 | : |  |
| The media relay device used with the Navigator on group land | The Daden Navigator menu |
Back to Daden Navigator main page
Please note that the below is extracted directly from the in-world notecard.
Daden Navigator V1.0
====================
This may just be the first proper web browser in Second Life. Through simple chat commands
it let you view almost any web site on the web, surfing from web page to web page following
links just like a real web browser.
Installation Instructions
===============
The Navigator works by directly controlling your parcel's media stream.
The Navigator does not have its own screen, but works with whatever media texture and
screens you use on your parcel. When you use the Navigator the web pages will appear on any
media screens you have on your parcel. Your normal media content will automatically
re-appear when you use one of your other media devices. (note that some older devices may
not reset the new media MIME type properly, but you can do this manually from the Media tab
on the About Land option on the World menu drop-down.
If you don't know how to set up media screens on your parcel then check out Torley Linden's
excellent videos at:
http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/03/10/parcel-media-video-tutorials-how-to-play-movies-webpa
ges-more/
For use on Group land use the media relay included in the box - details below.
PLEASE NOTE THIS!!!!!
Say "home" or choose the "home" option from the menu in order to set the MIME type of your
media stream to text/html, after you have selected Direct or Group mode, otherwise you may
find the media screen stay blank even though the Navigator says it has loaded a web page.
END OF NOTE !!!
User Instructions
===========
Most control is via chat on Channel 0 (Pro version lets you set channel).
The main two commands are:
url YOURURL - to load a web page
link KEYWORDS - to follow a link based on the words in the link name, just put as many
keywords in as are necessary to distinguish the link from any other. Separate keywords by
space. For instance if you want to follow a link called "About Us", just type "link about
us", or even "link about" if there are no other links with the word "about" in them.
Other commands are:
search or google - brings up google search page
search X or google X - searches for X on google
back - back to last page, Navigator has a 6 page back history
forward - forward onto next page in history (once you've done BACK)
home - go to home page (default is www.daden.co.uk)
set home - sets current page to home*
refresh - refreshes the page
menu - launches (alternative way of getting to most commands)
popout - puts current URL into your main browser, or SL windowed browser
bookmark - remembers page as bookmark with the name of the link that led to it. number only
limited by memory. note that bookmarks are cleared when you reset the script
bookmarks - opens dialog box to browse bookmarks
clear bookmarks - clears bookmarks*
list bookmarks - lists bookmarks as chat (good to copy)
toggle media - toggle media between direct and relay mode*
ownerlock on - switches on ownerlock so only the owner can use the features marked *
ownerlock off - switches off the ownerlock
Notes:
- Daden Navigator starts in ownerlock mode
- resetting the script will clear the bookmark and history lists and set the home page back
to daden
- the script resets each time the unit is rezzed
- keep a backup copy in case you get the dreaded Stack Heap memory crash
- after 10 minutes of inactivity the browser reverts back to home page
- the colour border goes red when a link is requested, and blue once URL data is received
and purple when a menu is requested and its waiting for a menu choice
- all Navigator chat feedback uses Whisper mode, so you need to be within 10m to hear it
Browsing Notes
==========
- When matching links Navigator scores both on how many words are matched, and what
percentage that is of the words in the link - so for longer links you may need to match
more words than a shorter link if it doesn't have many unique words
- Page Not Found (404) errors can confuse the Navigator - just say "back" to go back to the
previous page and try another link
- If you think an image might be a link then since Navigator handles "Alt" tags you might
be able ot guess the ALT tag name and follow the link
Media
====
Since the Navigator uses the SL media stream you can only use one on each parcel.
Navigator supports two media modes:
- Direct: This is the conventional way of handling media. It means that the Navigator
directly sets the media stream for the parcel. In order to do this it MUST be owned by the
same avatar as the land itself. If the land is group land it would have to be deeded to the
group. The only issue with the latter is that because the Navigator is copyable we have
also made it non-transferable (otherwise you could distribute your own copies). So for
Group land please use the Relay mode.
- Relay: We use this a lot as it means we don't have to deed scripts we are working on!
Just rez the Media Relay pyramid (free with Navigator) and tuck it out of sight on your
parcel within chat range of the Navigator. Deed the Relay to your group (if you want you
can also change its texture to the parcel media texture but this is not essential). Then
use the "toggle media" command on the Navigator to set it into relay mode. It will then
"say" each URL on the media channel (-63342 - i.e. MEDIA on a phone keypad) which the relay
will hear and then set the media stream appropriately. The say "home" (or any url ending
with .html) to force the parcel MIME type to html not video.
