function encodeEntities(value) {
  return value.
    replace(/&/g, '&amp;').
    replace(NON_ALPHANUMERIC_REGEXP, function(value){
      return '&#' + value.charCodeAt(0) + ';';
    }).
    replace(/</g, '&lt;').
    replace(/>/g, '&gt;');
}
Escapes all potentially dangerous characters, so that the
resulting string can be safely inserted into attribute or
element text.
@param value
@returns escaped text