Deserialize XML with HTML-escaped part using SimpleXML

Question

I have an XML that looks something like this:

<xml>
&lt;example&gt;&lt;string&gt;test&lt;/string&gt;&lt;/example&gt;
</xml>

Is it possible to make SimpleXML restore those HTML-escaped characters during deserialization and continue as usual, inflating these classes:

@Root
public class Xml {

    @Element
    public Example example;
}

public class Example {

    @Element
    public String string;
}

Answer 1

Okay, I think I got it

SimpleXML parses escaped sequence as a @Text, which I can use in constructor injection, and in that constructor I create another instance of Persister, which reads this sequence. Here is the code for the example in the question:

@Root
public class Xml {
    @Text
    String text;

    public Example example;

    public Xml(@Text String text) {
        Serializer serializer = new Persister();
        try {
            example = serializer.read(Example.class, text);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

public class Example {

    @Element
    public String string;
}

What is interesting is that I don't need to restore escaped characters, SimpleXML does that for me.