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The rental box is the heart of the hippoRENT system. It sits on a piece of land and allows tenants to rent, keeps track of their payments, warns them if they’re about to run out of time, counts prims and keeps you briefed and up to date on a rental. It is important that you take the time to learn what it can do for you and the various ways it can be configured.

The rental box is fully modable: it can be shaped, textured and linked to be part of other things (if so, you may want to stop it moving, resizing, or retexturing itself when it’s rented — see below). What you must not do, however, is rename or delete any of the scripts inside it, as this can cause it to malfunction or even stop working entirely. It is also important that you do not change the prim description of the rental box object — the scripts use the description to “hard save” tenancy data to protect against data loss if, for example, the sim crashes in a major way. Changing the description text can cause loss of tenancy information.

This document describes three things:

1. Every possible option you can specify in the configuration notecard
2. All the menu commands provided by the box
3. The voice commands that boxes understand
4. Other useful information

1. Configuring a Rental Box using the Configuration Notecard

Editing the notecard inside the rental box called “Configuration Notecard" allows you to control dozens of options. When you’ve made changes to your notecard, you MUST TELL THE BOX TO RELOAD IT. Do this by clicking the box and choosing “Reset" from the menu that appears. If you’ve typed any wrong commands, errors will be reported as the notecard is loaded. (One further note: do not use the ^ or ~ symbols anywhere in the configuration notecard settings, this will cause problems).

Note that you can edit the notecard and reset the box EVEN WHEN THE BOX IS RENTED, since tenant details are saved in “permanent" memory that can survive resetting, sim crashes, earthquakes etc.

Each command the notecard can use is listed below (note that the default card does not include every command added at the start). Commands can be inserted ANYWHERE in the notecard, the order is not important --- just ensure you only include one command per line. You can also // to prefix comments, e.g. // Must remember to delete this later. (Comments must also go on their own line, they cannot share a line with a command). Remember, too, that you don’t need to include every command in a given configuration notecard, just the ones you wish to utilise: hence for speed you can use a much shortened notecard. My advice is to experiment and see just what you can do.

A rental box can also be instructed to load a configuration notecard *from the server* --- why might this be useful? Because it allows you to have one notecard control multiple rental boxes: thus if you have a dozen boxes, all set up the same way, this avoids you having to change twelve notecards whenever you decide, for example, to change the display text colour. For details of how remote notecards work, see the last section of the Server Guide.

NAME: <text>
e.g. NAME: Seaside Beach Hunt #1
- The name of the rental box appears in lists accessible on the server and in messages to you from the vendor. So pick a name that will help you distinguish this box/plot of land from your others.
* For advanced users: If you wish to simply have the box use the name of the box object you’ve rezzed, use NAME: <object> (include the < and >). Each time you rename the box object, you can now simply click it to have it’s virtual name, as it were, update accordingly.

SERVER KEY: <key>
e.g. SERVER KEY: c0f26c89-71d2-7537-a7e3-495c3cc0b336
- If you’re using the server to monitor multiple rental boxes, insert its key here so that the rental box can talk to it. (You can get it by clicking your server and choosing “Server Key”.)
* For Advanced Users: You can grab a rental box (or vendor’s ) server key from a web page. To do this, put the text [HIPPORENT SERVER KEY: <key of your server>] e.g. [HIPPORENT SERVER KEY: 2040de8d-f19c-b066-8272-a486f45c3e09] somewhere on the web page (it needs to be in the first 2,000 characters, due to Second Life limits). Then in your rental box or vendor’s configuration notecard, use SERVER KEY: <web page> e.g. SERVER KEY: http://www.myblog.com/myrentalkey.php ... Why is this useful? It means if you accidentally delete and have to re-rez your server you can just change the web page, rather than have to wander round and edit dozens of configuration notecards. How do I make my boxes reload themselves ... simply use the CHECK FOR NEW SERVER KEY EVERY: <time in seconds> configuration command; e.g. CHECK FOR NEW SERVER KEY EVERY: 3600 to check once an hour.

PASSWORD: <text>
e.g. PASSWORD: lemmingsurprise
- Provide a password to protect network traffic between boxes, servers and vendors. It is theoretically possible if you have no password for a clever hacker to send messages to your server and cause mischief. However, use a password and this becomes impossible and the network 100% secure. Make sure you set EXACTLY the same password in each rental box, server and vendor otherwise communication will fail and you’ll get an error message. Passwords are case sensitive, so ‘lemming’ is not the same as ‘Lemming’.

PICTURE: <texture/snapshot name>
e.g. PICTURE: Example Picture
- The vendor, if you plan to use that, can only display properties where the rental box has a picture to show. Add an image (texture or snapshot) to the rental box’s inventory and type (don’t drag a link to it) its name in this configuration line to tell the server which picture to send to each of your vendors for this property.
* For Advanced Users: You can hold the picture remotely, on the server to which the rental box is connected, should you wish to. To do this, put “(remote)" before the picture name (and make sure, of course, you add the picture to your server’s inventory, or you’ll confuse your customers!) e.g. PICTURE: (remote) Level 1 Flat. (If you change the picture on the server, remember you’ll need to reset any rental boxes using that picture in order to reflect the changes). Please note, if you’re using the web-enabled version of hippoRENT, you should use a web-enabled server to hold pictures rather than trying to use the (remote) tag to load them — which won’t work on the web-enabled version.
* More For Advanced Users: The picture can also be specified by key rather than name, if you prefer; e.g. PICTURE: 163b5ca3-2786-af19-c090-cc94addb1c5a. Remember, you can get a snapshot or texture’s key from your own inventory by right-clicking it and choosing ’Copy Asset UUID’ to copy it the clipboard.

PICTURE KEY: <key of picture>
e.g. PICTURE KEY: b1870733-4755-7c1e-c8a0-a636e73f9e07
- An alternative way to set the rental box’s picture (see above) by providing its key.

