Tracking duplicate items in inventory.

When you copy items to different folders in your inventory, does this actually duplicate the item in the asset server, or do you really have one item with a shortcut or link in different places?

If it really is copying the item, would it be possible for a script to look at your inventory and identify duplicate items by their key codes or whatever? Or if there are several prims with different key codes in the item could there be some sort of checksum that identifies duplicates?

If not would it be useful to ask for a feature in a future release that would sort your inventory by object name or key code (disregarding folders)?

It seems to me this would cut down considerably on unweildy inventories. You know, if you buy more than one item from the same place and have them in separate folders you eventually have the same landmarks build up if you forget to delete them. There's also often a lot of empty boxes floating around Id like to be rid of without actually rezzing them and looking into them, but that's a whole other issue.

These things must not be possible or someone would surely have done them already.

If you copy them to another folder and then change them in any way they are definitely separate items at that point. I have a pair of heels that change color via a chat command. I have them in various folders and, in each folder, they are whatever color I had them at when I took that version of them off. So folder1 has a black pair and folder2 has a silver pair - though the names are identical and the only way the color got changed was via a chat command while wearing them.

If I copy the shoes to another folder and never actually wear them, therefore the copy has not been rezzed yet, that copy *might* not yet be its own object in the database - but I really do not know for sure.

You're right that better tools would help, but they're not there (yet).

In the meantime, try using the filter mechanism and the ability to have two inventory windows open. For example, you could open two inventory windows, focus one of them on your landmarks folder, and filter the second just on landmarks. Drag all the landmarks out of product folders from that window into the landmark folder in the first window. Once you're done - or perhaps at some other time - you can just look at the landmarks folder (sorted alphabetically), and delete the duplicates. (I actually use folders within the landmark folder for more organization, but it's the same basic idea.)

Another strategy I use is to set aside some time once a week (more or less), use the "last N days" feature for inventory filters, and organize all the stuff I've acquired in the last week. Instead of being faced with the mammoth task of organizing the entire inventory, I have a smaller, more manageable task. This doesn't really make things better, it just keeps them from getting worse.

An even more general strategy is to budget a month's worth of purchases at the start of the month, spend it all in the first two weeks of the month, then spend the rest of the month cleaning house. Anytime I see something I'd like that's beyond the budget, I see how low my Linden balance is, and remind myself that I should be cleaning, not shopping.

You actually dont have any items at all in your inventory. What you have a descriptions, like folder (or directory) entries, and associated UUID keys. When you copy and paste items in your inventory, all you're doing is duplicating directory entries. The asset server itself only keeps one copy of the object itself in the asset server. This is not taking into account that there are backups of the asset server itself. Think of your inventory as a folder full of nothing but shortcuts rather than files themselves. There are absolutely no script functions whatsoever that let you examine or modify inventories at all, so finding, and I presume you want deleting, folder entries via scripting is not possible.

Well, it's really no different than cleaning a real house then. If you haven't used something for long while, maybe it's time to throw it away.

I too have subfolders that will make sorting by name a small problem, but not unendurable.

But based on what Johan says, I shouldn't feel too guilty about having one item in several folders, as when I have a couple of "default avatar folders when I want to quickly change back into a human from a dog or whatever, and these folders both need an AO, or the same hair.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Correct


True for textures & clothing. Not true for notecards, scripts, and objects, as proven by what LittleMe says above.



Correct.

Each inventory item consists of both an asset ID and an item ID, so that you may have many items pointing to the same asset



Unfortunately, asset ID appears to be zero'd out now before sent to the client, except in the case of some types such as notecards and images

Damn