OpenSim Helpers, the library at the core of the w4os plugin, finally has proper installation instructions — and its own website: https://opensimulator-helpers.dev/. This was long overdue.
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
.mdfiles (e.g.,README.mdas homepage, others likeINSTALLATION.md,TROUBLESHOOTING.md,CHANGELOG.mdadded 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.
(Original post on W4OS – Read More)
