diff --git a/src/main/java/ch/eitchnet/xmlpers/XmlDao.java b/src/main/java/ch/eitchnet/xmlpers/XmlDao.java
index 234c0a9ea..134f290b1 100644
--- a/src/main/java/ch/eitchnet/xmlpers/XmlDao.java
+++ b/src/main/java/ch/eitchnet/xmlpers/XmlDao.java
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@
  */
 package ch.eitchnet.xmlpers;
 
-import org.w3c.dom.DOMImplementation;
 import org.w3c.dom.Document;
 import org.w3c.dom.Element;
 import org.xml.sax.ContentHandler;
@@ -51,11 +50,10 @@ public interface XmlDao<T> {
 	/**
 	 * 
 	 * @param object
-	 * @param domImplementation
+	 * @param document
 	 * @return
 	 */
-	// XXX think about returning a document, instead of an element, or use document as input
-	public Document serializeToDom(T object, DOMImplementation domImplementation);
+	public Element serializeToDom(T object, Document document);
 
 	/**
 	 * @param element
diff --git a/src/main/java/ch/eitchnet/xmlpers/XmlFilePersister.java b/src/main/java/ch/eitchnet/xmlpers/XmlFilePersister.java
index 8049a9946..b077cb1b5 100644
--- a/src/main/java/ch/eitchnet/xmlpers/XmlFilePersister.java
+++ b/src/main/java/ch/eitchnet/xmlpers/XmlFilePersister.java
@@ -19,9 +19,7 @@
  */
 package ch.eitchnet.xmlpers;
 
-import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;
 import java.io.File;
-import java.io.FileOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collections;
@@ -38,19 +36,14 @@ import org.w3c.dom.Element;
 import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
 
 import ch.eitchnet.utils.helper.FileHelper;
-
-import com.sun.org.apache.xml.internal.serialize.OutputFormat;
-import com.sun.org.apache.xml.internal.serialize.XMLSerializer;
+import ch.eitchnet.utils.helper.XmlHelper;
 
 /**
- *@author Robert von Burg <eitch@eitchnet.ch>
+ * @author Robert von Burg <eitch@eitchnet.ch>
  * 
  */
 public class XmlFilePersister {
 
-	//
-	private static final String XML_DEFAULT_ENCODING = "UTF-8";
-
 	private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(XmlFilePersister.class);
 
 	private boolean verbose;
@@ -89,34 +82,16 @@ public class XmlFilePersister {
 		}
 
 		if (this.verbose)
-			XmlFilePersister.logger.info("Persisting " + type + " / " + subType + " / " + id + " to " + pathF.getAbsolutePath() + "...");
+			XmlFilePersister.logger.info("Persisting " + type + " / " + subType + " / " + id + " to "
+					+ pathF.getAbsolutePath() + "...");
 
-		BufferedOutputStream outStream = null;
 		try {
 
-			outStream = new BufferedOutputStream(new FileOutputStream(pathF));
-
-			OutputFormat outputFormat = new OutputFormat("XML", XmlFilePersister.XML_DEFAULT_ENCODING, true);
-			outputFormat.setIndent(1);
-			outputFormat.setIndenting(true);
-			//of.setDoctype(null, null);
-
-			XMLSerializer serializer = new XMLSerializer(outStream, outputFormat);
-			serializer.asDOMSerializer();
-			serializer.serialize(document);
-			outStream.flush();
+			XmlHelper.writeDocument(document, pathF);
 
 		} catch (Exception e) {
 			throw new XmlPersistenceExecption("Could not persist object " + type + " / " + subType + " / " + id
 					+ " to " + pathF.getAbsolutePath(), e);
-		} finally {
-			if (outStream != null) {
-				try {
-					outStream.close();
-				} catch (IOException e) {
-					XmlFilePersister.logger.error(e.getMessage(), e);
-				}
-			}
 		}
 
 		if (this.verbose)
@@ -137,12 +112,12 @@ public class XmlFilePersister {
 			pathF = this.xmlPathHelper.getPathF(type, id);
 
 		if (this.verbose)
-			XmlFilePersister.logger.info("Remove persistence file for " + type + " / " + subType + " / " + id + " from "
-					+ pathF.getAbsolutePath() + "...");
+			XmlFilePersister.logger.info("Remove persistence file for " + type + " / " + subType + " / " + id
+					+ " from " + pathF.getAbsolutePath() + "...");
 
 		if (!pathF.exists()) {
-			XmlFilePersister.logger.error("Persistence file for " + type + " / " + subType + " / " + id + " does not exist at "
-					+ pathF.getAbsolutePath());
+			XmlFilePersister.logger.error("Persistence file for " + type + " / " + subType + " / " + id
+					+ " does not exist at " + pathF.getAbsolutePath());
 		} else if (!pathF.delete()) {
 			throw new XmlPersistenceExecption("Could not delete persistence file for " + type + " / " + subType + " / "
 					+ id + " at " + pathF.getAbsolutePath());
@@ -421,8 +396,8 @@ public class XmlFilePersister {
 
 		File pathF = this.xmlPathHelper.getPathF(type, subType, id);
 		if (!pathF.exists()) {
-			XmlFilePersister.logger.error("Path for " + type + " / " + subType + " / " + id + " at " + pathF.getAbsolutePath()
-					+ " does not exist, so object does not exist!");
+			XmlFilePersister.logger.error("Path for " + type + " / " + subType + " / " + id + " at "
+					+ pathF.getAbsolutePath() + " does not exist, so object does not exist!");
 			return null;
 		}
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/ch/eitchnet/xmlpers/XmlPersistenceTransaction.java b/src/main/java/ch/eitchnet/xmlpers/XmlPersistenceTransaction.java
index 5e9a2664b..fdf1c6a57 100644
--- a/src/main/java/ch/eitchnet/xmlpers/XmlPersistenceTransaction.java
+++ b/src/main/java/ch/eitchnet/xmlpers/XmlPersistenceTransaction.java
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ import org.w3c.dom.DOMImplementation;
 import org.w3c.dom.Document;
 import org.w3c.dom.Element;
 
