2018 WW: EDU: Cybalounge tutorial: Web senders to open web pages

Cybalounge tutorial: 

Web senders to open web pages
Updated 2/15/2018

Cybalounge: How to make a sign that opens another browser page, allowing your web-world to provide any information that is available on the web.

Settings to make the object 

a web-sender

• A web-sender is an object that, on click, opens a specific web-page in the browser. 
• In virtual worlds, web-senders are used to open pages with requested information.
• In an educational or library context, a web-sender would open informative pages.
• This kind of event assignment probably works with any object. 
• But is most likely to be used with a texture or a HTML page prim.
• HTML page prim: Put the web in your web-world

Web-worlds

• CybaLOUNGE is a user-built 3D virtual world running in a browser
• You get a free world when you register at Cybalounge
• How to start building in Cybalounge, a roadmap for beginners 
• Cybalounge is ready for virtual worlders to use: Tutorials and suggestions
• Web-worldz is a professionally-built web-world.

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Why use a web-sender?

• Commercial:  Send people to your web site.
• Promotional:  Send people to your web announcement or blog.
• Educational:  Send people to a source of relevant information.
• Nonprofit:  Send people to relevant web pages.
• Grid:  Send people to grid site, blogs, and community pages.
• OS community:  Send people to blogs and community pages.
• Content creator: Send people to your market page.
• Fashion designer:  Send people to your blog.

Advantages of a web-sender

• Over a HTML page prim: low load
• One limit established in my Cybalounge web-world: 8-12 web-pages
• A web page takes time to load.  Several of them will slow the opening.
• I will limit my use to one or two HTML pages per world. 
• Over in-person links: web senders are there when I am not.
• When I am there, I can give web links in chat.  They go live and clickable.
• But if there is a web sender, I don't have to find links.

How to make a web sender in Cybalounge

• Get an image that tells the story of the contents you are pointing to.
• We of the social virtual worlds already know how to do that.  
• Since I will be linking to some of my blog posts, I use a different method:
• Open the web page and activate Jing.
• Select a square part of the page that includes the title.
• Copy that. It will be .png, not what I want in a web page.
• A .png takes more bits than needed.  I always reduce  them to .jpg.
• I edit the image in The Gimp.  
• I need to resize it.
• To be easy for Cybalounge, I make it truly square and a power of 2.
• So I resize to 512 by 512. Then I export to .jpg

I drag/drop into my Cybalounge world and set the event I want

• I put my avatar in roughly the place where I want the image to go.
• I drop the image file on the Cybalounge screen and the image appears.
• It is a plane with the image on it.    
• I can adjust the place and resize the object if I want:
• How to start building in Cybalounge, a roadmap for beginners 

Avatar in place for Drag and Drop 

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After Drag and Drop, the object 

appears at the avatar position

I set the event I want

• I set the event to open a web page.
• To  turn on the building mode, I click on the crossed tools (bottom line)
• I then click the image object to select it. 
• I can see when it is selected because a light grey film appears over it.
• And its menu appears at the right of the screen.
• I give it a name I can remember in inventory.
• I click events to get the event menu.
• I set the trigger event to Click, and the action to be Url.
• I provide the Url to open.
• And make sure popup us not checked.  
• It will open in a new browser page, not a popup

Settings for the web sender

The page I put in

• I put in a summary page about using Cybalounge:
• Cybalounge is ready for virtual worlders to use: Tutorials and suggestions
• Advantage: My blog.  I can post summary pages specifically for a web world.

That new avatar I have on

• We are testing drag/drop avatars.  Dieter made this avie and sent me a DD file.
• It worked!  Not fast.  More than 30 seconds, I think, before something happened. 
• And I had to go to my world to be in a place where I was allowed to make changes.
• We will probably need a progress bar.  
• And maybe an if test that by-passes the place permissions for avatars.
• But it works well for an initial test.
• What DragNDrop for web-worlds means for inventories

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License

• Original text in this blog is CC By: unless specified public domain
• Use as you please with attribution: link to the original.
• All images without attribution in this blog are CC0: public domain.

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If you are interested in web-worlds...

• Drop by my web office.
• My office times:  Weekdays: 12: -12:30 Central time  (US) 
• Maybe weekends, too.  Other times by appointment. 
• My web office: Cybalounge.
• Don't register -- enter as guest.  If you don't see me:
• Click the pointed pushpin on the bottom line 
• See if I am in Selby's room.. 
• We can also visit WebWorldz, a professionally-built world if you want. 
• Thinkerer Melville in Second Life, Selby Evans in Kitely
• A web page you can walk into
• Try a browser-based virtual world
• Cybalounge is ready for virtual worlders to use: Tutorials and suggestions