Make an object the "owner" of another object?

I have a scripted object I bought which responds to chat commands, and I'm making several other objects that listen for the same chat commands so that all the objects will execute their scripts in sync.

The trouble is that the one object I bought only responds to chat commands from the owner of the object. And I want to have anyone be able to give it certain commands. So what I thought I could do was make a controller box where when someone touched it, it would say the chat commands. Is there some way to make the object think that the box is its "owner" rather than my avatar?

Nope, only avatars can own things, not objects. The only way to do what you want is to contact the creator of the object, and ask him or her to change the script such that it would accept commands from anyone rather than just the owner. Then, your control box would work. This would be exceedingly simple, as the scripter would only need to change a line or two in the script.

Yeah I know, I asked him already and he apparently doesn't want to do it right now, though he says he might in the next version.

Thanks for the response, I didn't think it was possible but thought it was worth asking.

An alterantive way would be to write a controller script that uses a dialog on the same channel, i.e. you are still saying the commands.

Hmm... but again wouldn't that only work for me? I'd like to have other people be able to execute the dialog when I'm not online.

Yep you're right, I reread your post and if its listening for the owner then you are still in the same position.

When you setup a listen event, you specify a key, and the listener only listens for that key. like so:

handle = llListen( 0, "", llGetOwner(), "" );

In this situation, the listen only listens for the owner's key (the avatar's key). It ignores all other keys, including the key of any object, (yours or not). What needs to be done is this:

handle = llListen( 0, "", NULL_KEY, "" );

This simple change would listen for chat from anyone, you, your objects, other avatars, etc.

I'm completely amazed that the creator of your object will not take all of about ONE MINUTE to make this simple change, and exchange the object for you. It is totally bad business IMHO.

I've had customers buy my clocks, and IM me asking if they could have this small change or that small change. I always take the time to try and make my customers happy so they'll come back/recommend me to others. And, it works...

I had a customer show up one day when I was offline, and IM me about a dolphin clock. I had no such clock, but, I set forth and created one, without ever having even spoken to customer yet, and about and hour and a half later, I had it done.

I IM'd the customer, told her that I made one, and invited her to come and see it, and if she liked it, purchase it. She was blown away. She didnt think she'd get the clock at all, as she'd been searching all over SL, let alone, get one 2 hours after IM'ing me about it.

Needless to say, she loved it, and purchased it. Not only that, it spawned my line of animal clocks, as I had none before that, and I've had many sales related to that. Also, just a few days ago, a customer showed up looking for a custom clock, we hammered out the details, I made her the clock, and after she bought it, she mentioned that her friend had recommended me, and it turns out, it was the gal who I had made the dolphin clock for.

If I were you, I wouldnt bother waiting around for the create to "maybe do that in the future" and then re-buy it. I would simply not do business with them. It's completely unimaginable to me that the creator would not do this for you as it would have probably taken just as long to make the change as it did to IM you with a negative response.

By the way, what exactly does this object do? Perhaps I could script this for you to work as you would like it to. (Yes, blatant attempt to expand and advertise my business, steal a customer away to boot!).

What you say is correct although you have missed the point Johan.
Since one of the objects will only respond its owner commands setting up a dialog 'controller' will not allow it to be activated by a non owner.

Johan,

Yeah I agree, I was rather puzzled, since if I were scripting the object myself it would be a 3 second change as you say. All the other objects that sync with it are things I've scripted myself, and are configured to respond to anyone. Anyway I have no intention of re-buying this thing. If he does what I need as an upgrade I would hope he would give it to me at no charge. But he seemed completely uninterested in accommodating me, and this was a bit surprising to me as most SL creators have been extremely so, and I certainly try to be helpful to the community myself even if I am not making money from it (this whole project I'm doing is pretty much a gift to the community anyway).

FYI the object is a rain maker. It rains particle drops in a realistic looking way (with sound) and you can specify the range it covers, how hard and fast it rains, whether there's thunder, etc. You can also have it make little ripples on the ground (particles as well). It's very nicely done, and the emitter is only 4 prims... I just don't want to have to be online to make it rain or stop raining. Ideally I could configure it to be on a timer so it starts and stops at intervals, and the timer could be overridden by a user touching the controller on or off. Ideally also, the other parameters (intensity of the storm etc.) would only be controllable by the owner but the rain could be turned on or off by anyone.