diff --git a/vscode-extensions/commons/commons-maven/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/commons/maven/MavenCore.java b/vscode-extensions/commons/commons-maven/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/commons/maven/MavenCore.java
index 5c264ce18..2b7e290c1 100644
--- a/vscode-extensions/commons/commons-maven/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/commons/maven/MavenCore.java
+++ b/vscode-extensions/commons/commons-maven/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/commons/maven/MavenCore.java
@@ -26,12 +26,14 @@ import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.HashSet;
 import java.util.LinkedHashSet;
+import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Set;
 import java.util.stream.Collectors;
 import java.util.stream.Stream;
 
 import org.apache.maven.RepositoryUtils;
 import org.apache.maven.artifact.Artifact;
+import org.apache.maven.artifact.repository.ArtifactRepository;
 import org.apache.maven.execution.MavenExecutionRequest;
 import org.apache.maven.model.DependencyManagement;
 import org.apache.maven.project.MavenProject;
@@ -245,7 +247,7 @@ public class MavenCore {
 			return artifacts.parallelStream().map(artifact -> {
 				if (!artifact.isResolved()) {
 					try {
-						artifact = maven.resolve(artifact, null, request);
+						artifact = maven.resolve(artifact, project.getRemoteArtifactRepositories(), request);
 					} catch (MavenException e) {
 						Log.log(e);
 						// Maven 2.x quirk: an artifact always points at the local repo,
@@ -269,20 +271,20 @@ public class MavenCore {
 		return lrm.getRepository().getBasedir();
 	}
 	
-	public Artifact getSources(Artifact artifact) throws MavenException {
-		return maven.resolve(artifact.getGroupId(), artifact.getArtifactId(), artifact.getVersion(), artifact.getType(), CLASSIFIER_SOURCES, null, maven.createExecutionRequest());
+	public Artifact getSources(Artifact artifact, List<ArtifactRepository> repositories) throws MavenException {
+		return maven.resolve(artifact.getGroupId(), artifact.getArtifactId(), artifact.getVersion(), artifact.getType(), CLASSIFIER_SOURCES, repositories, maven.createExecutionRequest());
 	}
 	
-	public Artifact getJavadoc(Artifact artifact) throws MavenException {
-		return maven.resolve(artifact.getGroupId(), artifact.getArtifactId(), artifact.getVersion(), artifact.getType(), CLASSIFIER_JAVADOC, null, maven.createExecutionRequest());
+	public Artifact getJavadoc(Artifact artifact, List<ArtifactRepository> repositories) throws MavenException {
+		return maven.resolve(artifact.getGroupId(), artifact.getArtifactId(), artifact.getVersion(), artifact.getType(), CLASSIFIER_JAVADOC, repositories, maven.createExecutionRequest());
 	}
 	
-	public Artifact getTests(Artifact artifact) throws MavenException {
-		return maven.resolve(artifact.getGroupId(), artifact.getArtifactId(), artifact.getVersion(), artifact.getType(), CLASSIFIER_TESTS, null, maven.createExecutionRequest());
+	public Artifact getTests(Artifact artifact, List<ArtifactRepository> repositories) throws MavenException {
+		return maven.resolve(artifact.getGroupId(), artifact.getArtifactId(), artifact.getVersion(), artifact.getType(), CLASSIFIER_TESTS, repositories, maven.createExecutionRequest());
 	}
 	
-	public Artifact getTestSources(Artifact artifact) throws MavenException {
-		return maven.resolve(artifact.getGroupId(), artifact.getArtifactId(), artifact.getVersion(), artifact.getType(), CLASSIFIER_TESTSOURCES, null, maven.createExecutionRequest());
+	public Artifact getTestSources(Artifact artifact, List<ArtifactRepository> repositories) throws MavenException {
+		return maven.resolve(artifact.getGroupId(), artifact.getArtifactId(), artifact.getVersion(), artifact.getType(), CLASSIFIER_TESTSOURCES, repositories, maven.createExecutionRequest());
 	}
  	
