Addons Linker

[kaha]

I'm thinking about using the Addons Linker. Regarding this I have some questions about how you use payware addons:

- how do you handle linked payware? As an example these are ORBX addons. Do you just leave them in the Community folder and do not touch them?

- unlinked payware. BlackBox is an example. Same question here.

A possibility would probably be to add the ORBX folder to MSFS Addons Linker and to copy the unlinked payware to a specific folder from which you can use Addons Linker to generate links into the Community folder.

Thanks,
Karl

[nbrich1]

I yank them out of the community folder and move them that my location that I have set up for the "linker" to scan and sorted by continent/ country/ state/province etc for easy reference.

The only things I keep in the community folder her items that I want to use for each flight.. such as aircraft, certain liveries, aircraft mods, working title mods, global ships and that's it.

I use the Linker to select which scenery is going to be used based on the flight I'm going to fly.

[MFC0001]

I think the Community Folder managers make the most sense for the actual management of the community folder.  You can activate or de-activate any item at the click of a button and you never have to see the community folder.  Orbx give you the choice of where the file resides, and is not managed.  Like Norm, Orbx items are outside the community folder, all else is inside.  One of the other attractions of using a manager is that you just drag the zip file to the manager, it is unpacked and installed in one step.

[nbrich1]

The Linker is different than other community type. (there are a couple.. with the linker you do haven't to extract the compressed file and place the  main root  folder of the add-on (name it whatever you want) into a directory that you have set up for the Linker to scan/recognize. When the Linker is executed, choose which add-ons will be executed (on/off) if on, then a symbolic link is created to the community folder for that add-on. 

Anyways, both community managers seem to work with no issues.. so far.. I have many many add-ons on a different drive and the Linker handles them with no issues. (On demand)

[stiletto2]

I also have included  my Orbx (FS2020) folder in the AddonsLinker structure.  Works great.

Rod

[kaha]

Ok Rod, so what happens if you have disabled an ORBX scenery in MAL and then there is an update for it? ORBX will create a link in the Community folder that MAL is not aware of, creating an inconsistency.

Karl

[stiletto2]

HI Karl,

I have a separate library for my Orbx FS2020 products specified in Orbx Central.   I named it FS2020 Orbx Library. Orbx Central communicates directly with the FS2020 Orbx Library.  I just make sure FS2020 isn't running when I install the updates.   

The location of the FS2020 Orbx Library is inside my FS2020 Addons Linker folder so it is displayed in my Addons Linker structure as:


FS2020 Orbx Library

      msfs

          1S2 Darrington Municipal Airport
          3W5 Concete Municipal Airport
          etc.

Each one of the lines above has a checkmark box in front of it (I can check the boxes to activate one or the whole group).  Once I moved the FS2020 Orbx Library under the FS2020 Addons folder, Addons Linker created the above hierarch automatically. 

If I install a new Orbx product to the FS2020 Orbx Library, it will create its own link in the community folder which is fine because Addons Linker will just mark the new product as activiated since the Orbx link created and a link created by the Addon Linker are absolutely identical.

Works great!

Rod

[kaha]

Thank you Rod, understood.

Karl

[kaha]

ORBX is in.

Now I also want nonlinked payware (e.g. scenery from DC Design) to be controlled by MAL. The culprit here is that if I move the respective folders to the MAL folder and there is an update I will have to move them back, unistall and reinstall it and then again move it to my MAL folder.

Hmmm... still thinking about if this is worth it.

Karl

[stiletto2]

Hi Karl,

Most payware just comes with a package that you drop into the community folder.   Instead, you drop the package into your (for example) "3rd Party Aircraft Payware" folder which is inside the Addons Linker master folder, start addons linker and select it.

An update example would be when I got updates for the bbs-aircraft-l19 package, I opened Addons Linker, deselected the current version, I then added a "-old" to the old pacakge I just deselected, I then installed the new package to the "3rd Party Aircraft Payware" folder and then selected it.  I can then quickly deselect the new update and re-select the old update to compare or whatever.

Rod

[kaha]

Thank you Rod. That possibility to compare old and new is really nice!

Karl