18 minutes ago, Bad_T said:

yes Al someone already asked for that (or maybe it was you ?, i wrote down the suggestion but not the name of the user who requested it so not sure).

If there was a previous request for a 'Last Preset Applied' informational item that was not from me, and has nothing really to do with my previous Update Preset issue. I just mentioned Update Preset in this regard because it seems to be the only place where you see the current preset's name.

Thanks,

Al

yes that's correct, it's the only place for now. And the other user requested to see if it was possible to see that without having to right click. And also maybe when you launch the application and all your selected addons match with one of your preset it would show the name of the preset. There is room for improvement i guess, just need to find the good ideas to execute them.

47 minutes ago, Bad_T said:

yes that's correct, it's the only place for now. And the other user requested to see if it was possible to see that without having to right click. And also maybe when you launch the application and all your selected addons match with one of your preset it would show the name of the preset. There is room for improvement i guess, just need to find the good ideas to execute them.

Yes, I agree, those sound like very good ideas.

As an intermediate solution, instead of trying to match the existing preset shortcuts in the Community folder against all the saved presets, just saving and displaying the name of the last preset applied, and also displaying the name and applying it (if the user agreed) on AddonsLinker startup, should be easier I would expect. You would have to check that the last applied preset still existed the next time the program was started.

Al

Edited October 31, 20205 yr by ark

Another question please:

Is there a way to load a named preset into the AddOnsLinker upper window, without actually applying it to the sim's Community Folder, so you can just review what is enabled in that preset?

Thanks,

Al

No not in the current version unfortunately. What you see in the list of addons is always what is currently applied.

To review presets maybe there should be a specific screen like i wrote a bit earlier. Would require some work but would certainly make sense.

12 hours ago, Bad_T said:

Maybe there should be a different screen where you can open and update presets without applying them, it would need be a bit more work but maybe that would be more user-friendly.

For you other suggestion 'displaying the last applied preset name' maybe that could be fairly simple, i could show that in a 'status bar' at the bottom or simply in the 'panel header' just next to the text 'Addons'

Will think about all this, but yeah the more i think about it the more some sort of 'preset editor' without the need to apply the preset seems like a good idea. Thank you.

 

Edited November 1, 20205 yr by Bad_T

Hi Bad_T,

Regarding this problem of preset name being directly displayed, here are some suggestions:

- Simple: Append the preset name in the window title of the tool like "MSFS Addon Linker - Preset: <preset name>",

- More work: Add an information field in the upper bar of the tool allowing to see the name of the current preset loaded,

- Best user friendly solution: Add a list box in the upper bar of the tool, the current preset name being displayed in the box and the box containing all the presets names. The user can navigate the list and click on another preset name to load it.

Thanks for this tool again.

Patrice.

 

16 hours ago, Bad_T said:

oh cavaricooper i replied there, did not know you had posted here, let me know if it's not clear enough, here it's a bit easier because i can post pictures if needed.

Followed your suggestion and it worked perfectly!  Thanks for your very useful contribution.

C

thank you for the feedback @cavaricooper. For info, in the next version that column will once again be visible by default.

@patrice_bambou, @hvw, @ark, @Holland_Holland, thank you for your suggestions, just spent a couple of hours to try to improve the presets management.

you'll find a link to the test version below if you want (and dare to touch it 🙃) .. it might still be a bit rough around the edges but it should be useable (if not let me know please, my tests were a bit limited so maybe i missed an obvious bug or something 🙊)

http://www.mediafire.com/file/iwpn1y4fkw75bzt/MSFS_AddonsLinker_TEST_20201101.zip/file

** above is just a link for the udpate EXE, you still need all the other files that come with the official release **

Changes :

• - there is now a little 'presets section' at the bottom of the addons list where you can easily apply/manage your presets without going into the menus (screenshot 1)
• - the preset screens now contains a new edit button that allows you to view/change presets without applying them (screenshot 2)

note : my screens are based on 'test folders' that i use to test the tool so the names of the presets and addons are a bit weird, but it shouldn't matter that much.

if all is fine 🤞, all this will be included in the next official version (maybe i can also add a little 'add preset' button at the bottom). In case of problems with this version, just revert back to the old EXE, both version are 100% compatible.

Thank you.

 

 

Edited November 1, 20205 yr by Bad_T

btw a little notice if you test the new version. Beware of the little save button at the bottom, it has no confirmation messagebox so, as soon as you click it, the preset will be saved. In most case that's very fine but if you click on save and you had the wrong preset selected the wrong one will be replaced without warning 😜. In the final version i'll probably add a confirmation messagebox when clicking on it.

if you want to test you can also backup your existing presets, they are just small little files (you can see their locations in the options screen)

thank you

Edited November 1, 20205 yr by Bad_T

Bad_T,

Gave it a few testshots and so far it is working as advertised, just great 🙂

 

1 hour ago, Bad_T said:

you'll find a link to the test version below if you want (and dare to touch it 🙃) .. it might still be a bit rough around the edges but it should be useable (if not let me know please, my tests were a bit limited so maybe i missed an obvious bug or something 🙊)

http://www.mediafire.com/file/iwpn1y4fkw75bzt/MSFS_AddonsLinker_TEST_20201101.zip/file

I could not get the test program to start. The only file inside the zip file is MSFS AddonsLinker.exe, no dll files. Mediafire shows the download as about 182KB which seems small compared to previous AddonsLinker zip files. 

Al

Edited November 1, 20205 yr by ark

oh @ark, my bad, sorry, i should have mentioned that it's only the updated EXE, you still need all other files that come with the official release.

thanks for the feedback @hvw

 

Edited November 1, 20205 yr by Bad_T

7 minutes ago, Bad_T said:

oh @ark, my bad, sorry, i should have mentioned that it's only the updated EXE, you still need all other files that come with the official release.

thanks for the feedback @hvw

 

😮 😄  Was just about to try that. I got side tracked by the Win10 update!

Al

Hi Bad_T,

I tested the new exe. It is Ok, but on first start the related preset box displays "Select a preset" instead of the previous one that were loaded during a preceding session.

Could this be enhanced? Such an algorithm might be as follows:

A memo is created in the same place as the other settings of the tool.. The memo will contain the name of the las preset used. Initially, the memo is empty.

If during a session, a preset is loaded, store its name in the memo. If the user modifies the preset, erase the preset name in the memo.

If the user updates the current preset with the new links status or create a new one, memo the preset name.

On close, the memo contains either "Nothing" or the last preset name.

On next opening, if a preset name is in memo, load it and display its name in the list box, otherwise load the links and display "Select a preset" in the list box.

Thanks.

Patrice.

.

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Bad_T said:

oh @ark, my bad, sorry, i should have mentioned that it's only the updated EXE, you still need all other files that come with the official release.

I like the improvements you have made in the test program.  I still think it would also be good if the name of the last applied preset could be displayed, including on program startup.

Thanks for all the hard work on this!

Al

Edited November 1, 20205 yr by ark