Hey guys n gals..

Quick question....   when you change your selection of add-ons in add-on linker, does add-on linker automatically delete and remove the content.xml file and rebuild it, or does it just change the things it has linked to in the community folder and add to content.xml?

I don't use it (yet)  but I have found that the content.xml file still retains old add-ons that have been used but are not still in the community folder, and in one case the lack of an add-on in the community folder, but still included in content.xml caused an issue with loading.  At least, upon deleting content.xml the sim then went ahead happily and built a new one with no issues.

Thanks in advance..  it's just an inquiring minds would like to know question 🙂

Regards

Graham

Edited August 21, 20214 yr by Moria15

Hello Graham,

Linker does just create links from your 'custom addon folder' to the 'real community folder', it will not touch the content.xml by default (read next sentence though).

That being said, since the content.xml file is not really maintained by the sim and still contains all unused addons that you used at least once, some users asked me to add an option to automatically delete the file everytime you launch the sim so that it will be rebuilt (if you launch it via the little button available inside the linker tool). So there is a little 'hidden' option 🙊 that allows you to do that (little entry to change manually in the INI file of the tool --> FlightSimulator_LaunchDeleteContentsXml=True)

If you want to test the tool, make sure you try first with a single addon to understand and see if all work fine for you and get the feeling of how it works. Feel free to msg me if you need help.

Thank you 🍺

Edited August 21, 20214 yr by Bad_T

6 minutes ago, Bad_T said:

Hello Graham,

Linker does just create links from you 'custom addon folder' to the 'real community folder', it will not touch the content.xml by default (read next sentence though).

That being said, since the content.xml file is not really maintained by the sim and still contains all unused addons that you used at least once, some users asked me to add an option to automatically delete the file everytime you launch the sim so that it will be rebuilt (if you launch it via the little button available inside the linker tool). So there is a little 'hidden' option 🙊 that allows you to do that (little entry to change manually in the INI file of the tool --> FlightSimulator_LaunchDeleteContentsXml=True)

If you want to test the tool, make sure you try first with a single addon to understand to see if all work fine for you and get the feeling of how it works. Feel free to msg me if you need help.

Thank you 🍺

That's awesome and thank you for the detailed reply.

Regards

 

Graham

Thanks @Bad_T, this is good to know. Do you know if not rebuilding the content.xml file just cause startup to be a little slower or anything else?

Hey there

Add-on Linker is just a great automated link creator. It never touches your content.xml file. I personally always let the sim nearly recreate the content.xml each time I add something new or make a change regarding the folder structure via Add-on Linker.

On 8/21/2021 at 2:59 AM, Bad_T said:

That being said, since the content.xml file is not really maintained by the sim and still contains all unused addons that you used at least once, some users asked me to add an option to automatically delete the file everytime you launch the sim so that it will be rebuilt

I would encourage caution with this... unless users are absolutely certain nothing else has modified their content.xml this can cause problems.    The primary example I can think of would be users who have Navigraph data installed:  as part of its activation, Navigraph disables the fs-base-nav package in content.xml to avoid having duplicate or incorrect data loaded.

If a user who has just enough knowledge to be dangerous deletes content.xml so the sim can rebuild it, that configuration will be lost and undesirable behavior could ensue.

I think having it as a hidden or "advanced" option is fine for folks who truly know what they're doing.  But you might be leading people into frustration if you made it easy for them without sufficient caveats.

Edited August 30, 20214 yr by kaosfere

2 hours ago, JJ_ said:

 Do you know if not rebuilding the content.xml file just cause startup to be a little slower or anything else?

Hello @JJ_, honestly i don't know 🙊, the difference is probably minimal, that option was added by request but to be honest i have not used it personally (see also the post by Kaosfere). Some people were doint that 'deletion' manually very often so for them it was convenient to have it done automatically by the tool and that's why it was added. It's true though that the fact that that file is not maintained by the sim and might still contains hundreds of addons that you have deleted months ago is not very 'tidy' to say the least.

@kaosfere you're 100% right, that's what 'hidden feature' are made for 😁😁, you know it's when you do something even if you're not very sure it's a good idea but you make it anyway to please 'your' users 😇 .. so i could really take what you wrote above 'word by word' and type it again because it's exactly what i think. For power users needing full control it's good, but if you've never worried about this and don't have any specific problem with the sim, it's probably better to not mess with that.

Edited August 30, 20214 yr by Bad_T

9 minutes ago, Bad_T said:

if you've never worried about this and don't have any specific problem with the sim, it's probably better to not mess with that.

Thanks again @Bad_T, very good advice!

1 hour ago, kaosfere said:

The primary example I can think of would be users who have Navigraph data installed:  as part of its activation, Navigraph disables the fs-base-nav package in content.xml to avoid having duplicate or incorrect data loaded.

Good to know, I use Navigraph and usually use the function to delete the content.xml when I make major changes to my add ons, but I haven't encountered any errors in doing so, yet... I may have to reinstall Navigraph to be sure.

Just now, Ixoye said:

 I may have to reinstall Navigraph to be sure.

yeah, I'd just fire up the Navigraph installer and de/re install everything to be safe, it's pretty quick.

Edited August 30, 20214 yr by kaosfere

4 minutes ago, kaosfere said:

yeah, I'd just fire up the Navigraph installer and de/re install everything to be safe, it's pretty quick.

So you just open Navdata Center and press remove and install again?

9 minutes ago, Ixoye said:

So you just open Navdata Center and press remove and install again?

Yep, just did it myself to confirm.   Takes about 5 seconds on my system and it correctly resets the content.xml entry to false.