1. At a computer system including one or more processors and system memory, the computer system also including a workflow framework, a method for reading values of a compound data structure using a declarative language, the method comprising: receiving developer input, at the workflow framework, that defines, in a declarative language, multiple paths and a workflow program location for each path, each path defining an element of a compound data structure whose value is to be bound to the corresponding workflow program location; for each path, determining which element of the compound data structure the path refers to and reading the value of the determined element; and reading the value of the element referred to by each path into the corresponding workflow program location, including automatically performing a type coercion on the value.