Following user feedback, we worked hard to make standalone helpers installation more straightforward. As usual, it’s a work in progress, but it’s already a huge improvement.

OpenSim Helpers (formerly Flexible Helpers Scripts) is a collection of web scripts and libraries used alongside an OpenSimulator installation. They’re used by grids or standalone simulators to provide functionalities not included in the OpenSim core, which require a web-side implementation — such as search, financial transactions, and offline message forwarding.

Helpers are bundled with the w4os plugin but are also available as a standalone library, allowing integration into any website, regardless of whether it uses a CMS. In such cases, they’re typically installed in a subfolder, like example.org/helpers.

Optionally, helpers can also be installed independently, alongside a web interface like w4os, to improve performance.

Current features

• In-world search — Search places, land for sale, classifieds, and events from the viewer’s classic search panel
• Currency — Enable transactions like selling land or objects, paying avatars. Can be configured with third-party services like Gloebit or Podex, or even locally. (Even fake currency is required for features like free land sales or group creation.)
• Land tool — Enable parcel transactions (free or paid)
• Offline message forwarding — Forward offline IMs to avatars’ email addresses (requires enabling in viewer settings)
• Destination guide — Support for v3 viewer destination guide

Installation instructions

OpenSim Helpers consist of scripts, some newly written and some initially gathered from various older projects. They’ve been unified to simplify configuration. However, OpenSimulator being what it is, setup can still be tricky — especially without documentation.

That gap is now filled: installation steps are documented in the INSTALLATION.md file. It should offer helpful guidance to users new to the library.

New website

Open source projects are typically hosted on platforms like GitHub — and so is opensim-helpers (https://github.com/magicoli/opensim-helpers). But not all potential users are familiar with those platforms. That’s why we created a simple, dedicated website for the project, focused on the essentials

It’s not fancy. The goal is to keep it clean and simple — without the bells and whistles of GitHub — and avoid the hassle of manual maintenance.

Side note: the website generation tool

Since all key information already exists in the GitHub repository (as Markdown files), we developed a dedicated tool to sync the website directly from the repo. This way, the site stays automatically up to date with the documentation created by developers.

• Generates a static website for performance and minimal server load (pages update regularly via cron)
• Uses Bootstrap for a clean, responsive, lightweight layout
• Creates basic pages from .md files (e.g., README.md as homepage, others like INSTALLATION.md, TROUBLESHOOTING.md, CHANGELOG.md added to the menu)
• Provides a download page (latest stable release and dev install instructions)
• Includes a support page (encouraging use of GitHub issues)
• Offers a donation page (linked to GitHub Sponsors)

The generator itself is also open source and available here: https://github.com/magicoli/php-site-generator.
(It doesn’t have its own website — sooo meta )

Alternatives

As mentioned earlier, OpenSimulator Helpers can be installed as a standalone solution, integrated with a web interface, or used in conjunction with one.

The easiest option is often to install a full-featured web interface, which typically includes the helpers along with tools for user registration, account management, etc. Several interesting projects exist — with or without CMS — notably w4os (of course), OSMW, and Diva:
http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Webinterface

That said, in some cases it makes more sense to run the helpers independently, either for performance reasons or when no interface is needed. Many of the features now included in OpenSim Helpers were once available in separate, often abandoned, projects. While we won’t list them all, we are grateful to the original developers whose work laid the foundation for this library.

Looking Ahead

We’ll keep developing both w4os and opensim-helpers in parallel, ensuring that both the full web interface and standalone backend remain up to date. Some features introduced in w4os and the 2do Directory project will be migrated to the helpers when appropriate. We also plan to reorganize the code to make integration easier across various projects.

About Speculoos World

Speculoos World is a 3D virtual world established in 2011, based on OpenSimulator. It maintains both w4os and opensim-helpers, along with several other OpenSim-related projects. Originally built to meet the needs of the Speculoos grid, they’ve been open-sourced to share with the wider OpenSimulator community.

1. OpenSim setup

We all face the same challenges : getting a fully operational grid, and offer all the features. OpenSimulator core provides the main ones, but not all of them.

You need to install at least a web interface allowing users registration, a web assets server, a couple of helpers and for some, a currency server.

At least half a dozen different applications, each of them from a different project, using different platforms or languages, and even when they use the same language, they use different standards.

