[Opensim-users] the concept of "visitor"

[Justin Clark-Casey]

Paul Fishwick wrote:
> I would like to open up one of our worlds to the general public by 
> allowing people
> to log in as visitors. This is related to the "anonymous login" and has 
> been discussed
> in various forms, but here is the concept - not sure if anything exists 
> yet in trunk to
> support this:
> 
> 1. A user logs in using whatever name they want. If authentication is 
> turned off, this is
>    no problem. However, what would be ideal is that when the user logs 
> off, any trace
>    of them is removed from the database-- they do not persist.
> 
> 2. When the user logs in, they have access to the Library part of the 
> inventory, but are
>     unable to load any assets to the server, thus they would have 
> nothing under "My Inventory"
>     or be able to copy items from the Library or the world into My 
> Inventory. The Library
>     would contain all necessities (clothing, basic objects and scripts 
> that they require
>     in the space).
> 
> 3. The user cannot build on the island but can run scripts and navigate 
> performing full
>     interaction.
> 
> #1 is not a huge issue since I would imagine that the incremental space 
> allocation for
> users just means additional rows in the user/agent tables -- shouldn't 
> take up too much
> room. #2 is a bigger problem - visitors should not be taxing the asset 
> server. #3
> can be handled by unchecking both boxes next to Create Objects in About 
> Land->Options.

For #2, preventing the user from creating new things directly in their inventory is possible but 
messy.  For instance, some time ago I put a setting in OpenSim.ini which stops people being able to 
create scripts in their inventory as a security measure (search for allowed_script_creators).  It's 
messy because the user still has the option in their client menu - it's just that it now doesn't do 
anything.

In principle this option could be extended to all inventory item creation.  As you say, there are 
already ways of sealing up #3 and #1 isn't such a huge issue, for a standalone I'm sure it would be 
possible to divert guests to a pure in-memory user record representation with a bit of work which 
would mean they never get an entry in the db.  An issue here though is that no authentication allows 
anybody to log in as anyone, which is awkward if you have 'non-guest' users.

> 
> Are either #1 or #2 possible? They would seem to be a prerequisite for 
> something approaching
> basic web page services: people come in, visit, and exit while leaving a 
> minimal trace.
> Builders on the other hand, have special login names that give them the 
> capability to build
> and load assets (possible with groups?).
> 
> -p
> 


-- 
Justin Clark-Casey (justincc)
http://justincc.org
http://twitter.com/justincc