I need it cause I want to be able to track the reference when/if the player drops it (being for instance able to disable it, even if in a cell the player is not).
Is it possible at all ?
player.additem does not seem to work

As soon as any object enters the players inventory, its reference ID is no longer valid. An inventory object which is flagged as persistent will only work until that object is picked up. Once in a container, it is controlled under that container's inventory. Once dropped, it has a new ID. When scripting with inventory objects you should always assume a non-permanence for ALL references to that object. If a script tries to use an invalid reference, it will usually crash the game.

You may instead want to track the container that the object is in rather than the object itself and hope that nobody will be dropping it on a shelf somewhere for the game to eat up.

bold is mineHmmm - I know this to be true for dynamic items - that is why I don't want to use player.additem which will create an FFxxxxxx formid when the item is dropped and no id when in inventory. I am rather sure though that a mod placed item (not placed in a container, but in the open) would retain its formid http://cs.gamesas.com/constwiki/index.php/Modding_Terminology
Problem is it is a book - otherwise I'd use myRef.activate player and be happy.
Are you sure the formid when dropped would change (for a mod-placed, not in a container, item) ? Persistence is not about this - it is about having access to item via script.

I'll actually test it |<- blinks
EDIT: tested - the formID stays the same

Yes, items placed in the render windows (non-dynamic) keep their original FormID when dropped. Whether they are persistent or not. I am afraid Vagrant0 was mistaken, this time.

To move it from the world to the player, you may, first, move it to an NPC with "MyBookRef.Activate MyNPC 1" and script the book to transfer itself to the player if it finds itself in the NPC inventory. Something like "if getcontainer == MyNPC" then "RemoveMe player"

A more generic way is to script the book to take actions based on some quest variables, so you can 'command' the book from other scripts by setting the quest variable to the proper value. Like: set the var to 1 to make the book transfer itself to the player, set it to 2 to make the book drop itself from the player and MoveTo to a hidden cell (after a couple of frames), etc.

Great, thanks - MyBookRef.Activate MyNPC 1 will do the trick - I hope the npc will actually grab it - then MyNPC.removeallitems player should do the job (and no spam).
If I ever finish this you will be in the credits I think
As for the quest variables - not needed for my purposes - I only need the player to get the book (via quest script) and then he may do as he pleases. I only do all this so if the PC drops it and some conditions are met I can replace it with the other version - so I needed it to be a persistent reference.
Thanks - will be testing this.

		UDUNTomeApprenticeREF.activate UDUNnpcContainerREF 1		UDUNnpcContainerREF.removeallitems player

in the quest script.

@QQuix

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=33522. BUT I want to let you know that this method of activating a persistent reference and handing it over to the player uncovers an Oblivion bug : the reference movement is not recorded properly so if the player drops it in an exterior moves to an interior and calls pcb/reloads the game the reference disappears completely from the game world. The only way to get it back is :

PRID moveto playerdisableenable

It is an oblivion bug according to scruggs who provided this workaround (and was kind enough to test the bug for me which was putting my sanity into risk as I could not figure out was was going wrong lol)
just to let you know

Hi, utumno. Thanks for the feedback.
Do you have any more details of what you did to trigger the bug?

I am trying to reproduce it the way you describe, and the book is always there when I come back outside.

I had a conversation with scruggsywuggsy the ferret who is reading the thread actually - and who pointed out it is actually a bug
If you can PM me your email I can send you a test esp/ess demonstrating the bug

hey scruggsy - you also in the credits naturally

Quite a mystery . . .

I activated your esp, loaded your save, did as you said and, true enough, the book was gone.
Then I added a similar esp with a book of mine, tried and "puff" - both books were gone
I added a token that prints the book position, cell and worldspace every frame and noticed that, as soon as I do a pcb, the cell and WS data get zeroed. Same effect if I walk away far enough for the book cell to get unloaded.

Then I loaded a clean save of mine and, surprise!, the books did not disappear. Yours or mine. Tried it a couple of times. Same result.
Then I tried with my oldest save, just before exiting the prison sewers. No dice. The books did not disappear.

Then I tried again with your save and, lo and behold!!, the books DID NOT disappear!
Now, no matter how many times I try, the bug is gone! The books do not disappear anymore. PCB or game load.
I must clarify that, except for a few changes in my code, the only difference from run to run was the savegame selected. Every time starting Oblivion anew.

Quite a mystery . . .

So can it be something in the ess ? But what ?

What could possibly have "cured" the save game ?

Btw - you do know that printc "%i" rVar prints 0 if the record stored in rVar is not in memory - even if rVar != 0 - I don't know if this is corrected/has changed in OBSE 18
I use - I spent the whole morning searching for the code I use to print the formid as string but no luck - I hate this
EDIT: found it - grrr:
let str := sv_construct "%i" rVar ; not sure now if it will do the trick though

I really cannot imagine what may be in a save that might cause this.

My only guess, as the missing cell seems to be caused by the cell unloading process, is that the bug might be triggered by some particular circumstances of the available memory (which may change from run to run).

In the previous post, I forgot to mention that, when the book disappears, "BookRef.Activate Player 1" and "BookRef.Activate NPCref 1" also work to recover it.

Yes activate is very strong - stronger than prid etc process - works even on dead non respawning garbage collected actors who are persistent references.

Anyway I do not remember if I added that the disappearance only happens to an exterior. If you drop the book in the sewers - all is clear.
Hope I didn't waste your time with this - it was too clear from the links I gave to my discussion with scruggsy - but I realized no such info was in my readme

Thanks again

Probably the problem only occur when the persistent reference lays on an exterior cell.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1097191-relz-oblivion-script-extender-obse-0018/page__view__findpost__p__16127530, interior cells are never completely unloaded ('something' always remains in memory)

It is always good to know the pitfalls of Oblivion modding. Sooner or later, this knowledge will be helpful.
Thanks for the heads up. I will add a note to the WIKI Drop page.

Thank you
Still when one quits everything gets unloaded - even then IIRC the book does disappear - this does not count apparently
anyway your report on loading various saves and the bug disappearing is ... Quite a mystery