2. Graph – OpenSim raw

This is OpenSim « au naturel ».

If you are not familiar with this, nearly each line on this graph requires its own configuration, with its own name conventions when not in its own programming language.

If you are comfortable with this, maybe you should see a doctor.

Some of them even have no implementation at all, only workarounds, like the in-world search, replaced by beacons like OpenSimWorld or the initial HYPEvents project, no viewer integration.

And of course, you need a website, too.

3. And then, they were one…

My first step, years ago, was to consolidate existing helpers and rewrite them to use a single config file. That’s the project « Flexible Helper Scripts ». It is still maintained as a standalone project, in parallel with w4os, as it is in its core.

But it still doesn’t solve the integration with a website.

4. The approach

So here is w4os, a « WordPress interface for OpenSimulator ».

• A one-stop shop for all needs : user registration, grid management, in-world and web helpers.
• Why WordPress ? it’s popular, it’s open source, powerful and multilingual
• Centralized management : no more settings in different places, using different standards, unified installation method
• Easy setup. Well. According to the support requests I got, it’s still not easy enough, though…

5. W4OS plugin structure

W4os plugin centralizes the web interface (registration, initial avatar model, web profile, password change…) and the helpers (in-world search, land sales, classified…) in one place.

It also gives the configs to include in OpenSimulator ini files.

And all of this integrated with the rest of your website, with the same look & feel.

Added comment: w4os in this graph represents the plugin installed on your website, not the website of w4os.org.

4. Avatar registration

The first need is avatar registration. W4os allows users to register an avatar from the website.

Some names can be protected, for example to make sure nobody uses your own name and fake being member of the staff.

Users can choose their initial outfit. You define models by creating and customizing dedicated avatars in-world:

• What they wear will be the appearance of the new user
• Their profile picture will be used on the website for model picking.
• You can define what models are available by a name rule, or select them manually.

The avatar profile displayed in the viewer is also available on the website.

7. Blocks

The big thing in WordPress is the blocks system. It allows you to configure any specific pages, or the template used by all or some pages.

Several widgets are available in the plugin. They are all available either as Gutenberg block (the modern system), shortcodes (available with any theme), or modules for specific themes like Divi.

8. Blocks Examples

Some examples

• Grid info
• Grid status
• Registration form
• Profile page
• Popular places
• Destinations guide
• Web search

9. Splash time

Thanks to the blocks and shortcodes, you can customize your splash page. The page displayed by the viewer as login screen.

I am not particularly proud of Speculoos splash page, it’s a bit busy right there, but that was only my taste a few years ago. It will be easy to switch to a clean display. When I’m decided.

The point is, everything needed is here. I can mix w4os plugin features (the orange grid info boxes on the left, the popular places on the center) with standard WordPress features (the blue latest news on the right). The best of both worlds.

10. Viewer Search

Another fundamental feature is the search. While there are websites dedicated to this, it’s sad not to benefit from the viewer features.

W4os plugin (and more precisely the helpers), allow this. And you can either show results of your own grid, or show results from several grid using the same search engine.

For example by using 2do.directory, but any search engine following the search helper protocol would work.

11. Calendar

The calendar is something I care a lot. It’s integrated, and as for other searches, using 2do.directory or another provider, you can give access not only to your own grid events, but also to other grids.

Added comment: the calendar requires extra steps by design, as publishing an event is neither an OpenSimulator functionality, neither provided by the viewer and not yet by the plugin. Using 2do.directory service allows to share a calendar from a standard service like Google Agenda.

12. Web search

Aside from direct search tabs like “Places” or “Land for sale”, the viewer provides a “web search” tab. The results are provided by the same engine. It allows you to enable search directly through all viewer features, or directly from your website, while maintaining consistency.

13. Destination guide

Destination guide is a small, clean presentation of interesting places, it’s a convenient way to help your members find popular places to go.

The Destination Guide block use the same source format as our in-world Teleport Board project, so you can easy provide the same recommandations in both ways.

14. Most recent features

I always try to enhance the easiness of the plugin. There’s a lot more to do, but it’s getting better every day.

• Different settings pages for each functionality
• Direct link from admin-bar menu
• Detailed instructions everywhere I can
• Localizable
• The plugin itself already includes English and French (frequently revised), as well as Dutch, German, Italian and Portuguese.

15. It’s coming…

And now ? Where are last year’s announced features?

