IAR Format 0.3

Changes
This format is currently in the development version of OpenSimulator only. Please do not rely on it as the details are subject to change without notice.

The only change from 0.2 is that a 0.3 IAR contains an  element in (archive.xml). See below.

Detail
An inventory archive is a gzipped tar file (tar.gz) with the extension .iar. This can be extracted and created with standard tools (7-zip on Windows). The structure of the archive is as follows

archive.xml assets/ inventory/

archive.xml
This is the archive control file. It contains a major and minor version number, to allow compatibility with future format changes.

It also contains an  element which can have the contents True or False. If the string is True, then the archive was saved with assets included. If the switch is False, then the archive was saved with the --noassets option.

assets/
This directory contains all the assets in the archive. Each filename has the following format

_.

The uuid section must always be present and form a valid uuid - it is used directly as the uuid for that asset. The asset type and asset extension are used to identify the type of asset and the asset extension allows the asset to be associated with different editors on platforms such as Windows. For instance, a script will always have the asset type and extension script.lsl. A full list of asset types and extensions can be found in the file

OpenSim/Framework/Serialization/ArchiveConstants.cs

in the OpenSimulator distribution.

inventory/
This folder contains the inventory structure for the archive.

Each folder has the format

__

For example

folder A__52bfa79f-d7fd-4140-9a54-e33c0e235b87

This is to allow the archiving of folders with identical names. The actual IDs are not important, they exist here only to distinguish identically named folders contained in the same parent folder. The IDs are not used when the archive is loaded.

Items in inventory folders have the format

__ .xml

For example

OpenSimulator ball__b9608a97-6766-43fc-ad69-d9fecbc7d560.xml

Again, the IDs serve only to distinguish identically named items. They are not used when the archive is loaded.

Item XML format
Here's an example of the format used to save items.

  boxee 1bc27214-bd75-4151-ae9c-c9ca79c1a016 6 ospa:n=Justin Clark-Casey 1253888489 517d9f5d-2ef2-49ba-a47c-c1658ffe715f <Description /> <AssetType>6</AssetType> <AssetID>a66bfff2-4190-4e08-a2df-106317d4a6dd</AssetID> <SaleType>0</SaleType> <SalePrice>0</SalePrice> <BasePermissions>581639</BasePermissions> <CurrentPermissions>581647</CurrentPermissions> <EveryOnePermissions>0</EveryOnePermissions> <NextPermissions>2147483647</NextPermissions> <Flags>0</Flags> <GroupID>00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</GroupID> <GroupOwned>False</GroupOwned> </InventoryItem>

Legacy
Note: This is still true for older OARs but not current ones.

The CreatorUUID is in OpenSimulator Profile Anchor (OSPA) format. At the moment, this is simply

n:=

When the archive is loaded, if an existing user name matches that contained in the CreatorUUID OSPA, then the item creator will be assigned to that user. If no name matches then the registered creator will revert to the user that loaded the item.

TODO: explain other elements, ideally accompanied by an XML Schema