[Opensim-dev] new gforge project: Image Service

[Diva Canto]

Hi all,

I would like to let everyone know of a new gforge project called "Region 
Image Service". As the name says, it extends regions with the ability to 
serve images onto the web. The only images allowed out this way are 
those whose keys can be found in the DataSnapshot xml files, i.e. images 
related to things marked for search in the region. No other image key is 
served. The interface is as follows:
http://domain:port/?method=image&key=<key>

This service is intended to be used in conjunction with search 
facilities, be them the new intra-grid search under development or 
external search engines like Metaverse Ink Search, so that explicitly 
marked, rich 2D content can be shared within a grid and/or with the 
whole world.

To see an example, try this:
http://webi.metaverseink.com/opensim/results.jsp?query=irvine&mode=all&submit=Search
Those images are being served from a region connected to OSGrid; you can 
access them directly like this, for example:
http://osl2.nac.uci.edu:9006/?method=image&key=84a84adb-819a-44ec-a7a2-b5323e737c24
Try other keys, to see what the service does.
(service available only until the opensim in that machine crashes :-)

The project is here:
http://forge.opensimulator.org/gf/project/image-service/

There's a pre-packaged 0.1 release at:
http://forge.opensimulator.org/svn/image-service/tags/0.1
Please see README.txt for instructions.

Comments, suggestions, contributions welcome!

Crista / Diva

PS As a matter of principle, I don't like to compare opensim to Linden 
Lab's system, but as a reference, this Image Service does the same 
function as http://secondlife.com/app/image/
(e.g. 
http://secondlife.com/app/image/79793601-a4d1-f456-8e1e-8d4f3bb977c2/2)
The 2 main differences are:
1) Linden Lab serves all images onto the web, whereas this Image Service 
narrows that down considerably.
2) Linden Lab's image service is centralized, whereas this one is 
decentralized among the regions. Region administrators control it.