+import ch.eitchnet.utils.helper.XmlHelper;
 import ch.eitchnet.utils.objectfilter.ITransactionObject;
 import ch.eitchnet.utils.objectfilter.ObjectFilter;
 
@@ -279,8 +280,10 @@ public class XmlPersistenceTransaction {
 					String subType = dao.getSubType(object);
 					String id = dao.getId(object);
 
-					Document asDom = dao.serializeToDom(object, getDomImpl());
-					this.persister.saveOrUpdate(type, subType, id, asDom);
+					Document doc = XmlHelper.createDocument();
+					Element asDom = dao.serializeToDom(object, doc);
+					doc.appendChild(asDom);
+					this.persister.saveOrUpdate(type, subType, id, doc);
 				}
 			}
 
@@ -298,8 +301,10 @@ public class XmlPersistenceTransaction {
 					String subType = dao.getSubType(object);
 					String id = dao.getId(object);
 
-					Document asDom = dao.serializeToDom(object, getDomImpl());
-					this.persister.saveOrUpdate(type, subType, id, asDom);
+					Document doc = XmlHelper.createDocument();
+					Element asDom = dao.serializeToDom(object, doc);
+					doc.appendChild(asDom);
+					this.persister.saveOrUpdate(type, subType, id, doc);
 				}
 			}
 		}
diff --git a/src/test/java/ch/eitchnet/xmlpers/test/XmlPersistenceTest.java b/src/test/java/ch/eitchnet/xmlpers/test/XmlPersistenceTest.java
index 6e3f4912a..bd19e047c 100644
--- a/src/test/java/ch/eitchnet/xmlpers/test/XmlPersistenceTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/ch/eitchnet/xmlpers/test/XmlPersistenceTest.java
@@ -54,12 +54,12 @@ public class XmlPersistenceTest {
 	public static void init() throws Exception {
 		try {
 			String userDir = System.getProperty("user.dir");
-			String basePath = userDir + "/tmp/testdb";
+			String basePath = userDir + "/target/testdb";
 			File basePathF = new File(basePath);
 			if (!basePathF.exists() && !basePathF.mkdirs())
 				Assert.fail("Could not create temporaray database store in " + basePathF.getAbsolutePath());
 
-			System.setProperty(XmlPersistenceHandler.CONFIG_BASEPATH, "tmp/testdb");
+			System.setProperty(XmlPersistenceHandler.CONFIG_BASEPATH, "target/testdb");
 			System.setProperty(XmlPersistenceHandler.CONFIG_VERBOSE, "true");
 			System.setProperty(XmlPersistenceHandler.CONFIG_DAO_FACTORY_CLASS, MyDaoFactory.class.getName());
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/ch/eitchnet/xmlpers/test/impl/MyClassDao.java b/src/test/java/ch/eitchnet/xmlpers/test/impl/MyClassDao.java
index 4686ba349..9e426d13a 100644
--- a/src/test/java/ch/eitchnet/xmlpers/test/impl/MyClassDao.java
+++ b/src/test/java/ch/eitchnet/xmlpers/test/impl/MyClassDao.java
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@
  */
 package ch.eitchnet.xmlpers.test.impl;
 
-import org.w3c.dom.DOMImplementation;
 import org.w3c.dom.Document;
 import org.w3c.dom.Element;
 import org.w3c.dom.Text;
@@ -35,39 +34,25 @@ import ch.eitchnet.xmlpers.XmlDao;
  */
 public class MyClassDao implements XmlDao<MyClass> {
 
-	/**
-	 * @see ch.eitchnet.xmlpers.XmlDao#getType(java.lang.Object)
-	 */
 	@Override
 	public String getType(MyClass object) {
 		return MyClass.class.getName();
 	}
 
-	/**
-	 * @see ch.eitchnet.xmlpers.XmlDao#getSubType(java.lang.Object)
-	 */
 	@Override
 	public String getSubType(MyClass object) {
 		return object.getType();
 	}
 
-	/**
-	 * @see ch.eitchnet.xmlpers.XmlDao#getId(java.lang.Object)
-	 */
 	@Override
 	public String getId(MyClass object) {
 		return object.getId();
 	}
 
-	/**
-	 * @see ch.eitchnet.xmlpers.XmlDao#serializeToDom(java.lang.Object, org.w3c.dom.DOMImplementation)
-	 */
 	@Override
-	public Document serializeToDom(MyClass object, DOMImplementation domImplementation) {
+	public Element serializeToDom(MyClass object, Document document) {
 
-		Document document = domImplementation.createDocument(null, null, null);
 		Element element = document.createElement("MyClass");
-		document.appendChild(element);
 
 		element.setAttribute("id", object.getId());
 		element.setAttribute("type", object.getType());
@@ -77,7 +62,7 @@ public class MyClassDao implements XmlDao<MyClass> {
 		Text textNode = document.createTextNode(object.getName());
 		nameElement.appendChild(textNode);
 
-		return document;
+		return element;
 	}
 
 	/**
@@ -131,5 +116,4 @@ public class MyClassDao implements XmlDao<MyClass> {
 			throw new RuntimeException("Failed to serialize " + object + " to SAX", e);
 		}
 	}
-
 }