Menu System 2 (Second Life)

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= Animation helpers =
 
= Communication =
= Communication =

Revision as of 19:39, 19 November 2008

Menu System 2 is a note-card-configured system for making easily interchangeable and configurable menu trees in second Life objects.

Contents

Roles

The avatars that use the menu system can have one or more of the following roles in the menu system:

  • Privileged
  • Operator
  • Owner
  • Other

What role(s) an avatar has can be used to decide what version of a menu to show, or whether to show a button or not.

The roles of various avatars are based on linked messages sent to the menu system by other scripts in the object.

Privileged

Only a single user can be privileged. That user has done something to earn her special rights, such as being the owner of the single key to an object.

Operator

Operator is anyone that has more than normal rights to operate an object, such as being the only ones that can change its configurations. Normally, a list of operators is configured in a separate note card.

Owner

Owner is the SL owner of the object in question.

Other

Other is anyone that has none of the other roles above.

Note Card Format

The note card may contain the following type of lines:

  • Blank lines
  • Comments
  • Configuration Variable Settings
  • Menu Definitions.

Blank lines and comment lines are ignored when reading the notecard, and not stored in memory.

The name of the note card to be read is taken from the name of the menu system script itself, so to change what card is used, just change the name of the script and reset it. The note card name is appended to the script name after a colon, like this: 

  MenySystem:MenuConfig

This enables more than one menu system to be used in the same object, running side-by-side.

Comment Lines

Comment lines starts with '#' in the first position.

Configuration Varables

Configuration Variable lines are defined as name '=' value. Names are case independent.

The following variables are currently defined:

  • defaultanimation
  • animationclientname

Configuration variables are for the menu system itself, not for its contents, so they should not be confused with the display variables defined later.

Menu Definitions

Menu Definitions consist of:

  • Menu Name
  • Description
  • Button Definitions

Menu Name

The definition starts with the menu name surrounded by triple hyphens, like this: 

  ---main---

The definition ends with the start of the next menu definition, or by just three hyphens on their own: 

  ---

Menu Names and Roles

When a menu has a special definion for only a given role of users, that role can be given after the menu name itself, like this: 

  ---main operator---

When the user has a specific role, the system first looks for menu name with role, and if it cannot find it, it looks for just the menu name.

The following roles are defined:

  • owner
  • operator
  • other

Description

Description lines start with an asterisk, like this: 

  * This is a 
  * multi-line
  * description

Newlines are significant, so the three lines above will show as three lines in the dialog box.

Descriptions and variable substitution

Descriptions can have display variables in them. These variables are sent to the menu system by the other scripts in the object as link messages. When the menu dialog box is to be shown, the variables are looked up and inserted into the description.

Variables are written into the description as dollar-brace name brace-dollar, like this: 

  ${name}$

A short number of variables are predefined, and not sent by other scripts. Those are:

  • owner - object owner name
  • object - object name

Like this: 

  * ${object}$ is owned by ${owner}$

Conditional variable substitution

Conditionals (see below) can also be used in menu descriptions, using this construction: 

  ${condition?string if true:string if false}$

This allows you to write things like this in descriptions 

   * Choose operator's buttons settings. 
   * Current settings:
   * - ${isLocked?The button is not detachable.:The button is detachable.}$
   * - ${isPublic?The button's on/off-messages are public.:The button's on/off-messages are private.}$
   * - ${isPressSelf?The wearer can self press the button.:The wearer can not press the button.}$

Note the different strings for true and false conditions.

Button definitions

Buttons are defined by first a single button line, followed by any number of command lines.

The button line consists of the button label within brackets, followed by a number of modifiers separated by vertical bar: 

  [Lock] ifnot locked | hideinactive | keepmenu

The command lines consist of a command, followed by a list of arguments, separated by vertical bars. 

  regionsay | 0 | Hello World!

Both button lines and command lines can have any number of spaces surrounding the vertical bars.

Button Modifiers

Button modifiers consists of an optional condition expression, an optional "endmenu", and/or an optional "hideinactive". These may come in any order.

Button Condition Expression Modifier

The button condition expression governs whether the button should be displayed in the menu. The other scripts in the onject can send named conditions to the menu system, indicating any state of the object that should reflect in the buttons. The condition expression combines these named conditions, and use that combination to choose if the button is shown.

The possible expressions are:

  • if condition
  • ifnot condition
  • ifanyof condition condition ... condition
  • ifallof condition condition ... condition
  • ifnoneof condition condition ... condition

If any more complex logical combination is needed than those above, the state-maintaining script better define that combination as a single new condition and send that one.

