--- loncom/lonnet/perl/lonnet.pm	2013/05/29 18:10:59	1.1227
+++ loncom/lonnet/perl/lonnet.pm	2013/06/26 21:22:51	1.1228
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # The LearningOnline Network
 # TCP networking package
 #
-# $Id: lonnet.pm,v 1.1227 2013/05/29 18:10:59 raeburn Exp $
+# $Id: lonnet.pm,v 1.1228 2013/06/26 21:22:51 raeburn Exp $
 #
 # Copyright Michigan State University Board of Trustees
 #
@@ -9622,7 +9622,7 @@ sub EXT_cache_set {
 # --------------------------------------------------------- Value of a Variable
 sub EXT {
 
-    my ($varname,$symbparm,$udom,$uname,$usection,$recurse)=@_;
+    my ($varname,$symbparm,$udom,$uname,$usection,$recurse,$cid)=@_;
     unless ($varname) { return ''; }
     #get real user name/domain, courseid and symb
     my $courseid;
@@ -9755,8 +9755,11 @@ sub EXT {
 
 	my ($section, $group, @groups);
 	my ($courselevelm,$courselevel);
-	if ($symbparm && defined($courseid) && 
-	    $courseid eq $env{'request.course.id'}) {
+        if (($courseid eq '') && ($cid)) {
+            $courseid = $cid;
+        }
+	if (($symbparm && $courseid) && 
+	    (($courseid eq $env{'request.course.id'}) || ($courseid eq $cid)))  {
 
 	    #print '<br>'.$space.' - '.$qualifier.' - '.$spacequalifierrest;
 
@@ -12853,10 +12856,15 @@ resource. Expects the local filesystem p
 
 =item *
 
-EXT($varname,$symb,$udom,$uname) : evaluates and returns the value of
-a vairety of different possible values, $varname should be a request
-string, and the other parameters can be used to specify who and what
-one is asking about.
+EXT($varname,$symb,$udom,$uname,$usection,$recurse,$cid) : evaluates 
+and returns the value of a variety of different possible values,
+$varname should be a request string, and the other parameters can be
+used to specify who and what one is asking about. Ordinarily, $cid 
+does not need to be specified, as it is retrived from 
+$env{'request.course.id'}, but &Apache::lonnet::EXT() is called
+within lonuserstate::loadmap() when initializing a course, before
+$env{'request.course.id'} has been set, so it needs to be provided
+in that one case.
 
 Possible values for $varname are environment.lastname (or other item
 from the envirnment hash), user.name (or someother aspect about the