PRICE PER WEEK: <amount>
e.g. PRICE PER WEEK: 50
- Set the rental price per week in L$

You can also choose to rent, if you wish, by the day or by the month. To do this, don’t use PRICE PER WEEK, instead use something like:

PRICE PER DAY: 25
or
PRICE PER MONTH: 5000

* For advanced users: If you wish, you can set the price in US dollars and the rental box will contact Lindex and work out the price, based on the day’s average prices. To do this, use e.g.: PRICE PER WEEK: $0.5 or e.g. PRICE PER MONTH: $75. If you’re using the dollar option, there are some further configuration notecard options below you might like to explore.

Dollar Price Options ...

DEFAULT EXCHANGE RATE: <amount of Linden>
e.g. DEFAULT EXCHANGE RATE: 270
- Set the default amount of Linden to the US$ used if, for any reason, the rental box cannot make contact with the Lindex exchange.

CHECK LINDEX EVERY: <time in seconds>
e.g. CHECK LINDEX EVERY: 3600
- Specify how often you would like the rental box to check with Lindex for the average price per dollar. The default is every 3600 seconds (one hour).

EXCHANGE RATE ADJUSTMENT: <percentage>
e.g. EXCHANGE RATE ADJUSTMENT: 10%
- The markup (or down, you can use negative values) to apply to the rental price once it’s been converted using the exchange rate from Lindex. The default value is 3.5% markup, since this is the commission that Linden Labs charges on converting L$ to US$ when taking money offworld.

* For Advanced Users Only:
LINDEX SCRUBBER: <url>
e.g. LINDEX SCRUBBER: http://www.iamasmartypants.com/conversion.php
- If you’d prefer to write your own data scrubber to provide a live US$ to L$ price, you can use this command to tell the rental box the web page to load to find it. If you wish to do this, your page must contain the text [Exchange Rate: <amount>], e.g. [Exchange Rate: 300]. If this is missing, the lookup will fail and the default exchange rate will be used.

MIN WEEKS: <value>
e.g. MIN WEEKS: 1
- Set the minimum rental period tenants are allowed to pay for.
* For Advanced Users: The rental box considers the minimum you specify here applies to *payments*, so if you use MIN WEEKS: 3 a tenant must pay for *at least* 3 weeks *each time they pay*. You can, if you prefer, have the minimum period apply not to payments but to the *contract length* --- on this model, once a tenant has first paid for the minimum period, they can top their rent up in smaller amounts. To switch to this model of payment handling, insert the command MIN TYPE: 0 anywhere into your rental box’s configuration notecard.

MAX WEEKS: <value>
e.g. MAX WEEKS: 4
- Set the maximum rental period tenants are allowed to rent.

Note: if you’re renting in units other than a week, we’d advise using MIN DAYS/MAX DAYS or MIN MONTHS/MAX MONTHS to make things clearer. The rental box doesn’t mind which you use as it’s the PRICE PER ... setting (see above) that determines what unit of time the rental box sells. For clarity, however, we recommend sticking to days/weeks/months throughout your configuration card.

MONTH BY DATE MODE: <Yes/No>
e.g. MONTH BY DATE MODE: Yes
- If you’re running a monthly rental (or tier) operation, this mode avoids you having to mentally turn days into dates; instead the box will work on the basis of a tenant’s rent/tier falling due on the same day each month (e.g. the 28th of every month). To find out more about this mode and how it works, click here.

PAYMENT BY PROXY: <Yes/No>
e.g. PAYMENT BY PROXY: Yes
- If you turn this on, somebody else can pay rent for the tenant. They’ll be warned that any money they pay will be crediting another person’s rent, so accidents are unlikely. This is useful if you have tenants who sometimes have be logged off for long periods of time --- they can then ask any of their friends to pay their rent for them.

PRIMS: <value>
e.g. PRIMS: 7
- Specify how many prims the plot comes with. Once you have done this, you can use the prim counting options below, if you wish.

PRIM WARNING IMS: <neither/both/tenant/landlord>
e.g. PRIM WARNING IMS: Tenant
- Tells the rental box whom to alert via instant message if the prim limit (see above) is exceeded; you can IM either the tenant, or the landlord, or both, or nobody.

PRIM WARNING EVERY: <time in days>
e.g. PRIM WARNING EVERY: 3
- Informs the rental box how often to send any prim warning messages.

PRIM WARNING MESSAGE: <text>
- The default prim warning message simply tells the tenant they are over their prim count and by how many. If you wish to personalise this message, then you can use this command to specify some text to append to the instant message.

PRIM COUNT: <none/all/group/tenant>
e.g. PRIM COUNT: Group
- Which type of prims should the box count and send warnings based on? If you choose ’none’, then no prim counting will happen. Otherwise you can select to count prims set to the same group as the parcel of land the box is on, all prims on the land, or prims owned by the tenant. Note that the server shows all three counts if prim counting is happening; this command is simply so the box knows which figure to send warning IMs based on. (For example, in a mall you might not want the box counting the walls and roof; so you’d ask it to count prims set to the tenant). Please note that using values other than none, all, group or tenant will give the “Bad command format" error.
* For Advanced Users: If you want to count individual tenant prims and the box is running on land deeded to or owned by a group, you may need to use the Networked Prim Counter included with hippoRENT v5 in order to get accurate prim counts (it can be copied and deeded to the land group). For details, see the notecard inside the Networked Prim Counter, or visit this page.

PRIMS SUBTRACT: <number>
e.g. PRIMS SUBTRACT: 10
- This will subtract the number shown from any prims counted on the land before it decides whether to report prim violations by the tenant. This is useful if you want to rent land with a house already on it, for example. So if you’re renting out a parcel of land with 250 prims on it, but 50 of those are the house and only 200 for the tenant, use: PRIMS: 200/ PRIM COUNT: All / PRIMS SUBTRACT: 50 ... to get perfect results (obviously putting those commands in the example on separate lines of the notecard).

IGNORE PRIMS OWNED BY: <avatar key>
e.g. IGNORE PRIMS OWNED BY: db088ef5-dc65-4c03-9c55-9965c5a7fe95
- Similar to the command above, but this tells the rental box to subtract/ignore any prims on the parcel owned by the avatar with a given key.

