Read Note Card Configuration

Learn how to read configuration files with Linden Scripting Language (LSL) in Second Life (SL). After viewing this tutorial, you will be able to:

• Create a script
• Read each line of a note card
• Skip over comments
• Skip blank lines
• Notify the owner of the lines with unknown settings
  • Unknown setting name
  • Missing delimiter (equal sign)
• Notify the owner of missing configuration note card
• Detect when the notecard has been changed
• Offer case-insensitive settings
• Trim white-space from name/value settings
• Initialize with default values
• Detect that the name of the configuration file is a notecard
• Detect that you have reached the end of the file

1. DOWNLOAD How to read configuration information from a notecard

# this is a file to configure your application
# blank lines are ignored as well as lines
# proceeded with a "#" sign.
Name = Dedric Mauriac
Favorite Color = Blue

<lsl> integer line; string configurationFile = "Application.Config"; key readLineId; string AvatarName; string FavoriteColor;

init() {

   // reset configuration values to default
   AvatarName = "Unknown";
   FavoriteColor = "None";
   
   // make sure the file exists and is a notecard
   if(llGetInventoryType(configurationFile) != INVENTORY_NOTECARD)
   {
       // notify owner of missing file
       llOwnerSay("Missing inventory notecard: " + configurationFile);
       return; // don't do anything else
   }
   
   // initialize to start reading from first line
   line = 0;
   
   // read the first line
   readLineId = llGetNotecardLine(configurationFile, line++);
   

} processConfiguration(string data) {

   // if we are at the end of the file
   if(data == EOF)
   {
       // notify the owner
       llOwnerSay("We are done reading the configuration");
       
       // notify what was read
       llOwnerSay("The avatar name is: " + AvatarName);
       llOwnerSay("The favorite color is: " + FavoriteColor);
       
       // do not do anything else
       return;
   }
   
   // if we are not working with a blank line
   if(data != "")
   {
       // if the line does not begin with a comment
       if(llSubStringIndex(data, "#") != 0)
       {
           // find first equal sign
           integer i = llSubStringIndex(data, "=");
           
           // if line contains equal sign
           if(i != -1)
           {
               // get name of name/value pair
               string name = llGetSubString(data, 0, i - 1);
               
               // get value of name/value pair
               string value = llGetSubString(data, i + 1, -1);
               
               // trim name
               list temp = llParseString2List(name, [" "], []);
               name = llDumpList2String(temp, " ");
               
               // make name lowercase (case insensitive)
               name = llToLower(name);
               
               // trim value
               temp = llParseString2List(value, [" "], []);
               value = llDumpList2String(temp, " ");
               
               // name
               if(name == "name")
                   AvatarName = value;
               
               // color
               else if(name == "favorite color")
                   FavoriteColor = value;
               
               // unknown name    
               else
                   llOwnerSay("Unknown configuration value: " + name + " on line " + (string)line);

           }
           else  // line does not contain equal sign
           {
               llOwnerSay("Configuration could not be read on line " + (string)line);
           }
       }
   }
   
   // read the next line
   readLineId = llGetNotecardLine(configurationFile, line++);
   

} default {

   state_entry()
   {
       init();
   }
   on_rez(integer start_param)
   {
       init();
   }
   changed(integer change)
   {
       if(change & CHANGED_INVENTORY) init();
       else if(change & CHANGED_OWNER) init();
   }
   dataserver(key request_id, string data)
   {
       if(request_id == readLineId)
           processConfiguration(data);
       
   }

} </lsl>