Know what? This problem doesn't seem to exist here in perl monks. It's the same basic idea as here. Folks are entering html in textareas. But if I put this in

<property key="smtpHost" value=""/>

it is saved as I typed it - with the escapes, and viewed as I want it - escapes interpreted, and is brought back up in the edit textarea with the escapes intact; uninterpreted.

What am I missing here? I need so save with all &s escaped to &amp;, and then unescape them to & when I display, but dump it when I edit, or vice versa?