diff --git a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/xmlproperty.html b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/xmlproperty.html
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c26bdab2a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/xmlproperty.html
@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+<html>
+<head>
+<title>XmlProperty Task</title>
+</head>
+
+<body>
+
+
+<h2><a name="xmlproperty">XmlProperty</a></h2>
+<h3>Description</h3>
+<p>
+Loads property values from a valid xml file.
+</p>
+
+<h3>Parameters</h3>
+<table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top"><b>Attribute</b></td>
+    <td valign="top"><b>Description</b></td>
+    <td align="center" valign="top"><b>Required</b></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">file</td>
+    <td valign="top">The XML file to parse.</td>
+    <td valign="top" align="center">Yes</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">prefix</td>
+    <td valign="top">The prefix to prepend to each property</td>
+    <td valign="top" align="center">No</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">keepRoot</td>
+    <td valign="top">If false, it doesn't include the xml root tag as a first
+                     value in the property name.</td>
+    <td valign="top" align="center">No, default is <i>true</i>.</td>
+  </tr>  
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">validate</td>
+    <td valign="top">If true, it enables validation.</td>
+    <td valign="top" align="center">No, default is <i>false</i>.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">collapseAttributes</td>
+    <td valign="top">If true, it treats attributes as nested elements.</td>
+    <td valign="top" align="center">No, default is <i>false</i>.</td>
+  </tr>  
+</table>
+
+
+<h3>Examples</h3>
+<pre>   &lt;xmlproperty file="somefile.xml" /&gt;</pre>
+
+<p>Load contents of somefile.xml as Ant properties.</p>
+
+<pre> 
+   &lt;root-tag myattr="true"&gt;
+    &lt;inner-tag someattr="val"&gt;Text&lt;/inner-tag&gt;
+    &lt;a2&gt;&lt;a3&gt;&lt;a4&gt;false&lt;/a4&gt;&lt;/a3&gt;&lt;/a2&gt;
+   &lt;/root-tag&gt;
+</pre>
+
+<p>This is an example xml file.</p>
+
+<pre>   root-tag(myattr)=true
+   root-tag.inner-tag=Text
+   root-tag.inner-tag(someattr)=val
+   root-tag.a2.a3.a4=false
+</pre>
+
+<p>These are the properties loaded by this task from the previous example file.</p>
+
+<pre>   &lt;xmlproperty file="somefile.xml" collapseAttributes="true" /&gt;</pre>
+
+<p>Load contents of somefile.xml as Ant properties collapsing attributes as nodes.</p>
+
+<pre>   root-tag.myattr=true
+   root-tag.inner-tag=Text
+   root-tag.inner-tag.someatt=val
+   root-tag.a2.a3.a4=false
+</pre>
+
+<p>These are the properties loaded by this task from the previous example file, with
+   attribute collapsing true.</p>
+
+<hr/>
+
+<p align="center">Copyright &copy; 2002 Apache Software Foundation. All rights
+Reserved.</p>
+
+</body>
+</html>
+
diff --git a/docs/manual/coretasklist.html b/docs/manual/coretasklist.html
index fa7a63f38..aa8c41a0f 100644
--- a/docs/manual/coretasklist.html
+++ b/docs/manual/coretasklist.html
@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@
 <a href="CoreTasks/uptodate.html">Uptodate</a><br>
 <a href="CoreTasks/waitfor.html">Waitfor</a><br>
 <a href="CoreTasks/war.html">War</a><br>
+<a href="CoreTasks/xmlproperty.html">XmlProperty</a><br>
 <a href="CoreTasks/style.html">Xslt/Style</a><br>
 <a href="CoreTasks/zip.html">Zip</a><br>
 </body>
diff --git a/docs/manual/credits.html b/docs/manual/credits.html
index 2e68623f7..a49422e0f 100644
--- a/docs/manual/credits.html
+++ b/docs/manual/credits.html
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 <!-- Names are in alphabetical order, on last name -->
 <ul>
   <li>Stephane Bailliez (<a href="mailto:sbailliez@imediation.com">sbailliez@imediation.com</a>)</li>
+  <li>Nicola Ken Barozzi (<a href="mailto:nicolaken@apache.org">nicolaken@apache.org</a>)</li>
   <li>Jacques Bergeron (<a href="mailto:jacques.bergeron@dogico.com">jacques.bergeron@dogico.com</a>)</li>
   <li>Stefan Bodewig (<a href="mailto:stefan.bodewig@epost.de">stefan.bodewig@epost.de</a>)</li>
   <li>Patrick Chanezon (<a href="mailto:chanezon@netscape.com">chanezon@netscape.com</a>)</li>
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/XmlProperty.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/XmlProperty.java
index 0c4219f67..b7edacb4c 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/XmlProperty.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/XmlProperty.java
@@ -69,9 +69,10 @@ import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.Vector;
 
 /**
- * Task get property values from a valid xml file.
+ * Task that gets property values from a valid xml file.
  * Example:
  *   <root-tag myattr="true">
  *     <inner-tag someattr="val">Text</inner-tag>
@@ -83,15 +84,18 @@ import java.io.IOException;
  *  root-tag.inner-tag(someattr)=val
  *  root-tag.a2.a3.a4=false
  *
- * @author <a href="mailto:barozzi@nicolaken.com">Nicola Ken Barozzi</a>
+ * @author <a href="mailto:nicolaken@apache.org">Nicola Ken Barozzi</a>
  * @author Erik Hatcher
  * @created 14 January 2002
  */
 
 public class XmlProperty extends org.apache.tools.ant.Task {
+
     private File src;
     private String prefix = "";
     private boolean keepRoot = true;
+    private boolean validate = false;
+    private boolean collapseAttributes = false;
     private org.w3c.dom.Document document;
 