PRIM COUNT OFFSET: <vector>
* For Advanced Users only! If you wish the rental box to count the prims on a parcel *other* than the one it is sitting on (perhaps all your rental boxes sit in a rental office and the tenant’s land is elsewhere) you can tell the rental box *where* to count using this command. So e.g. PRIM COUNT OFFSET: <10, 0, 0> to count on the parcel 10m along the x axis from the rental box. If you prefer to specify a position in absolute SL coordinates, prefix the vector with an !, so e.g. PRIM COUNT OFFSET: !<100, 200, 40>. Most users will never need to use this command, but we have occasionally been asked for it. Please note, you need the appropriate rights on any land you want to get prim counts for.

RENEWAL NOTICE DAYS BEFORE: <value>
e.g. RENEWAL NOTICE DAYS BEFORE: 3
- Inform the rental box how many days before a rental expires the tenant should be instant messaged and warned the end of their tenancy is approaching.
* Advanced Tip (v5.5 and above): a rental box can also give a notecard as well as send a warning IM when the tenant is near to the end of their tenancy (or runs into arrears). Simply add a notecard called "Expiry Warning" to the rental box and that will be given each time the IM is sent.

SEND RENEWAL NOTICE: <Yes/No>
e.g. SEND RENEWAL NOTICE: Yes
- Specify if you wish to send instant messages to tenants to remind them when their rental is about to expire, when they have less than the number of days specified above on their rental period.

EVICT AFTER DAYS IN ARREARS: <value>
e.g. EVICT AFTER DAYS IN ARREARS: 3
- Set how many days can a tenant go into arrears before they are automatically evicted. Note the box will track a “negative" rental period, so if they go into arrears by one day, then pay for six, their rental period will be -1 + 6 = 5.

IN ARREARS OTHERS CAN RENT: <Yes/No>
e.g. IN ARREARS OTHERS CAN RENT: Yes
- If set to “Yes”, a new tenant may rent the box when the current tenant is in arrears. If this option is turned on, the rental box’s hovertext will include a message to this effect.

IM ON PAYMENT: <Yes/No>
e.g. IM ON PAYMENT: Yes
- Specify whether you would like to receive an instant message whenever the rental box is paid (or the tenant leaves).

ALSO IM: <list of recipient keys>
e.g. ALSO IM: db089ef5-dc75-4c03-4c55-9965c5a7fe94
- If you wish the rental box to send IMs to a second person when the rental box is paid (or the tenant leaves), use this command. You can specify multiple recipients here by separating them with commas (e.g. ALSO IM: db089ef5-dc75-4c03-4c55-9965c5a7fe94, cb08aef5-de75-4c03-4c55-9966c5a7fe9). If you need help getting somebody’s Second Life “key", see the SCAN voice command later in this notecard. Please make sure any keys you enter are accurate, or you could cause the rental box to experience problems.

INCLUDE SLURL WITH IMS: <Yes/No>
e.g. INCLUDE SLURL WITH IMS: Yes
- If you set this to “Yes”, any IMs from the box (to tenants, or to you) will include an SLurl (a web-like-link you can simply click in your Second Life chat history window to open the Second Life map and show the location of the rental box.) Potentially a great time saver!

IM OWNER EVEN IF OFFLINE: <Yes/No>
e.g. IM OWNER EVEN IF OFFLINE: No
- If you set this to “No", then the rental box will check you are online before sending any instant message.

EMAIL ON PAYMENT: <Yes/No>
e.g. EMAIL ON PAYMENT: Yes
- Specify if you would like an email sent to your real world email address (which you can specify below) when the box is paid or a tenant evicted.

EMAIL: <email address>
e.g. EMAIL: pathfinderlinden@ilovecats.com
- Provides the email address to which messages will be sent if you use EMAIL ON PAYMENT: Yes. You may specify multiple addresses by simply separating them with commas (e.g. EMAIL: bob@hmmmtoast.com, liza@neednewhat.co.uk). Don’t get too carried away with loads of email addresses, three or four is about the maximum due to the time penalty SL places on a script each time it uses an email.

HOVERTEXT RENTER NAME: <Yes/No>
e.g. HOVERTEXT RENTER NAME: Yes
- Specify if you wish to display the tenant’s name in hovertext over the box when it is rented.

HOVERTEXT DAYS REMAINING: <Yes/No>
e.g. HOVERTEXT DAYS REMAINING: Yes
- Specify if the box should display the days left on the current rental when it is rented.

HOVERTEXT PRIM COUNT: <Yes/No>
e.g. HOVERTEXT PRIM COUNT: Yes
- If you have prim counting turned on (see above), you can opt to have the prim count displayed above the box when it is rented. Note the prim count update every two hours, to avoid lag. See also the caveats about when prim counting can be unreliable, due to Second Life bugs.

AVAILABLE HOVERTEXT: <text>
e.g. AVAILABLE HOVERTEXT: Pay me to rent, click for more info.
- Sets the hovertext which is shown above the box when it is in its unrented state. Note, you can force a new line in this message by using the | character, but be aware that the box can only display 5 lines of text in total.

SHOW PRICE AND PRIMS WHEN AVAILABLE: <Yes/No>
e.g. SHOW PRICE AND PRIMS WHEN AVAILABLE: Yes
- Specify whether you would like the box to also display the price and prims on offer in hovertext when it is not rented.

HOVERTEXT PRICE: <Yes/No> (v5.5 and later only)
e.g. HOVERTEXT PRICE: No
- If you’ve turned on ‘SHOW PRICE AND PRIMS WHEN AVAILABLE’, you can “fine tune" it by individually turning the price and/or prims display on or off (by default, both on). This command lets you turn the price display off (or on again).

HOVERTEXT PRIMS: <Yes/No> (v5.5 and later only)
e.g. HOVERTEXT PRIMS: No
- As above, but for the number of prims available.

