--- loncom/lonnet/perl/lonnet.pm	2003/01/15 19:34:03	1.319
+++ loncom/lonnet/perl/lonnet.pm	2003/01/31 22:12:13	1.321
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # The LearningOnline Network
 # TCP networking package
 #
-# $Id: lonnet.pm,v 1.319 2003/01/15 19:34:03 matthew Exp $
+# $Id: lonnet.pm,v 1.321 2003/01/31 22:12:13 albertel Exp $
 #
 # Copyright Michigan State University Board of Trustees
 #
@@ -2817,14 +2817,14 @@ sub EXT {
     } else {
 	$courseid=$ENV{'request.course.id'};
     }
-
     my ($realm,$space,$qualifier,@therest)=split(/\./,$varname);
     my $rest;
-    if ($therest[0]) {
+    if (defined($therest[0])) {
        $rest=join('.',@therest);
     } else {
        $rest='';
     }
+
     my $qualifierrest=$qualifier;
     if ($rest) { $qualifierrest.='.'.$rest; }
     my $spacequalifierrest=$space;
@@ -3137,11 +3137,17 @@ sub metadata {
               foreach (@{$token->[3]}) {
 		  $metacache{$uri.':'.$unikey.'.'.$_}=$token->[2]->{$_};
               }
-              unless (
-                 $metacache{$uri.':'.$unikey}=&HTML::Entities::decode($parser->get_text('/'.$entry))
-		      ) { $metacache{$uri.':'.$unikey}=
-			      $metacache{$uri.':'.$unikey.'.default'};
-		      }
+	      my $internaltext=&HTML::Entities::decode($parser->get_text('/'.$entry));
+	      my $default=$metacache{$uri.':'.$unikey.'.default'};
+	      if ( $internaltext =~ /^\s*$/ && $default !~ /^\s*$/) {
+		  # only ws inside the tag, and not in default, so use default
+                  # as value
+		  $metacache{$uri.':'.$unikey}=$default;
+	      } else {
+		  # either something interesting inside the tag or default
+                  # uninteresting
+		  $metacache{$uri.':'.$unikey}=$internaltext;
+	      }
 # end of not-a-package not-a-library import
 	   }
 # end of not-a-package start tag