Negating a Condition

A condition can be negated by preceding it with a "!". This is useful when writing toggle buttons. For example: 

   [Free] if isLocked
      messagelinkedset | setLockOn
   [Lock] if !isLocked 
      messagelinkedset | setLockOff

Special role conditions

The following conditions can be used in expressions above, even if they have not been sent to the menu system through linked messages. They are instead derived from the menu user's role(s).

  • isPrivileged
  • isOperator
  • isOwner
  • isOther

For example, the below button pair is only available if the current user is an operator: 

  [Lock] ifallof isOperator !isLocked
     messagelinkset | lock
  [Unlock] ifallof isOperator isLocked
    messagelinkset | unlock

Hide Inactive Modifier

This modifier chooses how a button whose condition is not met is displayed.

If the "hideinactive" modifier is given, then the menu system totally removes the button. If it is not there, a blank button is instead shown when the condition is not met.

End Menu Modifier

The "endmenu" modifier governs the menu persistence. If it is present, the menu will not be re-displayed after after the button is pressed.


Commands

The following commands are available:

Name Argument 1 Argument 2 Function
menu menu name Replaces this menu with the named one (optionally modified by the user role, see menu name above)
none A no-op.
animateuser animation name Animates the agent using the menu.
animatesitter animation name Animates the agent sitting on this object.
stopanimation Stops the latest animation this object activated on the agent using the menu.
stopallanimations Stops the all animations on the agent using the menu.
messagelinkset message Send a message to all scripts in all prims in the same objects.
messagelinkthis message Send a message to all scripts in the same prim in the same objects.
regionsay channel message Shout a message all over the region.
say channel message Say a message in the local area.
rlv rlv string Send a RLV string to the client of the object's owner, if RLV is activated.


Communication

Channels Listened to

The Menu system sets up a random channel to listen to for each menu definition. This makes it able to separate buttons with the same label, but in different menus, from each other.

Touch

The Menu System does not itself listen to touch events. Other scripts in the object must send a linked message (see below) to display the first menu.

Linked Messages Listened to

The menu system listens to a number of linked messages

Name Argument(s) Function Example Call
menu menuname Display the given menu llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "menu " + menuName, agentKey);
llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "menu main", agentKey);
setSitter Set the key of the agent sitting on this object. llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "setSitter", agentKey);
removeSitter Remove the key of the agent sitting on this object. llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "removeSitter", NULL_KEY);
setConditions space-separated list of conditions Set all conditions that apply. llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "setConditions " + llDumpList2String(conditionList, " "), NULL_KEY);
llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "setConditions locked seated muted", NULL_KEY);
addConditions space-separated list of conditions Add these conditions to those that apply. llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "addConditions " + llDumpList2String(conditionList, " "), NULL_KEY);
llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "addConditions bound hogtied", NULL_KEY);
removeConditions space-separated list of conditions Remove these conditions from those that apply. llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "removeConditions " + llDumpList2String(conditionList, " "), NULL_KEY);
llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "removeConditions bound locked", NULL_KEY);
setVariableValue name and URL-encoded value, separated by space. Set this display variable for inclusion in menu descriptions. llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "setVariableValue" + name + " " + llEscapeURL(value), NULL_KEY);
llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "setVariableValue region Lugubris", NULL_KEY);
useDefaultAnimation Use the animation configured as default on the supplied avatar. llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "useDefaultAnimation", avatarKey);
addOperator givenname familyname Gives the named avatar the operator role. llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "addOperator " + name, NULL_KEY);
llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "addOperator Tuft Meili", NULL_KEY);
removeOperator givenname familyname Revokes the operator role from the named avatar. llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "removeOperator " + name, NULL_KEY);
llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "removeOperator Tuft Meili", NULL_KEY);
deleteOperators Revokes all operator roles. llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "deleteOperators", NULL_KEY);
setPrivileged givenname familyname Gives the named avatar the privileged role. llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "setPrivileged" + name, NULL_KEY);
llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "setPrivilegedTuft Meili", NULL_KEY);
removePrivileged Revokes the privileged role from the avatar currently having it. llMessageLinked(LINK_THIS, 0, "removePrivileged", NULL_KEY);

Examples

Handing over to another instance

You can have several instances of the menu system running in the same object, handling different branches of the menu tree.

Normally, you hand over to another submenu with: 

  [button]
  menu | newmenu

To call another menu system, instead use a linked message: 

  [button] endmenu
  mesagelinkset | menu newmenu

Sinde we want this menu system to stop its menus, we use the button modifier "endmenu".

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