Here is a graph to better understand.

Helpers and web integration are huge. A lot of different things linked together, and each change has implications everywhere. It’s a lot of work for a single person. I am doing my best.

The next thing to come is the separation of avatars and WordPress user accounts, to allow a more flexible approach: either one user/one avatar as currently, or one user/multiple avatars, or avatars managed without required wordpress users.

I work actively on this feature, it will be available in the next weeks and it’s the first step in integrating the features in progress in the Version 3 branch.

16. Thank you

Thank you for your attention.

For more information, you can check:

• https://w4os.org/ the website of the plugin
• https://2do.directory/ the shared search engine and calendar
• Teleport to hop://speculoos.world:8002/lab/ for in-world beacons (2do Events board and the Teleport Board)

Questions from the audience

How secure is connecting WordPress to my grid?

Short answer: as secure as OpenSimulator alone.

The long answer is there: https://w4os.org/security/

Can I put the WordPress website on a different server than OpenSimulator?

Absolutely, as long as it has access to the mysql database

I have already a web interface with my grid, can I use w4os in parallel?

• Most parts of w4os can be enabled or disabled, allowing to use it as a “one shop stop” or complement other integrations. If you need current “fixed” parts to be optional, the best way to ask is to make a request for feature on the issues page of the repository: http://github.com/GuduleLapointe/w4os
• The helpers and 2do Directory are already by design usable independently.

Can I send pictures from in-world to my profile?

• The profile picture used on the web profile page is already fetched from in-world profile
• Thanks to the web assets server, any in-world image can be used in a website, using their UUID.

(somewhat unrelated, but interesting too) What about Joomla interface?

• The Joomla extension for OpenSimulator hasn’t received any update since 2019. Unfortunately, regarding CMS and security, it’s an eternity. I wouldn’t recommend to use any internet solution that old.
• The w4os plugin is modular (and will be even more in v3), and parts of it could be included in Joomla extension, as long as there is a maintainer for this extension (they use very different structures, I am not used to Joomla).
• Particularly, the helpers included in w4os are unaltered code from Flexible Helper Scripts, by design integrable in any other solution.

The 2do project is a set of software solutions for integrating the search for events into a grid, which can be used together or individually. It includes :

• 2do aggregator: the robot that compiles all available event information and converts it into formats that can be used by other components.
• Events parser: the helpers component that integrates 2do aggregator results into in-world searches
• 2do board: an in-world scripted object to present upcoming events, whether or not in-world search is enabled.
• 2do directory: a centralized public directory for sharing events and other search elements (locations, plots for sale, ads) between hypergrid worlds.

The conference was presented in French, with simultaneous translation in 4 languages.

• HIE (Hypergrid International Expo) https://sites.google.com/view/hieopensim/home?authuser=0
• w4os (WordPress interface for OpenSimulator) https://w4os.org
• Flexible Helper Scripts (standalone helpers scripts) https://github.com/GuduleLapointe/flexible_helper_scripts
• 2do directory https://2do.directory

When setting up w4os on a new site, we had trouble finding out why the search was not working with the internal search engine. However, it worked perfectly well using an external engine running exactly the same versions of the libraries. And it works perfectly internally on several public grids that I manage, as well as the test grids created for w4os development.

It’s at times like these that you think “maybe valeting is a better job for me, all I need is to be polite”. Polite? Damn right: protocol!

In the OpenSim.ini file, to use w4os as a search engine, you need to specify its URL (ending with query.php) by adding the GatekeeperURI (the gateway to the grid), with the argument “gk”, to enable a formatted response for the grid making the query. This information is not sent by the viewer, so it must be added to the settings.

[Search]
Module = OpenSimSearch
SearchURL = "http://example.org/helpers/query.php?gk=http://yougrid.org:8002"

In most cases, the GatekeeperURI is identical to the LoginURI. But, according to OpenSimulator standards, it includes the protocol (http://). And the plugin settings didn’t specify this. And the search engine wouldn’t accept any value without the protocol.

Conclusion: there’s a new update for w4os, available now on magiiic.com or on GitHub, and shortly in the WordPress plugins directory.

It fixes the problem in two ways:

1. the helpers settings page now correctly mentions the syntax of the settings to be made in OpenSim.ini
2. the search engine itself now accepts that the GatekeeperURI has no protocol.

