Linden Lab Official talk:Registration API

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Post questions about the Registration API here. If you can answer a question, please do. If not, Linden Lab will try to provide an answer.

Intermittent Error messages/outages

My call to GetCapabilities is ok, but on an intermittent basis, when I try to get the list of names, this is the result: "An fatal error has occurred (error ticket #19178). Please visit the support section at http://secondlife.com/support/ for further assistance. Note this error ticket code and a description of the problem. Error Description: undefined method `permission' for #<User:***********>."

I have noticed that other gateways suffer from the same outage at the same times, while others do not. What can I do to prevent the outages from impacting my gateway?

RegAPI Capabilities expire

  • A: We've now set them to not expire for 5 years, so this should not be a problem for now, and we'll fix this in the next revision of the RegAPI. (Glenn Linden, 5/22/07)
  • As of 5/17/07, all existing capabilities were set to expire in 5 years, so for the near term, you only have to worry about this with new RegAPI accounts. (Glenn Linden 5/17/07)

Do I need to renew the capability URLs every 30 days?

A: No. The need to renew the capability URLs every 30 days or for each session is *no longer necessary* in the current reg API (i.e. the one you are using now). The code was changed so the capability URLs' expiration dates is now 'long lived' - i.e. expiration date is 5 years. So the need to renew them (and resubmit your password) is no longer needed.

When will we get additional capabilities with the RegAPI?

  • A: (Update by Sue Linden 2007.10.25)

Timeline: At the moment, we plan to have development and QA work done on the new RegAPI by mid-Nov.

Features: With the first release of the new RegAPI, you will be able to:

  • Assign groups. NOTE: Group sign-ups will be automated ... users do not have to "accept" groups.
  • Set an improved start location
  • Register people even if the grid is down (i.e. RegAPI will be up regardless if there is planned or unplanned grid downtime)
  • Set initial inventory.
  • Set initial outfit. Avatars will start wearing the initial outfit (including HUDs) specified in the inventory ... like LL does on our orientation island.

Future Features: The following are being considered for future releases of the new RegAPI:

  • Provide additional avatar choices
  • Flag users as only accessing a specific sim, estate, PG / M, or custom list of locations
  • A Test Production Server
  • Registrar Management API:
    • update the TOS messaging that people see
    • close or transfer accounts (i.e. Create accounts and keep ownership of them for 'staff/employment' use)
    • Track HTTP Referrer via regAPI users
    • manage load-balancing start locations
  • Add "Verify Me" functions
  • Enable Flash-based RegAPI use

We strongly recommend you join the regapi mailing list to share information and send inquiries about the existing and new regAPI to others (regapi@lists.secondlife.com). To join, go to https://lists.secondlife.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/regapi.

Will the new version of the regAPI break old applications that use the original implementation?

  • A: No, good news, the new version will not break the old applications using the original implementation. Existing applications will continue to run but we will stop granting new access to it. Now, the maybe not so good news, the old version will be considered deprecated and will not be compatible with the new API. When we launch the new API, we will provide transition guidelines and encourage people to move to the new one.

Are there audit requirements on user acknowledgement of the TOS?

  • A: Checking with legal on this. (Glenn Linden 5/18/07)

Are 3rd party registration sites required to provide a security image code confirmation function to prevent automated account registration attempts via their sites?

  • Not yet but we will be able to require that with the new reg api. (Glenn Linden 5/18/07)

For purposes of clarification, what is an example of usage that is NOT permitted by the following statement?

  • You may not use the Registration API other than as a means of collecting Account registration information from Your Website. (section 2.3.1 of API Terms of Use - http://secondlife.com/developers/api/tos.php)
  • A: The primarly limitation is against using it to create accounts that are used by a single person to get around our other account limitations or for fraud. (Glenn Linden 5/18/07)

Is there an ID number for the custom name? It looks like this is required by the API for account creation.

  • A: You should be able to acquire your custom name in the name queue for last names returned by the RegAPI - and then go into the list of returned names to see the ID number for it. This may take a little coding. (Glenn Linden 06/26/07)

I get the message "An fatal error has occurred (error ticket #NNNNN). Please visit the support section at http://secondlife.com/support/ for further assistance. Note this error ticket code and a description of the problem."

