Wifi

Revision as of 11:51, 27 August 2010

Wifi - A Simple Account Management Front-end

"Wifi" stands for "Web Interface For... I" and is an add-on module that IS NOT IN THE CORE of OpenSim. It is provided by Diva Canto and can be added to OpenSim 0.7 onwards. Please do not ask the core OpenSim team for support.

Introduction

Initial information is available from http://www.metaverseink.com/blog/?p=37 and is taken here pretty much verbatim for now...

Wifi provides an embedded Web application for handling user registrations. Wifi is a set of components that can be loaded up by both standalone simulators and Robust servers. It's features include:

• Account creation, optionally controlled by the administrator
• Configurable default avatars for new accounts
• Account updates by both users and administrator
• Account deletion by administrator
• Password recovery via email
• Simple user inventory management
• Welcome page which can be used as viewer -loginpage

Wifi has a few interesting properties that make it a good fit for small-to-medium OpenSimulator-based virtual worlds.

• First of all, it doesn’t require the installation of Apache or other Web servers; it’s all done within the OpenSimulator code base.
• Second, using the OpenSimulator code base brings many technical benefits. This isn’t an immediate benefit, but it is a benefit in the long run. Unlike the Apache-based Web apps that interface with the DB directly, Wifi interfaces with the OpenSimulator services layer using the core code, and therefore it is isolated from future changes to the OpenSimulator DB schema.
• Third, technically, Wifi is a set of components that can be loaded up by both standalone simulators and Robust servers.

Diva Distribution

Wifi is included and enabled by default in the Diva Distribution:

• Documentation: http://wiki.github.com/diva/d2/wifi
• Blog Description: http://www.metaverseink.com/blog/
• Downloads and binary distribution: http://github.com/diva/d2/downloads
• Source Code: http://github.com/diva/diva-distribution/

Adding Wifi to your OpenSim Setup

Additions to Standard OpenSim Distribution (from 0.7 onwards)

Binary Approach

Obtain the latest Wifi module distribution zip from http://github.com/diva/d2/downloads and place the files as instructed in the equivalent locations in your OpenSim directory.

bin directory

• add bin/Diva.Wifi.dll
• add bin/Diva.Wifi.ScriptEngine.dll
• add bin/Diva.OpenSimServices.dll
• for standalones, also add bin/Diva.Modules.dll

Copy WifiPages directory and its contents to OpenSim top level directory.

doc directory

• add in doc/WIFI.txt

Copy over the WIFI releated readme, release notes and licence.

For grids, edit Robust(.HG).ini in section [Startup] to add 8002/Diva.Wifi.dll:WifiServerConnector to ServiceConnectors.

For standalones, edit StandaloneCommon.ini in section [Modules] to add WifiModule = true.

Add a new section [WifiService] from example at http://github.com/diva/diva-distribution/blob/master/addon-modules/Wifi/Wifi.ini.example to Robust(.HG).ini (for grids) or StandaloneCommon.ini (for standalones).

Source Code Approach

Get Diva Distribution which contains the Wifi modules from http://github.com/diva/diva-distribution/

Setting Configuration Parameters

The complete example file is here: http://github.com/diva/diva-distribution/blob/master/addon-modules/Wifi/Wifi.ini.example

Additions to Robust.ini or Robust.HG.ini for Grids

[Startup]
    ServiceConnectors = "8002/Diva.Wifi.dll:WifiServerConnector"

Note that it will be usual to specify the port number to be accessible outside your firewall (normally port 8002) rather than the default Network Port for internal inter-component OpenSim traffic (normally port 8003) which can be set to only be accessible within a firewall.

OR Additions to StandaloneCommon.ini for Standalones

[Modules]
    WifiModule = true

Additions to StandaloneCommon.ini or in separate addon-modules/Wifi/config/Wifi.ini

[WifiService]
    GridName = "grid name"
    LoginURL = "http://<hostname>:9000"
    WebAddress = "http://<hostname>:9000"
 
    ;; The Wifi Administrator account
    AdminFirst = "Wifi"
    AdminLast = "Admin"
    AdminEmail = "you@example.com"
 
    ;; Do you want to be able to control grid registrations?
    AccountConfirmationRequired = false
 
    FemaleAvatarAccount = "Female Avatar"
    MaleAvatarAccount = "Male Avatar"
    NeutralAvatarAccount = "Neutral Avatar"
 
    ;; Preselection for default avatar in new account registration
    AvatarPreselection = "Neutral"
 
    ;; Variables for your mail server
    ;; Users will get email notifications from this account.
    SmtpHost = "mail.example.com"
    SmtpPort = "587"
    SmtpUsername = "your_account_in_this_mail_server"
    SmtpPassword = "your_password_in_this_mail_server"

Configurable Default Avatars

When users sign up, they can choose between 3 avatars: male, female and neutral. It's up to you to decide what these 3 default avatars loolike. Here is how you can configure them.

Once your OpenSim is up and running, create 3 accounts (using Wifi) with the following names:

• Male Avatar
• Female Avatar
• Neutral Avatar

Then login to

Problems with HTTP ports

The port used for the Wifi HTTP service is configurable. Usually this will be 8002 for a grid and 9000 for a standalone unless you use custom ports.

For a standalone you can do this by adding the "port" line for the port to use for Wifi and other services to the [Network] section of OpenSim.ini

[Network]
    port = 9000

Or for a grid specify a specific port (usually 8002) for the WifiServiceConnector in the ServiceConnectors list in the [Startup] section of Robust(.HG).ini

[Startup]
    ServiceConnectors="............,8002/Diva.Wifi.dll:WifiServerConnector"

In either case, define the equivalent WebAddress in the [WifiService] section of your StandaloneCommon.ini or Robust(.HG).ini (or addon-modules/Wifi/config/Wifi.ini if used in future).

[WifiService]
     WebAddress = "http://hostname:8002"

If you do not use the usual OpenSim service ports, please note that some network setups and ISPs will not allow HTTP to be served on port 80. It is usual to use an alternative port such as 8080 or a custom port in that case.

Wifi URLs When Operational

• Sample grid: http://yourgridhostname:8002/wifi
• Sample standalone: http://yourstandalonehostname:9000/wifi
• Local standalone: http://localhost:9000/wifi

Examples

• Diva Tagus Test World (temporary August 2010): http://tagus.ics.uci.edu:9000/wifi

Wifi Administrator Functions

Manage Users

If authorisation is set to be on, you will receive an e-mail to the nominated admin account e-mail address if users request a new account and avatar creation. You can activate or remove new user creation requests. Users are notified of the activation via an e-mail to their nominated address.

You can also search for users and change their details. Give a space as a search term to select all avatars. Available are fields for "Level", "Flags" and "Title".

• Level = 0 is a normal user
• Level = 100 is a Wifi admin account user

Note that the Wifi admin username/avatar is set in the Wifi configuration, and can be changed there. BUT.. once an admin always an admin. Well almost. If you change from one admin to another, the previous avatar still has administrator rights. You can remove Wifi administrator rights from an avatar by chnaging the "Level" of the user from 100 to 0 using the Manage Users facility in Wifi.

Manage Regions

Future functionality.