--- loncom/lonnet/perl/lonnet.pm	2000/09/29 14:36:30	1.33
+++ loncom/lonnet/perl/lonnet.pm	2000/09/30 17:25:04	1.34
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
 # dump(namesp)       : dumps the complete namespace into a hash
 # ssi(url,hash)      : does a complete request cycle on url to localhost, posts
 #                      hash
+# coursedescription(id) : returns and caches course description for id
 # repcopy(filename)  : replicate file
 # dirlist(url)       : gets a directory listing
 # condval(index)     : value of condition index based on state
@@ -51,7 +52,7 @@
 # 06/26 Ben Tyszka
 # 06/30,07/15,07/17,07/18,07/20,07/21,07/22,07/25 Gerd Kortemeyer
 # 08/14 Ben Tyszka
-# 08/22,08/28,08/31,09/01,09/02,09/04,09/05,09/25,09/28 Gerd Kortemeyer
+# 08/22,08/28,08/31,09/01,09/02,09/04,09/05,09/25,09/28,09/30 Gerd Kortemeyer
 
 package Apache::lonnet;
 
@@ -445,6 +446,39 @@ sub restore {
     return %returnhash;
 }
 
+# ---------------------------------------------------------- Course Description
+
+sub coursedescription {
+    my $courseid=shift;
+    $courseid=~s/^\///;
+    my ($cdomain,$cnum)=split(/\//,$courseid);
+    my $chome=homeserver($cnum,$cdomain);
+    if ($chome ne 'no_host') {
+       my $rep=reply("dump:$cdomain:$cnum:environment",$chome);
+       if ($rep ne 'con_lost') {
+	   my %cachehash=();
+           my %returnhash=('home'   => $chome, 
+                           'domain' => $cdomain,
+                           'num'    => $cnum);
+           map {
+               my ($name,$value)=split(/\=/,$_);
+               $name=&unescape($name);
+               $value=&unescape($value);
+               $returnhash{$name}=$value;
+               if ($name eq 'description') {
+		   $cachehash{$courseid}=$value;
+               }
+           } split(/\&/,$rep);
+           $returnhash{'url'}='/res/'.declutter($returnhash{'url'});
+           $returnhash{'fn'}=$perlvar{'lonDaemons'}.'/tmp/'.
+	       $ENV{'user.name.'}.'_'.$cdomain.'_'.$cnum;
+	   put ('coursedescriptions',%cachehash);
+           return %returnhash;
+       }
+    }
+    return ();
+}
+
 # -------------------------------------------------------- Get user priviledges
 
 sub rolesinit {