Snapshot API
Overview
The Second Life Snapshot API enables you to parse information from Snapshot emails sent from Second Life for:
- Blogging
- Social Networking
- Image Libraries
Where is the Snapshot API used?
There are many websites that already use this information. Some of them are as follows:
More can be found at Snapshot_resources#Social_sites_featuring_snapshots.
Structure
Headers
Email messages have headers that provide metadata about the message itself. Most of this information is hidden from the person reading an email message. You can use some of this information to verify that the snapshot came from a Linden Lab server.
The following headers are available.
| Parameter | Data type | Description |
| X-Originating-IP | string | IP of simulator in brackets. [216.82.41.11]. See Simulator_IP_Addresses to verify origin. |
| Subject | string | Subject of message |
| Sender | string | email address of www-data account on simulator. "www-data" <www-data@sim8938.agni.lindenlab.com> |
| From | string | Combination of address and name. Note: name is not always avatar name. |
| Date | date | Date of snapshot in Pacific timezone. |
Body
Snapshots are sent as two parts. The first is plain text, and the second is a multi-part message in MIME format.
- text/plain
- multipart/related
- text/html
- image/jpeg - secondlife-postcard.jpg
- image/jpeg - logo_secondlife.jpg
Details
The HTML content within the multi-part message will contain details of the snapshot in a comment tag:
<!-- BEGIN POSTCARD DETAILS agent_id=c4822e40-f763-4eec-bba3-e4bf842a074a username="Dedric Mauriac" region_id=714a15be-8511-4842-a8c1-38c1f54f3c58 sim_name="Applewood" global_x=260282 global_y=235143 local_x=186 local_y=135 local_z=56 END POSTCARD DETAILS -->
| Parameter | Data type | Description |
| agent_id | key | The UUID of the avatar that sent the message. |
| username | string | Quoted name of the avatar who sent the message. |
| region_id | key | The UUID of the region that the avatar was standing when the snapshot was taken. |
| sim_name | string | Quoted name of the region that the avatar was standing when the snapshot was taken. |
| global_x | integer | The grids horizontal location of where the avatar was standing when the snapshot was taken. |
| global_y | integer | The grids vertical location of where the avatar was standing when the snapshot was taken. |
| local_x | integer | The regions horizontal location of where the avatar was standing when the snapshot was taken. |
| local_y | integer | The regions vertical location of where the avatar was standing when the snapshot was taken. |
Message
Although you could use the entire HTML source code of a message, it is often not wanted. The original message contains additional information that is not needed. The message that the end-user wrote in the postcard itself is identified with comments:
<!-- BEGIN POSTCARD BODY --> test message <!-- END POSTCARD BODY -->
HTML Entities will be encoded. "<" will appear as "<".
Referral Bonus
Snapshots include a URL to invite others to join them. If a new account is created from following the link, and certain conditions are met, then the sender could receive a bonus. This URL is wrapped around the logo in the message.
http://secondlife.com/ss/?u=123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef0
Snapshot
The snapshot is a JPEG image. Postcards have two images, including a logo. The snapshot file name is always called "secondlife-postcard.jpg".
Advanced Snapshot Tips
There are a few tweaks that you can do in order to get the most out of taking snapshots within the Second Life client. Here are a few.
Multiple Addresses
The Recipient email field can accept multiple email addresses. You can separate each one with a semicolon.
account1@yourdomain.com;account2@yourdomain.com;account3@yourdomain.com
Populated Addresses
For those who always send snapshots to the same email addresses, you can edit a file on your file system to populate that information for you.
C:\Program Files (x86)\SecondLife\skins\default\xui\en-us\floater_postcard.xml
Look for the following and add your email addresses:
<text bottom="-35" follows="top|left" font="SansSerif" left="12" name="to_label">
Recipient's Email:
</text>
<line_editor bottom_delta="-6" follows="left|top" height="20"
left="120" max_length="254" name="to_form"
width="150" >account1@yourdomain.com;account2@yourdomain.com;account3@yourdomain.com</line_editor>
Longer Messages
By default, the message is limited to 700 characters. You can extend this to 6,526 characters by editing a file on your file system.
C:\Program Files (x86)\SecondLife\skins\default\xui\en-us\floater_postcard.xml
Look for the following and change the max_length property:
<text bottom_delta="-23" follows="top|left" font="SansSerif" left="12" name="msg_label">
Message:
</text>
<text_editor bottom_delta="-150" follows="left|top|right|bottom" height="140" left="12"
max_length="700" name="msg_form" width="420">
Type your message here.
</text_editor>