I think another useful tip (when adding new addons) is to add the current date (in the format YY/MM/DD) right at the beginning of the "Description" field.

This can then be sorted, so you can easily check what was installed when - and helps home in on possible culprits if you experience a problem.

Edited December 10, 20241 yr by Adamski_NZ

48 minutes ago, fppilot said:

I assume both are 2020/2024 app-app specific? 

@fppilot Yes that's correct 🍻

 

@Adamski_NZ just in case you aren't aware of it and unless you want to put very specific dates, you don't really need to put dates/times manually, AL can read the folder creation and last update date automatically. There's  an option for that in the options screen (enable file stats)

By default it's disabled because it will slow down the loading of the folders, but if you want to enable it occasionaly to do some checks it can be useful. Note also that if you use the menu 'Tools -> Grid View', the addons will be shown in a 'flat' list easier for sorting and the 'creation/update fields' will always be filled (even if the checkbox is unchecked in the options screen) ...

just ideas ... 🍻

 

 

10 minutes ago, Bad_T said:

just in case you aren't aware of it and unless you want to put very specific dates, you don't really need to put dates/times manually, AL can read the folder creation and last update date automatically. There's  an option for that in the options screen (enable file stats)

Most of that you see is due to a major system failure and thus brand new system in late August of this year.  With porting over folders from backups they all received new-at-the-time folder dates.  I can dig in perhaps two folder layers in each addon to determine the addons version.  Only modify the root folder name when an addon is updated.  That to acknowledge its newer, - or older in the case of multiple addons, like addon airports from two different creators.

Would be really nice if addon creators added better version descriptions in the root folder name.  Some root folder names make little sense.  And some creators, for their updates, in fact do not even update the manifest.json file.

 

Edited December 10, 20241 yr by fppilot

9 minutes ago, fppilot said:

And some creators, for their updates, in fact do not even update the manifest.json file.

I have noticed that.   I often forget if/when I updated something or not.

with the new patch, it seems it's now possible to disable 'streamcontent packages' inside the sim. Then you need to restart the sim for changes to take effects.

For those interested, I will try to make it possible to disable/enable streamed content directly from AL.

Still need to test a bit more tomorrow evening because it's all very fresh but if it works i'll try to release that quickly.

🍻

4 hours ago, Bad_T said:

@Adamski_NZ just in case you aren't aware of it and unless you want to put very specific dates, you don't really need to put dates/times manually, AL can read the folder creation and last update date automatically. There's  an option for that in the options screen (enable file stats)

... Note also that if you use the menu 'Tools -> Grid View', the addons will be shown in a 'flat' list easier for sorting and the 'creation/update fields' will always be filled (even if the checkbox is unchecked in the options screen) ...

All these years and I've only just discovered "Grid View" LOL! Thanks for that - works a treat!

In my defence, I have to say I don't generally explore things much in AL. It's set up how I like it and works quickly and beautifully. If only we could say the same about the sim eh? Hahahah!

@Bad_T

I've encountered a couple of bugs with the latest version (MSFS24);

• I have 4 apps to autorun at startup 3 of which start on 0 seconds when clicking the Play button, the bottom on the list is set to start 120seconds later. The issue is they're all loading in at the 120second mark.
• Sky4Sim has not been updated in months, with MSFS2020/previous version of AddOnsLinker it would work with the Autostart just fine, but with the latest version it "quits" itself so I have to manually load it. Could be a Windows 11 issue perhaps so not necessarily your program but just wondering if anything like this has come up before?

Do you require a log for this? just shout if so 👍

@MarcG sorry for the trouble, not sure what is happening there.

The 'start program feature' is 100% the same for AL2020 and AL2024, if you see a difference between the 2 it would be strange.

can't remember what that delay was meant to do, i need to check a bit more in the code, as for the program starting and quitting it's even more strange 😱

to sum up ... hmmm ... damned 😋😁

It's a bit late now here for me to check all that, i'll send you a private message tomorrow evening (CET time) to try to clear all this up.

🍻

8 hours ago, Bad_T said:

@MarcG sorry for the trouble, not sure what is happening there.