HOVERTEXT COLOUR: <colour>
e.g. HOVERTEXT COLOUR: red
- Sets the colour to use for hovertext; the box knows the colour names red, green, yellow, blue, pink, black, white.
* For advanced users: You can also use a colour vector instead, e.g. HOVERTEXT COLOUR: <0.4, 0.3, 0.2>. To read about how colour vectors work in Second Life, see e.g http://rpgstats.com/wiki/index.php?title=Color or search at forums.secondlife.com for advice.

HOVERTEXT RENTAL NAME: <Yes/No>
e.g. HOVERTEXT RENTAL NAME: Yes
- Include the rental box name in the floating text over the box.

HIDE ALL HOVERTEXT: <Yes/No>
e.g. HIDE ALL HOVERTEXT: Yes
- Override any other settings and show no hovertext at all. (To reverse this, use HIDE ALL HOVERTEXT: No in the Configuration Notecard).

AUTO HIDE HOVERTEXT: <Yes/No>
e.g. AUTO HIDE HOVERTEXT: Yes
If set to “Yes”, then the hovertext aboveon a rental box only appear when the box is touched: it'll vanish again 15 seconds later. This can be useful if you’d prefer a clean looking location without hovertext everywhere!

CHANGE SIZE ON RENT: <Yes/No>
e.g. CHANGE SIZE ON RENT: Yes
- Specifies whether the box should change size when it is rented. The default is, like most Second Life rental boxes, “yes”.

RENTED SIZE: <vector>
e.g. RENTED SIZE: <0.35, 0.35, 0.35>
- Sets the box size when rented. Note that an unrented box can be any shape or size of prim you like, it doesn’t need to be a cube. When it is rented, it will remember how it looks and change to a cube (unless you’ve turned off shape changing, see below). Once it becomes unrented, it will flip back to whatever shape and size you had before.

CHANGE SHAPE ON RENT: <Yes/No>
e.g. CHANGE SHAPE ON RENT: Yes
- Determines whether the rental box should change shape (to a cube) when rented. If you want to create clever, funky rental designs, e.g. a billboard, you may wish to turn this option off.

MOVEMENT ON RENT: <vector>
e.g. MOVEMENT ON RENT: <0, 0, 2>
- Specify how the box should move when it is rented. And, of course, it will peform the reverse of this when it falls unrented again. If you want it stay still, use <0, 0, 0>.
* For Advanced Users: See here for details of how to move a rented box or how to make a box’s movement work by absolute rather than relative coordinates.

PHANTOM ON RENT: <Yes/No>
e.g. PHANTOM ON RENT: No
- Should the box become phantom on rent? This can be a useful function because you can set the box to entirely fill, say, a market stall as a solid when not rented, but then become phantom and a non-hindrance when rented.

ALPHA ON RENT: <value between 0 and 1>
e.g. ALPHA ON RENT: 1.0
- Specify how transparent the rental box should turn when rented. Rememeber, 0 is totally invisible and 1 is totally solid.

AVAILABLE SIZE: <vector>
e.g. AVAILABLE SIZE: <1.4, 1.4, 1.4>
- Should something like a sim crash cause the rental box to “forget" how you’d made it look in its unrented state, it will default to a cube and the size you specify here when it becomes unrented.

STANDARD TEXTURE: <texture name>
e.g. STANDARD TEXTURE: Rental Texture 1
- Which texture should the rental box used when not rented? The texture you specify must exist in the box inventory, so make sure you’ve copied it there.
* For Advanced Users: The texture can also be specified by key rather than name, if you prefer; e.g. STANDARD TEXTURE: 163b5ca3-2786-af19-c090-cc94addb1c5a. Remember, you can get a snapshot or texture’s key from your own inventory by right-clicking it and choosing ’Copy Asset UUID’ to copy it the clipboard.

CHANGE TEXTURE ON RENT: <Yes/No>
e.g. CHANGE TEXTURE ON RENT: Yes
- Should the box retexture itself when rented?

RENTED TEXTURE: <texture name>
e.g. RENTED TEXTURE: Rental Texture 2
- Which texture should the rental box used when rented? The texture you specify must exist in the box inventory, so make sure you’ve copied it there.
* For Advanced Users: The texture can also be specified by key rather than name, if you prefer; e.g. RENTED TEXTURE: 163b5ca3-2786-af19-c090-cc94addb1c5a. Remember, you can get a snapshot or texture’s key from your own inventory by right-clicking it and choosing ’Copy Asset UUID’ to copy it the clipboard.

FACE TO CHANGE: <prim face number or -1 for all faces>
e.g. FACE TO CHANGE: -1
- By default, the texture changes you specify above get applied to every side of the prim. But if want to do something more clever, you can change this number to have just a single texture face change when the box is rented or becomes unrented again. If you want all faces to change texture, just use -1 as in the example.

NOTECARD NAME: <notecard name>
e.g. NOTECARD NAME: Example Description
- Provides the name of the information notecard given to enquirers. This notecard should be added by you to the rental box inventory. It is also given to enquirers who click the vendor, if you’re using that.
* For Advanced Users: You can hold the information notecard remotely, on the server to which the rental box is connected, should you wish to. To do this, put “(remote)" before the notecard name (and make sure, of course, you add the notecard to your server’s inventory, or you’ll confuse your customers!) e.g. NOTECARD NAME: (remote) My Generic Rental Info. (The notecard is fetched from the server when it’s needed, so if you make any changes to the notecard on the server they will instantly become ’live’.) Please note, if you’re using the web-enabled version of hippoRENT, you should use a web-enabled server to hold notecards rather than trying to use the (remote) tag to load them — which won’t work on the web-enabled version.

* TIP: If you’d like the rental box to give a landmark to people who click it (directly or via a vendor), just drop a landmark into its inventory. It will give out the first landmark, alphabetically, that it finds at the same time as its information notecard.

