Systems, methods and computer program products for automatic network-based persistent XML storage and management. Exemplary embodiments include a method including loading an XDM widget having internal XML, sending an XCAP GET request via an XCAP URI parameter, retrieving an existing XML document at a location associated with the XCAP URI parameter, invoking an initializer callback function via the XDM widget to populate the internal XML with default values associated with an etag, wherein the etag is null, sending an XCAP PUT request via the XCAP URI to store the existing XML document, executing etag header scenarios, providing XML management functions to automatically publish changes to the server, and trigger a timer function to poll for updates from the server and display the resulting updates to the user's screen via a render callback function.