Change the HREF of a link loaded through an XSL Variable? (JQuery)

Question

Hey people.

I have some JS/JQuery code that when a certain variable is present, to change the HREF of a button to an XSL variable call. It doesn't seem to be working, IS this even possible, or am I just doing it wrong?

Sample:

    if(h == '2')
    {
        $('#nextBtn').attr('href', '{$next-file}');
        $('#backBtn').attr('href', '{$previous-file}');
    }

$next-file and $previous-file are two XSLT variables I've defined in my XSLT page. This is an example of how I'm trying to refer to them, but it's not working, because this obviously isn't correct.