[Opensim-dev] Global identifiers

Mike Dickson mike.dickson at hp.com
Sun Aug 29 16:24:16 UTC 2010


Personally I think attaching additional semantics beyond just a unique
ID that is associated with an Agent Service is a bad idea.  Beyond that
a simple rest service definition that allows quick lookup and caching of
id to user friendly names would solve the problem and in that case the
service can make a decision on behalf of the user as to what information
is valid to be shared (assuming a trust relationship exists betweem the
grid services trying to access the information.

So IMO an agent id is simply a URL that identifies the scope (the agent
service) and id of a user.  The service can then export whatever service
interfaces are appropriate to allow access to additional data.

Mike

On Sun, 2010-08-29 at 16:13 +0000, Ideia Boa wrote:
> We see the same problem than Zonja with our grid
> 
> On 29-08-2010 5:27, Zonja Capalini wrote: 
> > I see one small problem with this approach: UUIDs are immutable, 
> > but it's conceivable that a world operator could allow certain form
> > of
> > updating of user names, while still retaining the same identity
> > (I've had to manually edit user names in some cases in the worlds
> > I administer, for a number of reasons).
> > 
> > 
> > In this scenario, if an URI is resolved to a name that has changed
> > this can potentially require a lot of updates in the database
> > (e.g., if the foreign user has created many objects in the local
> > world).
> > 
> > 
> > OTOH, if the URI -> username association is stored in a different
> > table,
> > this table can also keep other, valuable, information, for example
> > the
> > date of the latest resolution, whether the world appears to be
> > active atm, etc.
> > 
> > 
> >   /Zonja
> > 
> > On Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 1:44 PM, Melanie <melanie at t-data.com> wrote:
> >         We should.
> >         
> >         Also, we should use extra info in the URI. Reson:
> >         
> >         http://www.avination.net:8004/user/44626b40-13d6-4817-b61b-de5df7b5e7e8
> >         
> >         The above is totally meaningless. It can't be used to do
> >         anything
> >         with unless www.avination.net exists and points to a
> >         gatekeeper.
> >         
> >         However,
> >         
> >         http://www.avination.net/user/44626b40-13d6-4817-b61b-de5df7b5e7e8/Melanie+Milland
> >         
> >         makes more sense here.
> >         
> >         The URI itself provides a "Display name" that the resolver
> >         at that
> >         URL can treat as extra path info and ignore, if it chooses.
> >         
> >         This would allow us to create a temporary memory cache
> >         record of the
> >         UUID -> name mapping that would let us display a prim
> >         creator
> >         without a lookup, which is a potentially frequent process.
> >         
> >         The sim can take the URL at face value and diassemble it,
> >         using
> >         44626b40-13d6-4817-b61b-de5df7b5e7e8 -> "Melanie
> >         Milland at www.avination.net" for the cache and returning that
> >         to the
> >         viewer as the creator, all without a lookup.
> >         
> >         While this doesn't prevent verification of stale URI's from
> >         failing,
> >         it does allow to display a meaningful text if that happens.
> >         
> >         Melanie
> >         
> >         diva at metaverseink.com wrote:
> >         > Looks like ppl are reading more into this discussion than
> >         I intended.
> >         >
> >         > The hypergrid is up & running with all authentication and
> >         security in
> >         > place, and so are exchanges of content via HG and
> >         archives. What's
> >         > missing is *systematic* global identification of
> >         resources. OpenSim
> >         > already does that internally for resolving *certain*
> >         identifiers on the
> >         > Hypergrid, but nothing is stored persistently yet. That is
> >         going to
> >         > change soon, because 1) I want to make friends & IM work
> >         across the HG
> >         > (so, for example, your foreign friend needs to be
> >         identified by a global
> >         > ID); and 2) we really need to fix the b0rked "creator"
> >         field in OARs/IARs.
> >         >
> >         > This means that we need to write URIs persistently, both
> >         in certain
> >         > fields of the DB (which is already prepared for what's
> >         coming) and in
> >         > the archives.
> >         >
> >         > So the issue here is really narrow. Assuming everyone
> >         agrees that we
> >         > should use URIs, should we add type information in the URI
> >         or not? Any
> >         > other thoughts on the *form* of these URIs?
> >         >
> >         >
> >         > mysticaldemina at xrgrid.com wrote:
> >         >> May be good to share what your use case is.  As universal
> >         are you suggesting
> >         >> an identifier that separate, potentially un-trusted
> >         domains, would use to
> >         >> identify the same person?
> >         >>
> >         >> Is so I don't think you can do that with two parties, you
> >         need at least one
> >         >> more party to validate that they are the same person,
> >         like how we do with
> >         >> SSL certificates, or with some kind of authentication,
> >         like you send me an
> >         >> email address which gets me to a profile, but I still
> >         need to enter in a
> >         >> password or something to get access to that profile.
> >         >>
> >         >> M.
> >         >>
> >         >> -----Original Message-----
> >         >> From: opensim-dev-bounces at lists.berlios.de
> >         >> [mailto:opensim-dev-bounces at lists.berlios.de] On Behalf
> >         Of Ai Austin
> >         >> Sent: Saturday, August 28, 2010 4:59 PM
> >         >> To: opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
> >         >> Subject: Re: [Opensim-dev] Global identifiers
> >         >>
> >         >> diva wrote:
> >         >>> I'm about to introduce global identifiers, so that I can
> >         make friends
> >         >>> and IM work on the hypergrid, and would like feedback on
> >         the best form
> >         >>> of these identifiers.
> >         >>
> >         >>> Here are some options:
> >         >>> ... Thoughts?
> >         >>
> >         >>
> >         >> A couple of thoughts and observations Diva...
> >         >>
> >         >> Could the taxonomy of "types" you use cause problems if
> >         the chosen
> >         >> 1-1 mapping for a UUID is not felt to work well i future.
> >         >>
> >         >> "user" is also perhaps a different notion to a specific
> >         "avatar"
> >         >>
> >         >> It would be nice if any UUID in a URI you use can be
> >         resolved (e.g.
> >         >> to the avatar name) by any host that has the mapping
> >         (like the
> >         >> distributed nature of DNS works), so its not dependent on
> >         the host
> >         >> continuing to exist, or to be up at the time information
> >         on the
> >         >> avatar is sought.
> >         >>
> >         >> AS an example, we have shifted our data bases between
> >         machines and
> >         >> have done so 3 or 4 times since we started running
> >         OpenSim, carrying
> >         >> the UUIDs of avatars (and the UIIDs of regions we use)
> >         forwards to
> >         >> the new data bases.
> >         >>
> >         >> _______________________________________________
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> >         >> Opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
> >         >> https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/opensim-dev
> >         >>
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> >         >>
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> >         
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> > 
> > 
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