--- loncom/lonnet/perl/lonnet.pm	2003/01/15 19:34:03	1.319
+++ loncom/lonnet/perl/lonnet.pm	2003/02/10 20:03:13	1.324
@@ -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 1.324 2003/02/10 20:03:13 www Exp $
 #
 # Copyright Michigan State University Board of Trustees
 #
@@ -47,23 +47,18 @@
 # 09/01 Guy Albertelli
 # 09/01,10/01,11/01 Gerd Kortemeyer
 # YEAR=2001
-# 02/27/01 Scott Harrison
 # 3/2 Gerd Kortemeyer
-# 3/15,3/19 Scott Harrison
 # 3/19,3/20 Gerd Kortemeyer
-# 3/22,3/27,4/2,4/16,4/17 Scott Harrison
 # 5/26,5/28 Gerd Kortemeyer
 # 5/30 H. K. Ng
 # 6/1 Gerd Kortemeyer
 # July Guy Albertelli
 # 8/4,8/7,8/8,8/9,8/11,8/16,8/17,8/18,8/20,8/23,9/20,9/21,9/26,
 # 10/2 Gerd Kortemeyer
-# 10/5,10/10,11/13,11/15 Scott Harrison
 # 11/17,11/20,11/22,11/29 Gerd Kortemeyer
 # 12/5 Matthew Hall
 # 12/5 Guy Albertelli
 # 12/6,12/7,12/12 Gerd Kortemeyer
-# 12/18 Scott Harrison
 # 12/21,12/22,12/27,12/28 Gerd Kortemeyer
 # YEAR=2002
 # 1/4,2/4,2/7 Gerd Kortemeyer
@@ -832,6 +827,14 @@ sub ssi {
     return $response->content;
 }
 
+sub externalssi {
+    my ($url)=@_;
+    my $ua=new LWP::UserAgent;
+    my $request=new HTTP::Request('GET',$url);
+    my $response=$ua->request($request);
+    return $response->content;
+}
+
 # ------- Add a token to a remote URI's query string to vouch for access rights
 
 sub tokenwrapper {
@@ -2817,14 +2820,14 @@ 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;
@@ -3085,9 +3088,12 @@ sub metadata {
                       my $unikey='parameter'.$keyroot.'_'.$name;
                       $metathesekeys{$unikey}=1;
                       $metacache{$uri.':'.$unikey.'.part'}=$part;
-                      unless 
-                       (defined($metacache{$uri.':'.$unikey.'.'.$subp})) {
-                         $metacache{$uri.':'.$unikey.'.'.$subp}=$value;
+                      unless (defined($metacache{$uri.':'.$unikey.'.'.$subp})) {
+			  $metacache{$uri.':'.$unikey.'.'.$subp}=$value;
+		      }
+		      if (defined($metacache{$uri.':'.$unikey.'.default'})) {
+			  $metacache{$uri.':'.$unikey}=
+			     $metacache{$uri.':'.$unikey.'.default'}
 		      }
                   }
               }
@@ -3137,11 +3143,17 @@ sub metadata {
               foreach (@{$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