diff --git a/CondCore/CondDB/test/BuildFile.xml b/CondCore/CondDB/test/BuildFile.xml
index a1ceb75cfe9e2..2a55823be39b3 100644
--- a/CondCore/CondDB/test/BuildFile.xml
+++ b/CondCore/CondDB/test/BuildFile.xml
@@ -5,20 +5,25 @@
 <use   name="DataFormats/StdDictionaries"/>
 <use   name="FWCore/PluginManager"/>
 <use   name="FWCore/Utilities"/>
-<library   name="testCondDBDict" file="">
-</library>
-<bin   file="testConditionDatabase_0.cpp" name="testConditionDatabase_0">
-  <lib   name="testCondDBDict"/>
+
+<bin file="testReadWritePayloads.cpp" name="testReadWritePayloads">
+  <lib name="testCondDBDict"/>
 </bin>
+
 <bin   file="testConditionDatabase_1.cpp" name="testConditionDatabase_1">
 </bin>
+
 <bin   file="testConditionDatabase_2.cpp" name="testConditionDatabase_2">
 </bin>
+
 <bin   file="testRootStreaming.cpp" name="testRootStreaming">
   <lib   name="testCondDBDict"/>
 </bin>
+
 <bin   file="testPayloadProxy.cpp" name="testPayloadProxy">
   <lib   name="testCondDBDict"/>
 </bin>
+
 <bin   file="testFrontier.cpp" name="testFrontier">
 </bin>
+
diff --git a/CondCore/EcalPlugins/plugins/BuildFile.xml b/CondCore/EcalPlugins/plugins/BuildFile.xml
index 4e132892efb9a..17cbd4c7a5676 100644
--- a/CondCore/EcalPlugins/plugins/BuildFile.xml
+++ b/CondCore/EcalPlugins/plugins/BuildFile.xml
@@ -229,3 +229,11 @@
   <use   name="boost_regex"/>
   <flags   EDM_PLUGIN="1"/>
 </library>
+
+<flags CXXFLAGS="-Wno-sign-compare -Wno-unused-variable"/>
+<library   file="EcalCondObjectContainer_EcalTPGCrystalStatusCode_toXML.cc" name="EcalCondObjectContainer_EcalTPGCrystalStatusCode_toXML">
+  <use   name="CondCore/Utilities"/>
+  <use   name="CondCore/CondDB"/>
+  <use   name="CondFormats/Common"/>
+  <use   name="boost_python"/>
+</library>
diff --git a/CondCore/EcalPlugins/plugins/EcalCondObjectContainer_EcalTPGCrystalStatusCode_toXML.cc b/CondCore/EcalPlugins/plugins/EcalCondObjectContainer_EcalTPGCrystalStatusCode_toXML.cc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..6c7d00090fd81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CondCore/EcalPlugins/plugins/EcalCondObjectContainer_EcalTPGCrystalStatusCode_toXML.cc
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+
+#include "CondCore/Utilities/interface/PayloadToXML.h"
+#include "CondCore/Utilities/src/CondFormats.h"
+
+namespace { // Avoid cluttering the global namespace.
+
+  // converter methods
+  std::string EcalCondObjectContainer_EcalTPGCrystalStatusCode2xml( std::string const &payloadData, std::string const &payloadType ) { 
+    return cond::convertToXML<EcalCondObjectContainer<EcalTPGCrystalStatusCode> > (payloadData, payloadType);
+  }
+
+} // end namespace
+
+
+BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE( pluginEcalCondObjectContainer_EcalTPGCrystalStatusCode_toXML )
+{
+  using namespace boost::python;
+  def ("EcalCondObjectContainer_EcalTPGCrystalStatusCode2xml"   , &EcalCondObjectContainer_EcalTPGCrystalStatusCode2xml);
+
+}
diff --git a/CondCore/Utilities/python/cond2xml.py b/CondCore/Utilities/python/cond2xml.py
index 34e22f23a9a94..bdc39aa0108a9 100644
--- a/CondCore/Utilities/python/cond2xml.py
+++ b/CondCore/Utilities/python/cond2xml.py
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
 
 namespace { // Avoid cluttering the global namespace.
 
-  std::string %(plType)s2xml( const std::string &payloadData, const std::string &payloadType ) { 
+  std::string %(plTypeSan)s2xml( const std::string &payloadData, const std::string &payloadType ) { 
 
       // now to convert
       std::unique_ptr< %(plType)s > payload;
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@
 BOOST_PYTHON_MODULE(%(mdName)s)
 {
     using namespace boost::python;
-    def ("%(plType)s2xml", %(plType)s2xml);
+    def ("%(plTypeSan)s2xml", %(plTypeSan)s2xml);
 }
 
 """ 
@@ -108,6 +108,10 @@ def ("%(plType)s2xml", %(plType)s2xml);
 </export>
 """
 
+# helper function
+def sanitize(typeName):
+    return typeName.replace(' ','').replace('<','_').replace('>','')
+
 class CondXmlProcessor(object):
 
     def __init__(self, condDBIn):
@@ -131,16 +135,21 @@ def __del__(self):
 
     def discover(self, payloadType):
 
+    	# print "discover> checking for plugin of type %s" % payloadType
+
         # first search in developer area:
 	libDir = os.path.join( os.environ["CMSSW_BASE"], 'lib', os.environ["SCRAM_ARCH"] )
-	pluginList = glob.glob( libDir + '/plugin%s_toXML.so' % payloadType )
+	pluginList = glob.glob( libDir + '/plugin%s_toXML.so' % sanitize(payloadType) )
 
         # if nothing found there, check release:
         if not pluginList:
 	   libDir = os.path.join( os.environ["CMSSW_RELEASE_BASE"], 'lib', os.environ["SCRAM_ARCH"] )
-	   pluginList = glob.glob( libDir + '/plugin%s_toXML.so' % payloadType )
+	   pluginList = glob.glob( libDir + '/plugin%s_toXML.so' % sanitize(payloadType) )
 
-	# print "found plugin for %s (in %s) : %s " % (payloadType, libDir, pluginList)
+	# if pluginList: 
+	#    print "found plugin for %s (in %s) : %s " % (payloadType, libDir, pluginList)
+	# else:
+	#    print "no plugin found for type %s" % payloadType
 
 	xmlConverter = None
 	if len(pluginList) > 0:
@@ -148,7 +157,7 @@ def discover(self, payloadType):
 	   sys.path.append(dirPath)
 	   # print "going to import %s from %s" % (libName, dirPath)
 	   xmlConverter = importlib.import_module( libName.replace('.so', '') )
-	   # print "found : ", dir(xmlConverter)
+	   # print "found methods: ", dir(xmlConverter)
 	   self.doCleanup = False
 
 	return xmlConverter
@@ -162,7 +171,8 @@ def prepPayload2xml(self, session, payload):
         data, plType = result
     
         info = { "mdName" : "pl2xmlComp",
-        	     'plType' : plType,
+        	 'plType' : plType,
+        	 'plTypeSan' : sanitize(plType),
     	    }
     
         converter = self.discover(plType)
@@ -217,7 +227,7 @@ def payload2xml(self, session, payload):
         result = session.query(self.conddb.Payload.data, self.conddb.Payload.object_type).filter(self.conddb.Payload.hash == payload).one()
         data, plType = result
     
-        convFuncName = plType+'2xml'
+        convFuncName = sanitize(plType)+'2xml'
         sys.path.append('.')
 	func = getattr(xmlConverter, convFuncName)
     	resultXML = func( str(data), str(plType) )