  • A: Usually you get this because you are providing improperly formatted data in the RegAPI. RegAPI error codes will tell you if you've sent bad data, but not if its misformatted. For example, using * instead of - to seprate elements of the date will give a server error rather than a RegAPI error. ( For the date example, the data is misformatted since the problem is the separator. It was neither an invalid date (31 Feb) - error 100(not a valid date) - nor a malformed string (07 instead of 2007) - error 110(Date string is malformed)--both of which report problems with the digits.)

Can I limit accounts to an Estate (island)?

You can limit accounts to an estate using the RegAPI:

create_user (POST) Creates a new Second Life user

POST to this url a LLSD XML document, representing a hash, containing at least "username" (string), "last_name_id" (integer), "email" (string), "dob" (string in YYYY-MM-DD format), "password" (string)

Optional arguments are "limited_to_estate" (integer), "start_region_name" (string), "start_local_x" (float between 0-128), "start_local_y", "start_local_z", "start_look_at_x" (float between 0-1), "start_look_at_y", "start_look_at_z"

If all is successful, a hash containing the new user's agent_id will be returned. If there are errors, instead an array containing the applicable error codes will be returned.

Estate number (integer) needs to be provided in the Post.

How do I close accounts I've created with the RegAPI?

An employee has left, or you otherwise need to close an account you've created with the RegAPI. To do that, you'll have to contact the Concierge team and have them either change the password or close the account.

Couldn't resolve host 'URI_CREATE_USER'

You need to define those in your php file. Here's an example: 

// Capability URLs
// see https://secure-web3.secondlife.com/developers/third_party_reg/
define('URI_CREATE_USER', 'https://cap.secondlife.com/cap/0/12345678-abcd-ef12-1234567812345');
define('URI_GET_LAST_NAMES', 'https://cap.secondlife.com/cap/0/12345678-abcd-ef12-12345678a5678');
define('URI_CHECK_NAME', 'https://cap.secondlife.com/cap/0/12345678-abcd-ef12-12345678b9abc');

Is there a way to provide a direct secondlife binary download from my website ?

We've recently launched a service that I think will help you out. Try going to http://get.secondlife.com. This fetches you the latest version of the client for your operating system, no questions asked.

It guesses your OS based on your user-agent, so if you're using curl or something that doesn't have a user-agent, it'll return an HTTP 400.

If you're using a script, though, you can hit a specific OS-version:

  • Windows:

http://get.secondlife.com/win

  • Mac:

http://get.secondlife.com/mac

  • Linux:

http://get.secondlife.com/linux

  • If you input an OS that we don't support, then it'll return a 404.

Registration email is not sent...?

As of yesterday (September 5th, 2007), apparently the final registration email is not sent to users registered through RegAPI. This was tested with some 5 accounts, all of them getting an "Ok" from RegAPI, but never getting their confirmation email. Accounts created through LL's own portal, however, worked flawlessly.

Did anything change dramatically with the RegAPI? I couldn't find any suggestions here on extra tags or commands required to activate the sending of the confirmation email... is there a way to compute the URL for the confirmation email automatically?

Gwyneth Llewelyn 00:43, 6 September 2007 (PDT)

Is this fixed yet? We really need to be able to verify users before allowing them to log in. I dont know why others are not more concerned about limiting griefers using 3rd party sites to create griefing accounts, the Patriotic Nigras use the L Word and Dreamland sites all the time to create griefing alts, with no account verification at all.

IntLibber Brautigan 15:08, 31 October 2007 (PDT)

Can we cache the Last Names list?

On secondlife.com we cache the last name list every 12 hours.

Refer-A-Friend and referral credit in RegAPI

  • Q: When will the referral code be implemented into the RegAPI so that RegAPI partners may benefit from their SL promoting activities? --Ingmar Rasmuson 00:27, 1 October 2007 (PDT)
  • A: At this time, Linden Lab is not providing an Affiliate Program to provide revenue directly from account signups; from the RegAPI, we expect that you'll generate revenue from providing services to the Residents you bring into Second Life; whether it's sales of land, objects, clothing, providing tours, or enabling advertising in your region. (Glenn Linden 16:59, 2 October 2007 (PDT))
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