It should not be replacing properties during the parsing. The correct place to fix this is in AbstractBuilder when it constructs the ServiceTextValueMetaData. That way it works for both xml and programmatic deployment. e.g. profile service configurations won't be parsed instead the metadata is passed in as a preexisting attachment. NOTE: It also needs doing for other things not just plain text, e.g. | <depends>${some.property:defaultDependency}</depends> | View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4178287#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...