Shared Media Dashboard v.0.41 ======================= Author: Graham Mills (avatar name) The dashboard allows users to work with a cluster of seven shared media screens. The pages displayed can be specified via suitably configured notecards. The notecard can contain a sub command that means subsequent placeholder text in the notecard is automatically replaced by the substitute text. If the user is not running a shared media-compatible client such as Second Life Viewer version 2, a default texture is displayed on the screens. You can see a demo here: http://tidalblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/shared-media-dashboard-concept-demo.html (best viewed fullscreen; some functionality has been removed in this version) Please bear in mind that this is unsupported beta quality software: no warranties, etc. Menu ------ The screens are configured via the menu obtained by touching the menu prim. Options are as follows: * Display: shows a menu of up to 9 cards containing URLs; select a card to configure the screens * Report: lists the current URLs for each screen in a format that can be copy/pasted into a notecard for use by Display * KeySites: changes display on selected prim to one chosen from a menu read from a notcard Adding URLs to the display -------------------------------- This can be done either via the URL field or by dragging favicons from the browser onto the desired screen. Display menu command: using notecards to specify URLs --------------------------------------------------------------------- URLs can also be specified by notecard. The notecards are placed in the root prim and must be named named CD1-CD9 followed by a space and a single word of up to 7 characters, e.g. CD1 demo. The notecard text for each URL should be on a separate line in the format screen1 http://www.google.com/, Google with the screens numbered screen1-screen7. The text after the comma is a comment that is generated as the card is loaded and returned subsequently by Report. The comma and space are essential. The Report menu command generates a list of current URLs in an appropriate format for copying and pasting from local chat history into a new notecard (may require minor editing). The current card is displayed as hovertext on the menu prim. Text substitution in notecards: the sub command Incorporating the following text in the notecard sub,YYY,health would cause the subsequent URL http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/YYY to become http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/ Report menu command lists current screen URLs ---------------------------------------------------------- Selecting Report from the follower menu generates a list of screen + URL + comment combinations suitable for use in a notecard without further modification (although long, complex URLs may get corrupted so visual checking is advised), extraneous text such as datestamps being ignored by the Display menu command. KeySites menu command allows user to choose from a list of selected URLs ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A URL can be loaded into a particular prim by rightclick, Touch and choosing the KeySite option. This displays the names of up to 9 sites previously specified on the notecard called keySites (NB case-sensitive) found in the inventory of the menu prim. Sites should be listed one-to-a-line as follows: name, URL Security settings, whitelisting, etc ---------------------------------------- These are left to the owner to adjust and by default are set to be fairly restrictive, viz. only the owner can see the (full) control bar and has navigation and interactivity rights. Shared media are, however, set to auto-play (users can override this setting). Other users will simply see the non-interactive web page or, if they are not using a compatible viewer, a default texture. The dashboard is not an attachment so will continue to function if the option to view shared media on avatar attachments is disabled in preferences. Further information is available from http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Shared_Media and from context-sensitive help on build dialogs. Known issues ---------------- 1. If another avatar loads a different notecard, the owner has no override capability. 2. Report may generate non-functional input for Display. 3. Text displayed on web pages may be in a very small font. Users should view the pages in an external viewer if this is a problem. Useful shared media URLs ------------------------------- Two avatars looking at the same screen see the same URL but not necessarily the same view. The easiest way to check this is to use an external web browser to view the same page and see whether a change inworld is mirrored in the external browser. Generally actions initiated via a link, button, field (including authentication) or by scrolling are not seen synchronously. This can be mitigated to some extent by use of tools designed specifically with collaboration in mind as indicated in the following list: Help ----- http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Shared_Media Resources ------------ Etherpad, http://etherpad.com/ : shared text editor with history and chat functions (recently acquired by Google so on borrowed time) Google Docs, http://docs.google.com/ : can be configured to automatically update the screens of remote viewers/editors although the experience is inferior to Etherpad. The Presents tool does not synchronize. Google Wave: http://wave.google.com/ : text will appear synchronously although the majority of gadgets do not work in this way. Twiddla, http://twiddla.com/ : whiteboard with chat function and additional useful feature of displaying uploaded PowerPoint files synchronously after format conversion. Changes ---------- * Removed Open&Shut (now permanently open) * Remove Follow * Remove die on teleport * Remove CDC/37r conversion * Added KeySites as rightclick|Touch option on screens (allows user to select site from menu) Acknowledgements ----------------------- Second Life, Linden, inSL, SL, and SLurl are trademarks of Linden Research, Inc. |