Limitations
=======
Whilst Daden Navigator is a great step forward it is still not a 100% capable web browser.
Its limitations come from two areas:
- Second Life Web Page on a Prim: We use this feature of SL in order to display each web
page. This means we cannot control how each individual web page will be rendered. For
instance at the moment (July 08, SL V1.19) SL does not render Flash, YouTube or play media
and cannot scroll up and down on a page, or fill out forms - so we can't do these with
Daden Navigator.
- To follow links we use our proxy to retrieve the web page you are looking at and parse
the HTML to identity the links on the page. However if the links are embedded in Flash, or
use complex Javascript, or are images without ALT tags then we cannot find them. In fact
Daden Navigator behaves very similarly to the talking browsers and screen-readers used by
visually impaired users - so sites with good accessibility (eg WAI AAA) should work well,
whereas those with poor accessibility will not (just note how many sites have lots of links
called "more" or "click here" or just as images - they are a real pain for screen-reader
users - and now for you). We've always said that accessibility was important!
The simplest work-around to both of these is to use the "popout" command to put the
displayed page into your SL client or desktop web browser.
Reasonable and Acceptable Use, and Privacy
============================
Daden Navigator is subject to a Reasonable and Acceptable Use policy. This is mainly
driven by the fact that it uses a proxy on our servers to operate - that is how we find the
links you need. That does require us to place three conditions of use:
- Daden Navigator may only be used to look at lawful content. We don't want our proxy to be
used to fetch illegal content - defined by illegal in the UK, USA and where you are.
- Whilst the Navigator is copyable this is mainly to give you protection against accidental
deletion or stack heap memory crashes. Whilst we're happy for you to have a couple of
Navigators running on your land large number of copies (particularly if they are in
concurrent use) are not acceptable - please contact us for our volume pricing.
- Every link fetch eats up our bandwidth, we have to get the whole web page to match the
link you want. Whilst we are happy to support reasonable use of the system by a reasonable
numbers of SL residents if either of those parameters became excessive we may be faced
with excessive bandwith costs - in which case we may introduce a tiered service fee, or
even an ad supported model (of course we hope that Linden Lab sorts out proper on-prim
browsing before then!).
In order to help manage both these situations we capture the avatar name/id and location of
link request made (and of course the to/from URLs associated with that link request). This
data will only be used by us to support and manage the operation of this service.
PRO Version
=======
Coming soon, Daden Navigator Pro with support for a bookmarks notecard, owner
configuration, different chat channels and chat prefixes and more....
Join the Daden Navigator User Group to find out more.
Corporate Version
===========
For corporate users we also licence the proxy server that drives Daden Navigator. This will
not only speed response times for your users but it will also allow them to access your
Intranet pages from within Second Life. We can also build in bespoke features to better
support your employees. Please contact us for details.
Support, Suggestions, Bug Reporting
=======================
If you have any support question, product improvement suggestions, or wish to report a bug
(other than browser/page limitations described in Limitations above) then please email
support@daden.co.uk and include [Daden Navigator] in the subject line.
Why not join the Daden Navigator User Group on SL so you can help other users, and also
receive product update information.
About Daden
========
Daden Limited is full service virtual world consultancy. We offer services in 4 broad
areas:
- Inform: Letting businesses and organisations know what virtual worlds are all about - and
this includes worlds other than Second Life
- Involve: Getting organisations involved in virtual worlds, whether its creating bespoke
devices, or doing multi-sim builds
- Integrate: Integrating RL and VW data and systems, and in both directions. For instance
we have a demo system which displays real-time aircraft tracking data in SL, and we have
also brought Google Maps into SL
- Interact: Creating chatbot controlled avatars in SL to act as virtual receptionists and
customer service assistants, and providing other systems to support avatar relationship
management
Our RL clients include 6 UK universities, global brands from several sectors, SMEs and
charities/social sector organisations.
Visit us at Daden Prime (landmark included in the distribution box)
or on the web at http://www.daden.co.uk (why not use Navigator now!)
You can contact Daden in SL by IM'ing Corro Moseley or ImmortalitySou Ballinger, or
emailing info@daden.co.uk.