The correction has also been made to the search engine library, included in w4os, but also available as a stand-alone solution, Flexible Helpers Scripts.

We understand that configuring and integrating various components can sometimes lead to confusion and challenges. The w4os plugin relies on external components such as OpenSimulator, WordPress, PHP, and MySQL, each with its own intricacies. With this troubleshooting guide, we aim to provide users with clear and practical steps to overcome any obstacles they may face. Our goal is to simplify the troubleshooting process and ensure a smooth experience while using the w4os plugin.

Comprehensive Troubleshooting Checklist: The troubleshooting guide includes a comprehensive checklist that covers important steps to help identify and resolve common problems. While we cannot guarantee a solution for every issue, we hope this checklist will provide valuable guidance.

Empowering Users to Troubleshoot: Our goal is to empower users to troubleshoot and find solutions independently. The troubleshooting guide provides practical suggestions and resources to support your troubleshooting efforts.

Accessing the Troubleshooting Guide: To access the troubleshooting guide, please visit the w4os Troubleshooting Guide available at https://w4os.org/troubleshooting/. Alternatively, you can navigate to the dedicated section in our w4os GitHub repository.

Share Your Experience and Contribute: We value your feedback and contributions to the w4os community. If you have encountered any issues not covered in the guide or have suggestions for improvements, please feel free to share your insights. Together, we can enhance the troubleshooting experience for all users. Visit our w4os GitHub issues page at https://github.com/GuduleLapointe/w4os/issues/ to share your experience and contribute to the community’s knowledge base.

We hope this new troubleshooting guide will be a helpful resource for the w4os community. Thank you for your continued support and participation in our open-source project.

Speculoos World: https://speculoos.world/
w4os: https://w4os.org/
OpenSimulator: http://opensimulator.org

The whole day video is available on YouTube youtube.com/watch?v=sQqa6GmhvIg and this 20″ talk in particular at 3:35:51.

Intro

We created Speculoos World grid 11 years ago (but who’s counting?), and we all faced the same challenges : getting a fully operational grid, and offer all the features. OpenSimulator core provides the main ones, but not all of them.

You need to install at least a web interface allowing users registration, a web assets server, a couple of helpers and for some, a currency server.

At least half a dozen different applications, each of them from a different project, using different platforms or languages, and even when they use the same language, they use different standards.

Some of them even have no implementation at all, only workarounds, like the great OpenSimWorld projects, which replaces in-world search by a beacon linked to a website, or our very own 2do Events project (a fork of Tom Frost’s HYPEvents), which replaces events search by an in-world board.

Oh, and of course, you need a website, too.

The approach

It actually started 6 years ago, as a simple collection of then available helpers, with an unified config file and install script, known as « Flexible helper scripts ». Then, 3 years later, wanted to integrate with the website, so we created w4os, a « WordPress interface for OpenSimulator » plugin, to get a more complete solution.

• Why WordPress ? it’s popular, it’s open source, powerful and multilingual
• A one-stop spot for all needs : user registration, grid management, in-world and web helpers.
• Easy setup. Kind of. Could be easier, we’re working on it.
• Centralized management : no more settings in different places, using different standards, unified installation method

Where were we ?

Last year, when we presented the plugin for the first time in OSCC, it already had a bunch of features. I will not go in detail, the video is still available on YouTube, but essentially

• Avatar registration, with default models, protected names rules, synchronisation between avatars and WordPress users, and a basic web profile

• Blocks, shortcodes and sidebar widgets : Grid status, Grid info and registration form. Blocks on WordPress are cool, they allow you to present some details in the general layout (like in sidebars) or in a specific page (as blocks with Gutenberg or with shortcodes).
• Splash page, customizable with w4os blocks of course, but also with any content from the website or other plugins.
• Web assets server : this is the bridge to allow displaying grid images on a web page
• Offline messages mail redirection

What have we done since then ?

In-world improvements

In-world search was the most missing feature for me. While they are pretty cool workarounds, I find it very frustrating not to be able to use viewer search features. So we did. And with the search result served by w4os plugin, they can also be used in the general website design.

Settings

In the settings, you can choose to use a separate database. The search database use the same scheme as existing search helpers, so it is interchangeable.

The search engine can be shared between several grids, to benefit fom Hypergrid features. Even grids not using w4os can use the search register and search engine (although they would need to install the proper OpenSimSearch dll).

