Group Detection

I just spent numerous hours working on a lovely little tool to go in my store, only to find I can't use it there, or at least not the way I want to. I want it to be usable only by members of a group I've created, but all objects in my store must be set to the same group as the property the store is on, or they get returned.

The lovely new llGetObjectDetails() function has an OBJECT_GROUP parameter, but disappointingly it returns NULL_KEY for agents. Might it be worthwhile to request that be changed, or are there security/privacy concerns behind not being able to detect an agent's group unless it's the same as the object's? I think an object should at least be able to detect any group that its owner can set, since the owner could, conceivably, set the object to that group.

So, basically I'm just thinking out loud here while I try to figure out some other solution. Any suggestions are welcome. When someone clicks on the object, I want it to either give them a card if they're not a member, or proceed if they are. I really don't want to have a manual list, as memory's going to be a bit tight as it is, not to mention being a PITB to maintain. I could have the list in separate scripts, but that's so clumsy; I hate starting an operation in one event (touch_start) and finishing it in another (link_message).

I'm afraid that's what I'm going to have to do, though, unless someone has a better idea. Anyone? Bueller?

There's a feature request for this change to llGetObjectDetails: (I've no idea why it's filed in the VWR project). In the meantime, short of an explicit list of authorized avatars, the only thing I can think of is a hideous, laggy, and probably unreliable hack: A slowly self-replicating and self-deleting object set to the desired (not-parcel) group that uses good ol' llSameGroup. Self-replicating because it would get auto-returned if it didn't delete itself. (Actually, even this ugliness might not work at all, depending on how auto-return is actually implemented.) If this works at all, the self-replicating object could either be the inventory-giving object, or just a "touch me" prim that llWhispers to the inventory-giver when touched by an authorized agent.

Nope, it looks like you are SOL on this one and going to have to do it the hard way.

Yeah, it looks like it. I did come up with a slightly better solution; I'll just give the group members a [shameless plug] DataBot (http://tinyurl.com/32gbju) configured with a special data item. Still not as clean as if OBJECT_GROUP worked with agents, but it'll do, and far better than having to maintain a list.

Next question: how did you make that link clickable, Oie?

img tags before and after as in:

[ img ]http://www.url.goes.here[ /img ] with no spaces inside the brackets. Address must start with http/https etc, can't just use www