TENANT NOTECARD NAME: <notecard name>
e.g. TENANT NOTECARD NAME: Guide for Renters
- If you wish, you can specify the name of a notecard to give only to TENANTS when they’ve actually successfully rented a property. It should, of course, be added to your rental box inventory.
* For Advanced Users: You can hold the tenant notecard remotely, on the server to which the rental box is connected, should you wish to. To do this, put “(remote)" before the tenant notecard name (and make sure, of course, you add the notecard to your server’s inventory, or you’ll confuse your customers!) e.g. TENANT NOTECARD NAME: (remote) Acme Rental Company Tenant Info. (The notecard is fetched from the server when it’s needed, so if you make any changes to the notecard on the server they will instantly become ’live’.) Please note, if you’re using the web-enabled version of hippoRENT, you should use a web-enabled server to hold notecards rather than trying to use the (remote) tag to load them — which won’t work on the web-enabled version.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS: <Yes/No>
e.g. TERMS AND CONDITIONS: No
- If you set this to yes, tenants will have to agree (via a dialog menu) to any terms and conditions you have specified in the information notecard before their rental is accepted. If they refuse, their rental will be rejected and their payment refunded. This helps avoid the situation with an awkward tenant saying “I didn’t know I couldn’t set up a 100 foot high rotating model of Philip Linden in my garden” ... that sort of thing.

URL ON RENT:<web address>
e.g. URL ON RENT: http://www.hippo-technologies.co.uk/
- If you specify a web address here, the tenant will be asked if they wish to visit that web page when they first rent. Note that Second Life is very fussy about web addresses, so ensure you use the http:// prefix properly - if in doubt, copy and paste the full url out of your web browser.

URL ON RENT MESSAGE: <text>
e.g. URL ON RENT MESSAGE: Look at this great website!
- If you specify a web address above, the message here will be shown in the dialog box Second Life offers your tenant asking if they wish to visit the website.

DISCOUNT PAY AT LEAST: <number>
e.g. DISCOUNT PAY AT LEAST: 10
- If you wish to offer tenants a discount for paying for large chunks of time in one go, specify the minimum number of weeks (or days, if you are renting by the day) they must pay for at once to qualify.
* For Advanced Users: You can also use DISCOUNT PAY AT LEAST: Group which will, instead of checking the number of days, offer a discount to members of the same group that the rental box is set to.

DISCOUNT PERCENTAGE: <percentage>
e.g. DISCOUNT PERCENTAGE: 5%
- The percentage discount you want to offer. This should be combined with the above command. So, for example, if you wished to give a 10% discount for tenants renting at least four weeks in one go, you’d use DISCOUNT PAY AT LEAST: 4 and DISCOUNT PERCENTAGE: 10%.
* Important Note: If you’ve allowed automatic refunds to tenants, be sure your surcharge covers any discount the tenant may have gained; the automatic refunder does not factor in any discounts.

RENTAL DETAILS CONFIDENTIAL
e.g. RENTAL DETAILS CONFIDENTIAL: Yes
- When somebody clicks a rented box, if they are not the tenant they will be told some basic details about the rental: price per week, prim limits etc. This command governs what they will be told about the tenant. If you set RENTAL DETAILS CONFIDENTIAL: No then the enquirer will also be told the tenant name and the time left on their tenancy. If you’d prefer non-tenants not to be able to access this, then set this option to ’Yes’.

REPORT ACTUAL END DATE: <Yes/No> (v5.5 and above only)
e.g. REPORT ACTUAL END DATE: Yes
- Set this to “Yes” and when the tenant pays a box, or clicks it to get the status of their tenancy, the box will attempt to calculate the Second Life date and time that the tenancy will end. This can help remind a tenant to write the date in red, heavily underlined, in their diary!

TENANT CAN EDIT PARTNER: <Yes/No> (v5.5 and above only)
e.g. TENANT CAN EDIT PARTNER: Yes
- If you turn this option on, when a tenant clicks their rental box, their tenant menu will now contain a "Partner" button. They can click this to get to a further menu which will let them add (or remove, if they have one) a partner. This saves them having to contact you whenever they change their partner (in the drama-filled world of Second Life, often more often than many people change their socks ...)

REFUNDS: <Yes/No>
e.g. REFUNDS: Yes
- Specify whether you wish tenants to be able to end their rentals early by clicking the rental box and choosing “Refund" from the tenant’s menu.

REFUND IF DAYS AT LEAST: <value>
e.g. REFUND IF DAYS AT LEAST: 6
- Specifies how many days of rent the tenant must have in credit to be allowed to get an automatic refund.

REFUND SURCHARGE: <value or percentage>
e.g. REFUND SURCHARGE: 10%
e.g. REFUND SURCHARGE: 50
- Sets the surcharge you wish to apply to a tenant who ends their tenancy early. You may specify either a percentage (e.g. 10%) or an amount of L$ (e.g. 50). Thus if the rental price is L$70 a week, the tenant has 5 days left, and you set the surcharge to 25%, an early termination will result in a refund of ((70 / 7) * 5) = L$50 less a surcharge of L$12 so L$38 in total.
* Important Note: If you’ve got discounting turned on (see above) as well as automatic refunds, be sure that your refund surcharge covers any discount the tenant may have gained; the automatic refunder does not factor in any discounts.

SHARE RENT WITH: <avatar key> (percentage) {name}
e.g. SHARE RENT WITH: 0e9fd382-7f9b-4ea4-8cb8-4228747b04bc (15%) Pathfinder Linden
e.g. SHARE RENT WITH: 2f4ab342-4a9c-5fc4-943c-4918737c19ad (10%)
- If you wish to share rental box income with friends, specify the percentage share here along with the key of the friend you’ll be paying and, if you wish, their name. (This last part can be omitted if you wish). You can get the key of your friend in many ways, including the “SCAN" voice command (see below). Note, if you wish to share rent with a second, third, fourth ... etc ... person, just add a new SHARE RENT WITH line for each person. The rental box won’t let you share more than 100% of the rent, for obvious reasons; if you try, you’ll get an error message.

OTHER MANAGERS: <names>
e.g. OTHER MANAGERS: Kermit Frog, Miss Piggy, Pathfinder Linden
- If you’d like other managers to be able to use the menu and voice commands, list each name here, separated by a comma. Note that if you wish your managers to be able to edit the configuration notecard, then this requires you you to edit Second Life settings (e.g. modification rights). However, to reload a configuration notecard, a manager needs to be included here so they can use the box’s “Reset” command.

