Avatar key from avatar name.

Is there a way to get an avatar's key based on thier name? I would assume that the name and key are linked to each other where ever Lindens stores them. We have llKey2Name but nothing to go the other way. Has anyone figured out a way to do this? I know it could be detected by a sensor, listen, or touch but that would not suit my needs. Any help is appreciated.

Oh noes...not this again...

There have been numerous databases set up that map names to keys. However, there is currently no LL-provided solution for this (on a grid-wide scale, since, of course, you can use sensors and listens and whatnot).
==Chris

Well, I'd thought I'd ask just in case I missed something new in LSL. I guess I touched a nasty topic based on the Oh noes.....I wasn't sure if anyone figured a way to do this. I'll have to come up with a differnet approach.

BTW - My refrence to the link between the key and name was an offhand comment that you would think it were possible since they are obviously linked. All names are unique and can only be used once and certainly the keys are unique.

The oh noes were because the last time this subject was raised it spawned a firestorm of controversy that in the end - to my eye - was much heat and little light. Personally I agree with you that the names and keys are so tightly bound that for all purposes they are equivalent. There are many who view their key as a private secret that is violative of their privacy in some fashion. To my knowledge Linden Lab never entered the argument nor defined any policy on the matter.

There is a free name to key service at http://www.ulrikasheim.org/tools/name2key.html and possibly other places as well. I have no connection with the service or the site owner; I am simply mentioning it. There were some claims of people putting bogus entries into the database during the controversy but I have no idea of their validity. You could always double check an entry by calling llKey2Name once you had the key you wanted.

Please, if anyone is inclined to get feisty about this again, please search the forums because just about every angle of this subject has been fairly beaten to death already.

Just a reminder....
llKey2Name(key id)

If object or agent id is in the same simulator as the task, return their name. Otherwise, an empty string ("" is returned. This can be misleading, because it cannot be distinguished from an object with an empty name ("".

Alternatively another way to check would be sumthin like this...

key avatar = "";//Put the Key for your target here
default 
{
    touch_start(integer num_detected) 
    {
        llRequestAgentData(avatar, DATA_NAME);
    }
    dataserver(key queryid, string data) 
    {
        llSay(0, "Key2Name result " + data);
    }
}

if the person is nearby, you could always do a sensor and match the name to retrieve the key... I actually had to do this in a script the other day.. if they're not close, umm, good luck.