type="string" use="required"/>
 			<attribute name="host" type="string" use="optional"
@@ -624,6 +628,8 @@
 			<attribute name="query" type="string" use="required"/>
 			<attribute name="driver" type="string" use="optional"
 					   default="com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"/>
+			<attribute name="databaseType" type="string" use="optional" default="mysql"/>
+			<attribute name="port" type="string" use="optional" default="3306"/>
 			<attribute ref="xml:base"/>
 		</complexType>
 	</element>