Grid Related Problems
Recently, we have noticed xml-rpc calls failing more often or taking longer to respond from the Second Life grid. Shop OnRez relies on xml-rpc to notify dropboxes about sales (xml-rpc is a method of initiating communication from outside Second Life to objects inside Second Life). While we don’t rely on xml-rpc for transmitting data, we do use it to initiate contact from our servers to in-world objects.
The result of the xml-rpc slowdowns is an increase in delivery failures. If you purchase items on the web, your money is automatically refunded to you. You can check the status of your purchases at http://shop.onrez.com/transaction/purchases/.
Failed deliveries from purchases made at in-world vendors are currently not automatically refunded. We are working on improving this system, but for now it must be handled manually. Buyers, please contact sellers if your item is not delivered. Sellers, you can verify that a purchase failed by checking your sales transaction history at http://shop.onrez.com/transaction/sales/. A sale marked as void means the item was not delivered. We are currently working on updating the transaction history display so you can see if sales came from the web or from in-world vendors. We apologize for the inconvenience and will be posting more on this issue.
We have also seen issues reported about SL’s transaction history being slow to update, which is causing confusion around vendor purchases. We have no had confirmation from Linden Lab on this issue, but it would be prudent to allow extra time for payments in-world to show up.
As always, if you have any comments or problems, please report them at http://support.onrez.com.
November 6th, 2007 01:13
Please, please, please don’t say that you released your drop-box software *without* a backup comms method — the scripting community has known about the problems with XML-RPC for over a year … the word on the street is that the Lindens will be removing it within the next 4-6 months.
Point 2: why, why, why can’t we have *backup* drop boxes -> SLexchange’s technology is far neater, allowing you to place identical inventory into different drop boxes, avoiding the problem of a failed delivery if a sim goes down. Not exactly rocket science, but since you have built your inventory database to identify objects by UUID, not name, you’ve rather shot yourself in the foot here.
I suggest a v2 drop-box should be your top priority, pronto, as not only are deliveries failing left, right and centre, but drop-boxes are regularly being disabled by the website and flagged as “uncontactable”.
November 6th, 2007 08:35
Johnny, our dropboxes do have multiple means of communication that can be tuned remotely. We will have an update on our end today that will improve reliability without requiring all OnRez sellers to upgrade their dropboxes. There will also be an optional dropbox upgrade that will make it easier for sellers to get their dropbox back online in case of a disconnect.
As for backup dropboxes, there is nothing inherent to our architecture that prevents us from creating them. I will add that feature request.
I assure you that improving reliability is our #1 priority right now. Thank you for your feedback.
November 6th, 2007 10:00
Hi Becky/Digi,
Good to hear it (and sorry for the grumble, it’s just a blasted nuisance having boxes constantly disconnect themselves).
As for the database side of things, hope you can do that -> your main inventory database is still keyed to UUID (probably due to the architecture you inherited from the SLB days … from memory, that was indexed by UUID … moral: design a database structure in hurry, repent at leisure). The UUID keying can be demonstrated by taking an object into inventory, copying it, dropping both copies into a drop box and uploading. Both have the same key, so only one will appear in the inventory list on the website. Not impossible to re-engineer so you’re identifying inventory by name, not key, but it will require some SQL replumbing and folks to change/upgrade their boxes inworld. (While you’re replumbing, you might want to optimize some of your indexing, which also appears to be getting slower as your d/b size has grown).
Good luck with it all! Working with SL is always a challenge. (And thanks for the reply).
JJ
November 6th, 2007 10:27
Thanks for the encouragement, Johnny. I want to clarify that we don’t identify items exclusively by their UUID. In the situation you described, the 2 items are identical even though the names are different, so we don’t store the duplicate from that dropbox.
November 7th, 2007 11:38
[…] Grid Related Problems Recently, we have noticed xml-rpc calls failing more often or taking longer to respond from the Second Life grid. Shop OnRez relies on xml-rpc to notify dropboxes about sales (xml-rpc is a method of initiating communication from outside Second Life to objects inside Second Life). While we don’t rely on xml-rpc for transmitting data, we do use it to initiate contact from our servers to in-world objects. […]
November 8th, 2007 11:51
[…] Yesterday, we updated the delivery system on Shop to combat Second Life’s recent high rate of xml-rpc communication failures. Since then, deliveries have been drastically more reliable. […]