How objects get setup with basic class configuration information

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This is a proposal for how we should setup basic configuration for objects. It's mostly already implemented in some form or another, but I'd need to clean things up and make them easier to use if we decide to go ahead with what I'm suggesting here - Edmund

[edit] How objects get setup with basic configuration information

Some information, like the URL of the Sloodle server and the authentication code that needs to be used when that server is contacted, needs to be held by all Sloodle objects.

Other information, like the ID of the course an object is being used for, needs to be held by a lot of different objects.

There are four ways of getting this information into an object:

• a) Configure it in a notecard in each object.
• b) Have the object go through a dialog-based process with an user with sufficient privileges in Moodle.
• c) Hard-code this information in a script.
• d) Be given the information by an object which has already got it using one of the methods above. (Especially applicable when an object rezzes another object).

To allow us to make all scripts full-perms, we should stop using (c).

(a) and (b) are both useful in different situations. As we haven't really come to any conclusions about the main use-cases Sloodle is addresses, we should make objects work easily with (a), (b) and (d).

To do this, we should separate the process for getting this key configuration information from the scripts that actually provide substantial functionality (eg. the chat script, the quiz script, etc).

[TO DISCUSS: Does the benefit we get from doing this justify the complexity involved? Is there a better way?]

If the sloodle server, object authentication code or course ID is not set, the main script should wait for a linked message from another script. [TO DISCUSS: Are we better off with one script to handle all this configuration stuff, or one for each method?]

The configuration script(s) will do the following:

• If there's a notecard called sloodle_config containing the information it needs, use that.
• If there's no notecard but it was passed an integer start_param parameter when rezzed, it should wait for a neighbouring object to use the first 4 digits of that parameter to identify itself, then get configuration information from it. [TODO: Write up how this works]
• If there's no notecard and no start_param parameter, it should ask the user. [TODO: Write up how this works]

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