RegAPI Forum Transcript

RegAPI Forum Transcript
Tuesday, 27 Sept. 2007; SLDev Island
Jim Linden, Sue Linden, Jon Linden
(Thanks to Jamie David who provided speech-to-text summaries and a great deal of the summary transcript below.) 
==Introduction & Overview==
Jim Linden presented on the new RegAPI and what Linden Lab is planning for the future. After welcoming remarks by Glenn Linden, he handed the session over to Jim who provided detail on the new features that are coming late Oct. 
New API will take over and after a while the current one will cease to work; current rollover is planned for about a month after release of the new RegAPI.
 
==Proposed Features==
===Arrival Location===
Currently limited to one sim but there is work to be done on giving controls to allow spreading out of load and redundancy.
===Users Inventory===
Users can be given pre-loaded inventory. 
===Users Group can be set===
Users can be assigned a group on arrival. Jim Linden warned about oversized groups (>3000) and troubles.
===Users Appearance===
Users appearance can be set and different choices from the default can be offered. You can have multiple avatars and groups of inventory that can be assigned depending on choices made by the registrant.
===Improvement of implementation===
Better documentation and system to install on client servers. Improved PHP
===Names; (Lot of time was spent there) ===
One can implement for 1000$ to set up custom name. 
Request: for tools to work the names and accounts. 
===Email verification will be required===
There was a lot of discussion, esp. from those implementing RegAPI within a company who requested the ability to add users without EMail verification. At this time, we anticipate that the email verification will be done by Linden Lab. We need to finalize how this works to enable you to maintain the integrity of your communication with registrants.
===Testing on Beta Grid.===
Jim will be setting up the RegAPI so that it can be tested on the Beta Grid to ensure that accounts are being added correctly. 
===Other Discussion===
There was also a discussion about the ability to limit accounts to a region but to provide more flexibility than currently for 'locked' accounts for corporate and demo use.
Those of you interested in improving registrant retention might look at new Orientation Islands built by Linden Lab this summer following user testing -- search the map for "MDStyle Orientation Island."
==Questions==
===LAST NAMES (Surnames)===
* Q: Will it be possible to register arbitrary surnames using regapi. 
* A: At some time in the future. For now, surnames will be limited to those provided by Linden Lab or by custom last names which can't be surnames.
* Q: Is it possible to query if a particular (non-current) surname exists?
* A: No, the query only returns currently available last names.
* Q: Is it possible to re-invoke an old surname?
* A: Occasionally we'll resurrect a surname if it has a small set of accounts associated with it, but not on request.
* Q: How often are surnames updated?
* A: You can cache names for up to 12 hours.
* Q: When a custom surname expires, is the account deleted?
* A: The account becomes inactive and you can't create any new accounts. However, existing accounts will still continue, as if they were created with any other surname.
* Q: What are entry requirements for your own names/restriction to one estate these days?
* A: See Custom Name Program
* Q: After registering a new surname, are there limitations or maximum avatars allowed?
* A: No, you can create an unlimited number of accounts with a custom name, which is part of the reason we charge for it.
* Q: is a "delete account" RegAPI function thinkable? Perhaps just for custom last names? (other than the 2-month-delete-request via the website)
* A: We're looking at several ways to enable better management of accounts created with a custom name. It won't happen soon, but we've had this request from many custom last name owners. For right now, contact Concierge to request closing an account.
* Q: Custom last names - can they be made accessible from more than one SL account?
* A: Not at this time. We'll consider that.
===EMAIL VERIFICATION===
* Q: One more question regarding the email verification - it would be really useful if we would have option to switch it off, so we could have an automated account creation. This is for some clients that wish to give access to SL for one time only purposes from their websites.
* A: While we understand your interest, because of fraud issues we will be requiring email verification for all new accounts.
===BETA GRID===
* Q: When the main grid is down, is it possible for regapi new registered users to TP directly to beta grid... and can beta grid temporarily-fetch an old backup of an arbitrary sim (for the newbie TP)
* A: No, it's a different grid with different coordinates and requires a different viewer; there's no way to default to the Beta grid if Second Life isn't available.
===TEST REGAPI===
* Q: Will there be a sandbox/beta grid for use with the RegAPI so we can stop polluting the SL namespace with accounts like regapitest5739?
* A: Yes, we're looking at providing a dummy RegAPI server that will enable you to test your code and will return either "account created" or error codes to your request.
===RESTRICTED ACCOUNTS===
* Q: Are there plans to extend the current "restricted account" feature to be a bit more picky about what these restricted accounts can do? (currently locked into sim, no inventory transfers, no map access)
* A: This is a new request. At this point, we hadn't planned to provide any options, but we'll investigate.
===CAPABILITIES===
* Q: With groups- do you have to be member of group as well - master account
* A: At this time, yes; you need to be the owner or have list-management authority in the Group. We require this so you can't 'spam' people into groups managed by others.
* Q: Will you be able to set role in the group? Can you set multiple groups?
* A: You can set membership in as many groups as you want, and you will be able to set the role in the group as well.
* Q: I wish we could turn off Group IM start in group management
* A: We'll consider that for a future release.
* Q: While this isn't specifically a RegAPI issue, can you enable more than 25 groups? (http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-208)
* A: We've heard this request before and will pass it along. This isn't specifically a RegAPI team issue.
* Q: Custom inventory assigned for particular regapi keys
* A: You'll be able to assign different inventory to different choices by registrants, so you won't need a unique key for each inventory. However, you can also create multiple RegAPI accounts and have a different inventory associated with each account (key or cap).
* Q: Will the ability to set accounts to start with an inventory include the option to wear/attach certain bits of that inventory? Like the orientation HUD you start with in the official orientation?
* A: Yes, you'll be able to attach clothing, objects and HUDs as part of the inventory setting.
* Q: Will you offer automatic name suggestion if the requested name is taken?
* A: We'll consider this for a future feature, but it's not on our current roadmap.
===CODING===
* Q: Is the work that needs to be done to implement the RegAPI simply modifying an html or PHP page or is there work to be done to implement?
* A: We'll provide sample code, and you'll need to modify it to implement it.
* Q: Will there be a better PHP example for the upcoming version (preferably one that works with PHP5 without performing a voodoo dance)?
* A: The new RegAPI sample code will work with PHP5. We plan to provide a variety of examples.
===FEES===
* Q: Will there be a fee to use the new capabilities of the RegAPI, or to register new users?
- No, Linden Lab provides this as a service.
===LOAD BALANCING===
* Q: Will the RegAPI enable load balancing for logins? This is especially important for Orientation Islands.
* A: This version will not include load balancing. We need to improve our internal load balancing procedure before we'll be able to enable use by others.
===OTHER===
* Q: Is it possible now to query for users who registered but didn't login so we could send follow-up emails? To get call-back URL's whenever the user logs in ?
* A: No. You'd have to maintain the registration information and then check against who shows up on your landing location.