Communications

These are functions and events that allow scripts to communicate with users, other scripts, and with scripts and programs running on computers outside SL. Depending on what you're trying to do, you may have some leeway when choosing which methods to use. When faced with a choice, these benchmarks can demonstrate the performance differences of one method over another.

Chat llDialog llListen llListenControl llListenRemove llOwnerSay llRegionSay llSay llShout llWhisper Event: listen Cryptography llBase64ToString llMD5String llStringToBase64 llXorBase64StringsCorrect llXorBase64Strings llModPow Email llEmail llGetNextEmail Event: email

Instant Messaging llInstantMessage Link Messages llMessageLinked Event: link_message Text llSetSitText llSetText llSetTouchText XML-RPC llCloseRemoteDataChannel llOpenRemoteDataChannel llRemoteDataReply llRemoteDataSetRegion llSendRemoteData Event: remote_data HTTP llHTTPRequest llLoadURL llEscapeURL llUnescapeURL Event: http_response

Method	Script Delay	Object owner	Other users	Other prims	Scripts in the same prim	Send to computers outside SL	Receive from outside SL	Maximum Payload (characters)	Comment
Chat: Whisper, Say, Shout	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	1023	Must be within chat distance to be able to receive.
Chat: llRegionSay	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	1023	Simwide, does not work on channel 0.
llOwnerSay	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	1023	Owner must be in the same sim.
llDialog Create	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	512	Only the directed user can receive and they must be in the sim.
llDialog Response	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	1023	Receiver must be within chat distance of where the dialog box was created.
Instant Messages	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	1023
Link Messages	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	limited only by memory (~8000 max. in practical use)	Only scripts contained within a given linked object may receive.
Email	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	1000	link messages are better for intra-object communication.
XML-RPC	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	255 + one 32-bit integer	Only connections from an external computer to SL can be initiated.
HTTP	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	2048	Only connections from SL to a non-Linden Lab server can be initiated. You must have a script on external server (whether in PHP or MySQL or *CGI) to process the GET or POST data sent by llHTTPRequest()

There are also several alternatives to these methods of communication, but they have a limited number of uses.

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Functions | Events | Chat | Email | XML-RPC