September 2012 - After more than 2 years renting parcels in Second Life we are pleased to release the first full rewrite of the rental box software to our tenants.
The previous version started as a simple “time keeper”, as the business grew, spanning multiple regions, better communication and administrative features needed to be added, in time, more and more features were crammed into that tiny box to provide security, automation via bots, and other features, until eventually the software grew so complicated it spanned over 15 separate scripts, and still there were a ton more features we wanted to add.
Version 2 of the rental box software is a complete rewrite and redesign. The majority of the code now exists as a web application, with the rental boxes providing nothing more than a simple “in world” interface to this software. As a result there are now only 3 scripts in the rental box - the script that interfaces with the web application, a script that guarantees a log of payments is made even if the web server is unreachable, and a script to allow updating of the other 2 scripts if necessary.
By moving to a web application we are free of many of the constraints, particularly code size limitations, that plague LSL scripts, this allows us to add more and more and more features without breaking the existing scripts or having to “refactor” them into more and more and more scripts (thanks Linden Labs, this limitation has literally driven me crazy over the years!).
So with great pleasure we are rolling out Version 2 of the rental box, light weight and yet far more powerful than all previous versions. No features have been removed, but tons more have been added. Here is a list of the changes to the system!
No more annoying HUDs. Version 1 of the software has had 3 different HUD designs, all with their own limitations and glitches. No more, you can do everything you need through a web page, your rental box will give you the link when you click on it. Unlike the HUD versions this web page will work in the in world browser or an external web browser. You don't even need to be logged in to Second Life to access it (if you bookmark the
URL).
The rental box has a clear display of rent left and prim usage, no more floating text, the bars showing usage are visible at distance!
Notifications are now provided via proper Instant Messages rather than an easily missable “Object Message” in Nearby Chat.
Better logging of all changes to your parcel, rental, security results, and so forth. Never lose old events due to scripts having full memory, the logs will go all the way back to the start of your rental!
Now with in built media control, specify a
URL yourself to listen to, or select from a list of stations we provide. You can even add to this list of stations!
Easier retexturing of the skybox, manual texturing is now as simple as enabling manual texturing then holding CONTROL while dragging and dropping a full perms texture to the skybox
Better prim management, you can now return all items of a specific user, or even return a single item by simply focusing your camera on it and hitting a return button on the webpage!
FULL permissions controls, you can let other users access any, all, or a limited selection of the rental box features. Want someone else to get over prim / overdue rent warnings? Now you can! Want your alt to be able to fully control the rental box? Now you can! Want your partner to be able to return items and change a few things but not access features that terminate or change rental rates? Now you can!
Prim allowance increases can now be automatically requested through the rental box! Sometimes these will even be available immediately and fully automatically without having to wait for a member of staff to process your request (initially this will be patchy, some will still have to be done manually, but in time more and more increases will be automated until they all are!). You can even release your prim allowance increase if you no longer want it, always automatically.
Want to transfer your remaining credit to a larger (or smaller) skybox? You can now do this automatically too, no human staff involvement required (or waiting for them!)
And of course this is just the set of features we are releasing the new rental box with, should there be demand for other features we can now easily add them to the code without spending ages trying to figure out how to cram 20KB more code into a rental box without hitting 25+ scripts or so!
Hope you all find the new rental box software easy to use and yet far more powerful than previous versions.
Any feedback, suggestions, complaints or problems? We would love to hear from you and will listen to any feedback you have!
Thanks, Iain Maltz, Owner, Landlord, Quiet Life Rentals