     /**
@@ -115,6 +119,7 @@ public class XmlProperty extends org.apache.tools.ant.Task {
      */
     public void execute()
             throws org.apache.tools.ant.BuildException {
+            
         BufferedInputStream configurationStream = null;
 
         try {
@@ -123,7 +128,7 @@ public class XmlProperty extends org.apache.tools.ant.Task {
 
             DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
 
-            factory.setValidating(false);
+            factory.setValidating(validate);
             factory.setNamespaceAware(false);
 
             DocumentBuilder builder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();
@@ -133,33 +138,14 @@ public class XmlProperty extends org.apache.tools.ant.Task {
             NodeList topChildren = topElement.getChildNodes();
             int numChildren = topChildren.getLength();
 
-            String prefixToUse = "";
-
-            if (!(prefix.equals(""))) {
-                prefixToUse = prefix;
-            }
-
-            log("Prefix to use 1: \"" + prefixToUse + "\"", Project.MSG_DEBUG);
-
-/*
-            if ((!(prefix.equals(""))) && keepRoot) {
-                prefixToUse += ".";
-            }
-
-            log("Prefix to use 2: \"" + prefixToUse + "\"", Project.MSG_DEBUG);
-
-            if (keepRoot) {
-                prefixToUse += (topElement.getNodeName());
-            }
+            log("Using prefix: \"" + prefix + "\"", Project.MSG_DEBUG);
 
-            log("Prefix to use 3: \"" + prefixToUse + "\"", Project.MSG_VERBOSE);
-*/
             if (keepRoot) {
-                addNodeRecursively(topElement, prefixToUse, 0);
+                addNodeRecursively(topElement, prefix);
             }
             else {
                 for (int i = 0; i < numChildren; i++) {
-                    addNodeRecursively(topChildren.item(i), prefixToUse, 0);
+                    addNodeRecursively(topChildren.item(i), prefix);
                 }
             }
 
@@ -187,13 +173,21 @@ public class XmlProperty extends org.apache.tools.ant.Task {
     }
 
 
-    void addNodeRecursively(org.w3c.dom.Node node, String prefix, int index) {
+    void addNodeRecursively(org.w3c.dom.Node node, String prefix) {
 
         if (node.hasAttributes()) {
             org.w3c.dom.NamedNodeMap nodeAttributes = node.getAttributes();
             for (int i = 0; i < nodeAttributes.getLength(); i++) {
                 Node attributeNode = nodeAttributes.item(i);
-                String attributeName = prefix + (prefix.trim().equals("")?"":".") + node.getNodeName() + "(" + attributeNode.getNodeName() + ")";
+                String attributeName;
+                
+                if(collapseAttributes){
+                  attributeName = prefix + (prefix.trim().equals("")?"":".") + node.getNodeName() + "." + attributeNode.getNodeName();
+                }
+                else{
+                  attributeName = prefix + (prefix.trim().equals("")?"":".") + node.getNodeName() + "(" + attributeNode.getNodeName() + ")";
+		}              
+		  
                 String attributeValue = attributeNode.getNodeValue();
                 log(attributeName + ":" + attributeValue, Project.MSG_DEBUG);
                 project.setNewProperty(attributeName, attributeValue);
@@ -204,32 +198,19 @@ public class XmlProperty extends org.apache.tools.ant.Task {
             String nodeText = node.getNodeValue();
             if (nodeText.trim().length() != 0) {
                 log(prefix + ":" + nodeText, Project.MSG_DEBUG);
-                if (index == 0) {
-                    project.setNewProperty(prefix, nodeText);
-                }
-
-                project.setNewProperty(prefix + "[" + String.valueOf(index) + "]", nodeText);
+                 project.setNewProperty(prefix, nodeText);
             }
         }
 
         if (node.hasChildNodes()) {
             prefix += ((prefix.trim().equals("")?"":".") + node.getNodeName());
-            org.w3c.dom.NodeList nodeChildren = node.getChildNodes();
 
+            org.w3c.dom.NodeList nodeChildren = node.getChildNodes();
             int numChildren = nodeChildren.getLength();
 
-            StringBuffer childList = new StringBuffer();
-
             for (int i = 0; i < numChildren; i++) {
-                if (i != 0) {
-                    childList.append(",");
-                }
-                childList.append(node.getNodeName() + "[" + String.valueOf(index) + "]");
-                addNodeRecursively(nodeChildren.item(i), prefix, i);
+                addNodeRecursively(nodeChildren.item(i), prefix);
             }
-
-            project.setNewProperty(prefix + "[]", childList.toString());
-
         }
     }
 
@@ -244,4 +225,13 @@ public class XmlProperty extends org.apache.tools.ant.Task {
     public void setKeeproot(boolean keepRoot) {
         this.keepRoot = keepRoot;
     }
+
+    public void setValidate(boolean validate) {
+        this.validate = validate;
+    }
+
+    public void setCollapseAttributes(boolean collapseAttributes) {
+        this.collapseAttributes = collapseAttributes;
+    }
+        
 }

Attribute	Description	Required
file	The XML file to parse.	Yes
prefix	The prefix to prepend to each property	No
keepRoot	If false, it doesn't include the xml root tag as a first + value in the property name.	No, default is true.
validate	If true, it enables validation.	No, default is false.
collapseAttributes	If true, it treats attributes as nested elements.	No, default is false.