(v5 only) LOCK ON END: <Yes/No>
e.g. LOCK ON END: Yes
- Tells the rental box to lock itself when the current tenancy ends. (You can also use a voice command to set this). To remove this again, just click the box, choose “Voice Cmd” and type LOCK ON END: No.

REPORT LOCATION: region name and coordinates
e.g. REPORT LOCATION: Rodeo (75, 50, 23)
If you wish, the rental box can report an alternative location to the server and vendor than the actual spot it’s sitting at. This is useful if you want to put all of your rental boxes in a rental office, away from the actual spots they’re renting, for example. The server will then list this as the box location as will the vendor, which will also show it on the map when the “SHOW ON MAP" button is touched.
* Tip: If you forget where your rental box actually is located, use a voice command from the server to get it to give you a notecard. (Second Life reports the location of an object when it gives you an item).

DISABLE REGION SAY: <Yes/No>
e.g. DISABLE REGION SAY: Yes
- Rental boxes, vendors and servers in the same region will communicate by chat (well, llRegionSay() to be precise) as well as email, making communication more effective when Second Life is being slow and sticky (which never happens, huh?) There is a very, very small performance hit for this, as devices need to maintain a listener. If you don't wish to take advantage of this and would prefer to kill the listener script, use DISABLE REGION SAY: Yes to turn it off.

(v5 only) REPORT INVALID EMAIL DETAIL: <Yes/No>
e.g. REPORT INVALID EMAIL DETAIL: Yes
- Turn this on and the details of any object (e.g. server, vendor) that tries to email your box and which has the wrong password set in its Configuration Notecard will have details reported on it to you; e.g. “hippoRENT Box 5.0: @ Hippo Technologies (186, 128, 500) reports: email received with a password that does not match mine ('mypassword') ... Object-Name: hippoRENT Vendor Box 5.0 w/plugin; Object-Location: Pax Hipponia (23, 42, 31)”.
See here for more details.

(v5 and above only) RESTRICT TO GROUP: <Yes/No>
e.g. RESTRICT TO GROUP: Yes
- If set to “Yes", then only people who are members of the same Second Life group as the rental box (and who have that group active) will be able to pay the box at any time.

(v5 and above only) MUST BE IN GROUP TO RENEW: <Yes/No>
e.g. MUST BE IN GROUP TO RENEW: Yes
- If set to “Yes", then only people who are members of the same Second Life group as the rental box (and who have that group active) will be able to pay the box to renew their tenancy. This is useful if you invite new tenants to your group after they’ve made their first payment (RESTRICT TO GROUP, above, would prevent them renting in the first place.)

The next five configuration options allow you to customize the messages that are spoken or instant messaged to tenants:

WELCOME MESSAGE: <text>
e.g. WELCOME MESSAGE: Welcome to Acme Rentals. Enjoy your stay!
- This message is spoken when a new tenant begins their rental.

RENEWAL MESSAGE: <text>
e.g. RENEWAL MESSAGE: Please come and top up your rent soon!
- Sent by IM when the end of the rental is approaching and the tenant is asked to renew.

REMOVAL MESSAGE: <text>
e.g. REMOVAL MESSAGE: Questions about why your rental has been terminated? Drop the landlord an IM.
- The message sent by IM if you terminate a tenant’s rental period early.

TAKEN OVER MESSAGE: <text>
e.g. TAKEN OVER MESSAGE: A new person has now commenced renting and you have been evicted. Please remove your objects.
- Sent when a new person has rented a box when the current renter was in arrears.

IMMINENT EVICTION MESSAGE: <text>
e.g. IMMINENT EVICTION MESSAGE: If you wish to continue renting, please come and pay your rent as soon as possible.
- Sent if a tenant has gone into arrears (if you’ve allowed this).

To reiterate: these message configuration commands are optional, the rental box sends an entirely self-explanatory message in each case. These options simply allow you to append your own custom text to those IMs if you wish.

Finally, those of you using the rental system to manage land and tier, you can change the language that the box uses so it’s more appropriate to tier payments and estate management. The default box has this command:

TERMINOLOGY: Landlord, Tenant, Rent, Rental, Plot, Rental box

This determines the language used in menus and messages. If you were managing an estate and people were paying for land/tier, you might use something like this instead:

TERMINOLOGY: Estate Owner, Land Owner, Tier, Contract, Land parcel, Tier management box.

As you can see, each word/phrase should start with a capital letter. The terminology you choose gets used in most messages and menus throughout, allowing you to more easily customise a hippoVEND box to what it is you’re renting/leasing/hiring/collecting money for.

A final note for advanced users: There is one last notecard command, LOAD REMOTE: <name> {FROM <vendor key>} which allows you to load a configuration notecard remotely. How this works is detailed in the Server and Router Guide guide.

2. Menu Commands

STATUS
Tells you the current status of the rental box, from rental price and prims, to details of the current tenancy and tenant if there is one.

NOTECARD
Gives you a copy of the rental box’s information notecard(s). A good way to test you haven’t made any mistakes with this.

PAYMENTS
Allows you to view the list of the last 15 payments (and refunds, if there are any). You can also reset the payment history from the sub-menu that appears, should you wish to.

EDIT
Edit the name of the tenant and the tenancy length if you wish. Simply follow the instructions that will appear.

REMOVE
Remove the current tenant. A sub-menu will appear offering “Boot”, which boots them with no refund, “Silent Boot” which does the same (but doesn’t IM them to tell them) and “Refund”. The latter option then asks you to choose whether to refund the whole days or weeks outstanding on the rental and will tell you exactly how much this will be before the tenant is removed and refunded. (Any refund surcharge you have specified (see above) will be taken account of).