Places

Once search engine is set, inclusion is made from the standard viewer parcel settings. Enable « Show place in search » on your parcel and it will appear in results with its description and snapshot.

Land for sale

Land for sale appears too (assuming « Show place in search » is enabled too)

Classifieds

Classifieds is a very useful tool. While by design it allows only local destination, you can add a secondlife type url for hypergrid destinations.

Events

And of course Events. That’s the most frustrating missing feature. In-world boards are interesting, but there is already a built-in feature for that in the viewer, it’s a pity not to use it.

By design, organizers cannot register events from the viewer. Even in Second Life, events have to be registered from the website. Currently, we rely on 2do Events, which itselfs rely on public calendars, but this is something we’ll talk about later.

Oh one more thing…

The exciting thing is that Events search is compatible with HyperGrid. The viewer doesn’t really understand HG destinations, but we add a working URL above the description. Actually two, because currently, it looks like, depending on the viewer, hop:// or secondlife:// URL will be understood.

And also…

We also added currency support, which currently works with « fake » currencies, Podex and Gloebit (as long as Gloebit works).

The viewer “Buy” option allows an estimation of the costs, and redirect to the vendor region for Podex or the website for Gloebit.

We updated offline messages to messaging v2, to ensure compatibility with current core database standards.

Front-end improvements

Profile

The web profile page now shows more details, skills, partner, language, In-world and RL about text. All those are set from within the viewer

Splash page

The new popular places block can be used in the splash page displayed on viewer login screen. And a click on a destination will change the login landing region.

Login / Registration

There are also several other improvements, like user without existing WP account can log in on the website with their avatar credential.

New registered users will get a page with viewer configuration instructions.

What now?

A few months ago, a grid owner told me he has a grid with several avatars sharing the same email address. While this is not a frequent usage, but nothing prevents to do so in OpenSimulator core. As w4os was developed on the idea that an email can be used only for one avatar, this makes a compatibility issue.

So here we are. Rewriting the code to separate avatars from users. It’s a huge work and I must admit it made me slow down development on other parts of the project. But what would be the point to add new code knowing I would need to rewrite it soon ?

The good thing about it is that it makes me rewrite this multi-years, multi-source code in a more modular way. I expect version 3 to be released in the beginning of 2023 and after that, several exciting feature will be added, like

• KISS : Keep it simple and stupid
  • An easier installation process
  • A plugin setup wizard
  • Split config page (only enabled helpers will have their settings page in the admin menu)
• Admin region control
• Web admin models and technical account list
• Banned users management
• User region and parcels control
• Events registration (with option to allow publish events only for owned parcels)
• 2do Events full integration (including 2do server)

Thank you

I hope you will give it a try and give us feedback. There are a couple of grids using the plugin already and their feedback is really helpful and appreciated.

Some Q&A

Here are some questions asked after the talk, I thought their answer might be of interest:

Will your work continue to be based on WordPress or could you or your colleagues be interested to explore the development of a plugin for Learning Management Systems such as Canvas, Moodle, nad Blackboard?

I tried to keep helpers and WordPress specific code separated, and I will try to do it even better in v3, so deployment in another platform should be, if not easy, at least simplified.

Does the WordPress need to be running on the same machine as OpenSimulator is running?

No, it can be on a différent server, as long as the WordPress host is able to connect to OpenSimulator MySQL server.

Is there anything about data privacy law compiance?

WordPress has ways to handle data privacy pretty well. However, as soon as you connect it to OpenSimulator, OpenSimulator becomes the weak point on this matter. On w4os plugin level, not much more is revealed than in-world (maybe nothing), but some warnings could be displayed in the future.

I once had a registration system for a grid that allowed multiple avatars per login account and people didn’t seem to understand or expect that feature.

Multi-avatars are needed to ensure compatibility with grids already using this feature, but I agree it could be confusing, and I will definitively add an admin option to allow/disallow it for end users.

• tested up to 6.0.1
• added password reset link to profile page
• fix profile picture aspect ratio to 4/3 as in the viewer
• fix password not updated on grid when using password recovery in WordPress
• fixed fatal errors:
  • in helpers with poorly encoded external unicode text sources
  • in helpers when database is not connected
  • with popular-places shortcode
  • if php xml-rpc is not installed (show error notice instead)

Big changes are yet to come, but these were necessary!