The 'start program feature' is 100% the same for AL2020 and AL2024, if you see a difference between the 2 it would be strange.

can't remember what that delay was meant to do, i need to check a bit more in the code, as for the program starting and quitting it's even more strange 😱

to sum up ... hmmm ... damned 😋😁

It's a bit late now here for me to check all that, i'll send you a private message tomorrow evening (CET time) to try to clear all this up.

🍻

Ok thanks mate no rush 👍

hello all 🍻,

i was about to release a new update to fix a few issues and the new version also contains the new 'Content.xml' editor. But i'm a bit unsure if i should include that or not. The only guy i sent the new version has the ms-store version of the sim (i have Steam) and the file does not load (error in path). Im a bit unsure if it's something specific on his machine or if all users with ms-store will have the same kind of problems because maybe the file is protected or it's caused by 'another something smart' invented by ms/asobo to make things annoying.

There is no risk in going into that screen (don't make any change and dont save the file if you have doubts), the first check would be to just make sure that the screen is loaded loaded correctly with the content of the xml file showing up (no need to click on the 'load xml' button, the file should be detected and loaded automatically, if it's not loaded automatically you can try to load it with the button).

 

oh well if some of you 'advanced users' would dare doing a little check (no rush) i would appreciate it ❤️ 

--> https://www.mediafire.com/file/ovtfuhep93oyv0k/MSFS_AddonsLinker_2024_TEST_20241214a.zip/file

i also put here the 'what's new' of this version for info :

[NEW] Content.xml editor ('Tools' menu or 'xml' button in the toolbar). Might be useful to deactivate 'built-in' addons you dont want in an easy way.

[NEW] Added a little button 'delete all invalid links' on top of the 'community folder' panel

[NEW] Added an option to show vertical lines in the main addons view (left panel, right click -> show vertical lines).

[NEW] Added new shortcuts to access the dependencies viewer (SHIFT + D) and the dependency assignation screen (CTRL + D when an addon is currently selected)

[FIX] The new 'preset assignation screen (F8)' would fail to remove an addon from a preset if the preset name was not all in lowercase

[FIX] Little fixes here and there

Thank you 🍻

8 hours ago, Bad_T said:

oh well if some of you 'advanced users' would dare doing a little check (no rush) i would appreciate it ❤️ 

The only thing "advanced" about me is senility LOL ... but I'll give it a whirl (I'm on the MS Store version). Always great to see fixes/new features appearing for the Linker. I'll report back ...

UPDATE: I'm afraid I get file error:

All a bit meaningless to me :( ... do you need a dump of all that info? Windows won't let me resize that error box, but I could select/copy all the text if required.

Edited December 14, 20241 yr by Adamski_NZ

Thank you very much @Adamski_NZ it's the same message the other user was having with the ms-store version, i guess i just won't release it for now, i just don't know what is going on 😪 and why ms/asobo keeps putting stuff in protected complicated system folders instead of letting users choose ... anyway it is what is is 😁

🍻🍻

1 minute ago, Bad_T said:

Thank you very much @Adamski_NZ it's the same message the other user was having with the ms-store version, i guess i just won't release it for now

No harm in releasing it with the caveat that this particular function doesn't work (yet). It doesn't appear to do any harm - and the error box closes gracefully.

Worth it just for all the other fixes/additions, IMHO ...

@Adamski_NZ if i dare, one more question, can you tell me where your content.xml file is located because maybe i have seen a little bug in the code 😱 thanks to your message

I assumed it's here for ms-store users, but i'm not sure because i don't have that version : c:\users\username\appdata\local\packages\microsoft.limitless_8wekyb3d8bbwe\localstate\content.xml

Thank you ❤️

Edited December 14, 20241 yr by Bad_T

10 minutes ago, Bad_T said:

@Adamski_NZ if i dare, one more question, can you tell me where your content.xml file is located because maybe i have seen a little bug in the code 😱 thanks to your message

I assumed it's here for ms-store users, but i'm not sure because i don't have that version : c:\users\username\appdata\local\packages\microsoft.limitless_8wekyb3d8bbwe\localstate\content.xml

Close ... but no cigar!!

it's localcache instead of localstate ;)