 	public Stream<Path> getJreLibs() throws MavenException {
diff --git a/vscode-extensions/commons/commons-maven/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/commons/maven/java/MavenProjectClasspath.java b/vscode-extensions/commons/commons-maven/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/commons/maven/java/MavenProjectClasspath.java
index b07d61ca1..54bbffc42 100644
--- a/vscode-extensions/commons/commons-maven/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/commons/maven/java/MavenProjectClasspath.java
+++ b/vscode-extensions/commons/commons-maven/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/commons/maven/java/MavenProjectClasspath.java
@@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ public class MavenProjectClasspath implements IClasspath {
 			return new ParserJavadocProvider(type -> {
 				try {
 					Artifact artifact = getArtifactFromJarFile(classpathResource).get();
-					URL sourceContainer = maven.getSources(artifact).getFile().toURI().toURL();
+					URL sourceContainer = maven.getSources(artifact, project.getRemoteArtifactRepositories()).getFile().toURI().toURL();
 					return SourceUrlProviderFromSourceContainer.JAR_SOURCE_URL_PROVIDER.sourceUrl(sourceContainer,
 							type);
 				} catch (MavenException e) {
@@ -225,7 +225,7 @@ public class MavenProjectClasspath implements IClasspath {
 			return new HtmlJavadocProvider(type -> {
 				try {
 					Artifact artifact = getArtifactFromJarFile(classpathResource).get();
-					URL sourceContainer = maven.getJavadoc(artifact).getFile().toURI().toURL();
+					URL sourceContainer = maven.getJavadoc(artifact, project.getRemoteArtifactRepositories()).getFile().toURI().toURL();
 					return SourceUrlProviderFromSourceContainer.JAR_JAVADOC_URL_PROVIDER.sourceUrl(sourceContainer,
 							type);
 				} catch (MavenException e) {
diff --git a/vscode-extensions/commons/language-server-test-harness/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/languageserver/testharness/Editor.java b/vscode-extensions/commons/language-server-test-harness/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/languageserver/testharness/Editor.java
index cb7c69b0f..ccbbadb7f 100644
--- a/vscode-extensions/commons/language-server-test-harness/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/languageserver/testharness/Editor.java
+++ b/vscode-extensions/commons/language-server-test-harness/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/languageserver/testharness/Editor.java
@@ -343,6 +343,20 @@ public class Editor {
 		assertContains(expectSnippet, hover.getContents().toString());
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Verifies an expected text is the hover text that is computed when
+	 * hovering mouse at position at the end of first occurrence of a given
+	 * string in the editor.
+	 */
+	public void assertHoverExactText(String afterString, String expectedHover) throws Exception {
+		int pos = getRawText().indexOf(afterString);
+		if (pos>=0) {
+			pos += afterString.length();
+		}
+		Hover hover = harness.getHover(document, document.toPosition(pos));
+		assertEquals(expectedHover, hover.getContents().toString());
+	}
+
 	public void assertCompletionDetails(String expectLabel, String expectDetail, String expectDocSnippet) throws Exception {
 		CompletionItem it = harness.resolveCompletionItem(assertCompletionWithLabel(expectLabel));
 		if (expectDetail!=null) {
diff --git a/vscode-extensions/vscode-boot-properties/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/boot/common/InformationTemplates.java b/vscode-extensions/vscode-boot-properties/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/boot/common/InformationTemplates.java
index f84c193fd..4ae8484bd 100644
--- a/vscode-extensions/vscode-boot-properties/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/boot/common/InformationTemplates.java
+++ b/vscode-extensions/vscode-boot-properties/src/main/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/boot/common/InformationTemplates.java
@@ -24,12 +24,14 @@ public class InformationTemplates {
 	
 	public static Renderable createHover(PropertyInfo info) {
 		Deprecation deprecation = createDeprecation(info);
-		return InformationTemplates.createHover(info.getId(), info.getType(), info.getDefaultValue(), text(info.getDescription()), deprecation);
+		Renderable description = info.getDescription() == null ? null : text(info.getDescription());
+		return InformationTemplates.createHover(info.getId(), info.getType(), info.getDefaultValue(), description, deprecation);
 	}
 	
 	public static Renderable createCompletionDocumentation(PropertyInfo info) {
 		Deprecation deprecation = createDeprecation(info);
-		return InformationTemplates.createCompletionDocumentation(text(info.getDescription()), info.getDefaultValue(), deprecation);
+		Renderable description = info.getDescription() == null ? null : text(info.getDescription());
+		return InformationTemplates.createCompletionDocumentation(description, info.getDefaultValue(), deprecation);
 	}
 	
 	public static Renderable createHover(String id, String type, Object defaultValue, Renderable description, Deprecation deprecation) {
diff --git a/vscode-extensions/vscode-boot-properties/src/test/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/boot/test/ApplicationPropertiesEditorTest.java b/vscode-extensions/vscode-boot-properties/src/test/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/boot/test/ApplicationPropertiesEditorTest.java
index 7ce70df72..025fa51b8 100644
--- a/vscode-extensions/vscode-boot-properties/src/test/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/boot/test/ApplicationPropertiesEditorTest.java
+++ b/vscode-extensions/vscode-boot-properties/src/test/java/org/springframework/ide/vscode/boot/test/ApplicationPropertiesEditorTest.java
@@ -1577,6 +1577,14 @@ public class ApplicationPropertiesEditorTest extends AbstractPropsEditorTest {
 		editor.assertNoHover("ggggg.kkkk");
 	}
 
+	@Test public void testEmptyDescriptionHover() throws Exception {
+		data("debug", "java.lang.String", null, null);
+		Editor editor = newEditor(
+				"debug=something\n"
+		);
+		editor.assertHoverExactText("debug", "[**debug**  \n[java.lang.String](null)]");
+	}
+	
 	@Override
 	protected SimpleLanguageServer newLanguageServer() {
 		BootPropertiesLanguageServer server = new BootPropertiesLanguageServer(md.getIndexProvider(), typeUtilProvider, javaProjectFinder);