LOCK (and UNLOCK)
Locks the box so it can’t be paid. Useful if you wish a tenant to leave at the end of their tenancy and not renew. When the box is in its locked state, this menu item changes to UNLOCK. The box will display it’s locked status in hovertext. (Note: you can also use the voice command (see below) ‘LOCK ON END’ to have a rental box lock itself automatically once the current tenancy ends).
* For Advanced Users: A rental box can apply a special texture when it is locked; it will use any texture it finds in its inventory called “Locked”. So to customize the box, replace the default “Locked" texture with one of your own (or to disable this feature, remove the texture entirely).

RESERVE
Allows you to reserve the rental box so that only the person of your choice can rent it. Follow the instructions that will appear to provide the name. You may also type GROUP instead of the name to reserve for members of the same group as that to which the box is set.
* Useful Tip: Version 5.5 boxes (and above) can change their texture when they’re available and reserved. Simply add a texture called “Reserved” to the box’s contents and the box will apply it when appropriate.

UNRESERVE
Removes a reservation if you have set on

SHARING
If you’ve elected (via the configuration notecard) to share rent with friends, this menu option will all list the people you are sharing with and how much they are getting.

RESET
Resets the box and reloads the configuration notecard. Please note that any configuration options you have set via voice command (see below) will be lost as the options loaded from the notecard will overwrite them. You should use this command after making changes to the configuration notecard to ensure they are loaded and applied.

MESSAGE (v5.0 and above only)
Send a message to a tenant and/or partner; simply type message followed by what you want to send (e.g. message Hello, how are you?). There are lots more options, see this page for more details.

TIME <hh:mm:ss> (or TIME dd:hh:mm:ss)
(v5.0 and above only) e.g. TIME 20:40:32
e.g. TIME 12:19:30:00
- Set the length of the current tenancy *to the second*.
* To change the time part of the tenancy and leave the days outstanding alone, simply leave off the days part of the input and just enter hours:minutes:seconds; eg. to set the time to 11 hours, 30 minutes and 45 seconds, type time 11:30:45.
* To change just the days part of the tenancy, use the length voice command instead; e.g. to set 10 days, click the box, choose “Voice Cmd” and type length 10.

SET END DAY <1-31>
(v5.0 and above only) e.g. SET END DAY 14
- If your box is running in “month by date” contract mode, then you can use this voice command to set the day of the month on which the rental ends (or the months in credit counter is decremented, if they have more than 1 month in credit).e.g. TIME 12:19:30:00
- Set the length of the current tenancy *to the second*.
* To change the time part of the tenancy and leave the days outstanding alone, simply leave off the days part of the input and just enter hours:minutes:seconds; eg. to set the time to 11 hours, 30 minutes and 45 seconds, type time 11:30:45.

VOICE CMD
Listen for a voice command (see below). The rental box will stop listening after 60 seconds (or when it hears a command), in order to reduce lag.

HELP
Shows the first of the information notecards and offers to connect you to the Hippo Technologies web site (www.hippo-technologies.co.uk) where there will soon be a growing collection of information and resources.

3. Voice Commands

To issue a voice command, click the rental box and choose “Voice Cmd”. To begin with, you can type any configuration notecard command:

e.g. PRICE PER WEEK: 175

If all is well, the vendor will respond with the message “Ok."

Please note that resetting the box and reloading its configuration notecard will overwrite any configuration settings you have put in by voice command. Therefore settings you wish to hold permanently (especially server keys or passwords) are best kept up to date in the configuration notecard itself.

There are also several other commands you can type. Voice commands are not case sensitive, so ‘Server Key’ and ‘SERVER KEY’ will work equally well.

PARTNER <name>
e.g. PARTNER Jim Jones
- Add a partner to the tenancy. To remove them, use PARTNER none. (After adding a partner, the rental box will then try to automatically find their Second Life “key", needed to e.g. send them IMs ... if it can't, the box will grab it next time the partner touches or pays the box).
* Useful Tip: You can now include a partner’s name in the Configuration Notecard (e.g. PARTNER: Frodo Baggins or PARTNER: None) if you wish to, as well as using the voice command method.

TENANT MENU
To see the menu the tenant will see when they click their rental box, use this voice command. (Only works if the box is currently rented!)

SCAN
Displays a list of up to 16 avatars standing within 10m of the box and their keys. Useful if you need somebody’s key for rent sharing. (The server also has this feature).

PRIM COUNTS
Display the number of prims on this parcel owned by anybody, by the group who the land it set to and, if you have the necessary SL rights, the tenant.

PRIM OWNERS
Displays a list of the key of each person who owns prims on this parcel of land (and how many). Only works if you have the necessary SL rights — and the Lindens have some bug fixing work to do, so you may occasionally get odd quirks.

SEND PRIM WARNING NOW
Forces the rental box to send a prim warning IM now (if prim counting is turned on, the prim count requires it, and you’ve specified IMs to be sent).

SHOW FREE
Report the number of “free” days on this tenancy. Free days are exactly that -- days you’ve given free to the tenant which he or she cannot claim refunds for.

SET FREE <number of days>
e.g. SET FREE 7
Sets the number of free days. Once you’ve set them, the rental box will automatically decrement them over time until they are at 0 and the tenant is back onto normal “paid" for time.
* NOTE: Setting free days like this does not increase the rental time, it only tells the box how much of the current rental period is free and non-refundable. To change the actual rental period use the LENGTH command below.

CLEAR FREE
Sets the free days counter to 0.

GIVE <part of notecard or picture name>
e.g. GIVE config to get a copy of the box’s configuration notecard
If you want to examine some of the contents of the rental box, this is a quicker way to do it than editing it and examining things via the contents tab (although if you want to make and save changes, you’ll need to use the contents tab). You can also use GIVE NOTECARDS or GIVE PICTURES to see a copy of every notecard or every picture in the box.

SERVER KEY
Reports the server key currently known by the rental box. Useful if you’re error checking network problems.

BOX KEY
Displays the key of the rental box itself.

