--- ECHO_content/ECHO_collection.py	2008/12/10 13:37:03	1.300
+++ ECHO_content/ECHO_collection.py	2008/12/17 12:12:26	1.301
@@ -40,7 +40,10 @@ from Globals import Persistent, package_
 from Acquisition import Implicit
 from Products.ZCatalog.CatalogPathAwareness import CatalogAware
 from Products.ZCTextIndex.ZCTextIndex import manage_addLexicon
-from Products.MetaDataProvider.MetaDataClient import MetaDataClient
+try:
+	from Products.MetaDataProvider.MetaDataClient import MetaDataClient
+except:
+	print "no metadataclient"
 import urllib
 import urllib2
 import cgi
@@ -2194,7 +2197,11 @@ class ECHO_root(Folder,Persistent,Implic
             """ret attribute if existing"""
             try:
                     
-                    return getattr(found,field)#.decode('utf-8','ignore')
+
+                    return getattr(found,field)#.decode('ascii','ignore')
+
+
+
             except:
                     logging.error("can't: decode: %s"%repr(field))
                     logging.error("      %s %s"%(sys.exc_info()[0],sys.exc_info()[1]))