LOAD <box data>
Loads a new box with the tenancy details of an old one. The parameters must be the contents of the old box’s prim description field which you have copied. Thus the command will look something like this:

LOAD Pathfinder Linden^12^2006-12-14^37982^0e9fd382-7f9b-4ea4-8cb8-4228747b04bc^0

Important Note: If you’re loading details from a version 2 box, use LOAD OLD instead, as the data needs a slightly adjustment to the way time is tracked in version 3. So, e.g.

LOAD OLD Pathfinder Linden^12^2006-12-14^37982^0e9fd382-7f9b-4ea4-8cb8-4228747b04bc^0

PING SERVER
Forces the rental box to send an update of its status to the server (or website, if you’re using the web-enabled plugin).

LOCK
Locks the rental box so it cannot be paid.
* For Advanced Users: A rental box can apply a special texture when it is locked; it will use any texture it finds in its inventory called “Locked”. So to customize the box, replace the default “Locked" texture with one of your own (or to disable this feature, remove the texture entirely).

LOCK ON END
Tells the rental box to lock itself once the current tenant leaves (it won't stop them paying to extend their tenancy, but as soon as they actually leave, the box will lock to prevent a new tenant renting). You can also use LOCK ON END: Yes in the configuration notecard to “bake" this setting into a rental box.

UNLOCK
Unlocks the rental box so it can be paid as normal.

BOOT
Boots the current tenant with no refund.

SILENT BOOT
Boots the current tenant with no refund and no IM to them to tell them their tenancy has ended. It can be useful it you need to temporarily remove a tenant from a box, for example.

EXCHANGE RATE
Contacts the Lindex Exchange and report the current exchange rate (number of L$ to US$1).

RESET
Resets the rental box and reloads its configuration notecard. (Any options you have set using voice commands will get overwritten).

HARD RESET
- Performs a system level reset of the rental box and its scripts. Only the owner can issue this command as it will require granting debit permissions again.

RESERVE <name>
e.g. RESERVE Frodo Baggins
Reserves the box for the person you specify. Please note, you must type their name exactly as it appears in Second Life, so ‘bob penguineater’ is not the same as ‘Bob Penguineater’.

UNRESERVE
Clear any reservation from the rental box.

RESERVATION LENGTH <number of days>
Set the length of a reservation (you need to provide a reservation name before using this command). After that number of days have elapsed, the reservation will be cleared so that anybody can rent. Note, to keep the reservation but remove the days counter, use RESERVATION LENGTH 0.

SET RENTED POS
If you wish to precisely position the rented position for your box, simply ensure it is in its rented state (you can rent it yourself if necessary), move it to where you want it, then type this voice command. The box will work out the “movement on rent” and memorise it for future use.
* For Advanced Users: If you prefer to use absolute rather than relative positioning for whatever reason, you can type SET RENTED POS! to do this.

REMOVE <name or part of name>
Remove the person specified from the list of people the rental box is sharing rent with. (You can also use UNSHARE instead of REMOVE). To remove all people you are sharing with, use REMOVE ALL.

REFUND DAYS
Refunds the tenant for the whole days left on their tenancy. No refund surcharge is taken account of (use the menu command instead if you wish to).

REFUND WEEKS
Refunds the tenant for the whole weeks left on their tenancy (use the menu command instead if you wish to).

REFUND MONTHS
Refunds the tenant for the whole weeks left on their tenancy (use the menu command instead if you wish to).

TENANT <name>
e.g. TENANT Arthur Dent
Set the name of the tenant of the rental to box to that which you specify. (The rental box will then try to automatically find the new tenant’s Second Life “key", needed to e.g. send them IMs ... if it can't, the box will grab it next time the tenant touches or pays the box).

LENGTH <time in days>
e.g. LENGTH 42
Sets the length of the rental period to the number of days you’ve specified.
* For Advanced Users: You can set the length in various ways, so all of these will work: LENGTH 12; LENGTH +3; LENGTH -4; LENGTH +20%; LENGTH -15%; LENGTH 50%.

PARTNER <name>
e.g. PARTNER Pathfinder Linden
Adds a second tenant to a rental box, who will be able to pay, click to get the tenant menu, have their prims counted (if you’re using PRIM COUNT: Tenant mode) and receive warning IMs about aspects of the tenancy. This is useful if a couple are renting a property, for example. Please note they won’t get IMs until they either touch or pay the box (so it has their key). Please also note the partner name/key is not “hard saved” like the main tenant, so if you take the box into inventory and re-rez it, or the sim crashes spectacularly, it may have to be re-entered. You can remove a partner with the PARTNER REMOVE voice command. The server will list partner names and you can also send a “partner” command from the server.

PRICE <price in L$>
e.g. PRICE 200
Adjusts the price a box is charging. (Note this command doesn’t change the unit (day/week/month), for that use e.g. PRICE PER WEEK: 150.)
* For Advanced Users: You can set the price in various ways, so all of these will work: PRICE 150; PRICE +30; PRICE -40; PRICE +25%; PRICE -15%; PRICE 50%.

RECEIVE and TRANSMIT
These two voice commands allow you to copy the tenancy from a rental box to any other box in the same sim. Simply click the box that is to *receive* the tenancy, choose ‘Voice Cmd’ from the menu and type RECEIVE. Then, within 60 seconds, visit the box that is to send tenancy data and issue a TRANSMIT voice command.

TEST MODE
This will count down one day off the tenancy every 6-7 seconds until the tenancy ends, or you click the box. Useful for testing things like instant message settings ... you can rent the box yourself, for example, click it, choose ‘Voice Cmd’ and type TEST MODE and watch what happens and when.

UNREGISTER
If you’re using a web-enabled rental box, this will remove it from the list of boxes on the website.

VERSION
Reports the current version of the rental box software you are using.


4. Other useful information

Rental boxes can play a sound when a tenancy starts, is extended, or when it ends. Implementing this is extremely easy ...

• Add a sound effect called “sound_tenancy_start" to a rental box’s contents and it will be played whenever a new tenancy starts.
  
  
• Add a sound effect called “sound_tenancy_extend" and this will be played whenever a tenant extends their rental.
  
  
• Add a sound effect called “sound_tenancy_end" and this will be played when a tenancy comes to an end.

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