It's not a failing CDN, .
You are both wrong, let's deal first with the "CDN is failing you first" claim, which I already explained, but apparently my explanation wasn't clear enough, so let's try again:
- The GSX internal profiles are stored in the \Addon Manager\couatl\common\AircraftDb.pye file. Let's assume the "CDN is failing" and for some reason, it served a version older than the first time we added the iniBuilds A350 in version 3.3.7 released Feb 28th. What would happen in that case ? GSX would have used the profile supplied by iniBuilds, which is stored in the AIRPLANE own folder, and we DO NOT TOUCH THAT!. The airplane configuration page would have shown a "developer-provided profile" instead of the internal profile.
So, the only possible way one would end up with NO profile at all would require the following TWO conditions, all happening at the same time:
1) Having received a version AircraftDb.pye file older than Feb 28th. Since we had several updates after that, I find this unlikely, but I guess it might be possible.
2) Having removed the profile supplied by iniBuilds as well, maybe because at a certain time, the GSX internal profile was newer/better.
It's not possible a completely "unknown" airplane page would show UNLESS BOTH these conditions happened at the same time. This thread started with "3.4.4 Deletes iniBuilds A350 Aircraft Profile", which surely doesn't, we surely don't touch the airplane own installation folder, and the iniBuilds A350 surely come with a GSX profile.
it's the incredibly strange way the file management system he wrote works. It treats anything that doesn't pass his checks of files that should exists as "hostile" and removes it, forcing us to keep a repository of "Things The FSDT Installer Deletes" so we can replace them back once updating is done. It's been like this since P3Dv4 and it's just as annoying now
- The installer surely removes anything that doesn't belong to the standard installation, but you are omitting the key issue here: it doesn't it ONLY in ITS OWN folders. If it's not entirely clear what this means, I'll try to make it as clear as possible:
1) The installer will NEVER remove anything you customized or downloaded, like airplane profiles or airport profiles. NOTHING under %APPDATA% is ever removed by the installer. These are your preferences, so the installer obviously follows the standard practice that none of the file you created or added are removed in your preferences folder.
2) The installer will NEVER remove anything in other developers folders! Like airplane or airport profiles that come with that developer products (airplane or airport).
THe FSDT installer will ONLY operate on everything that is inside its own folder, that is the main Addon Manager folder. This is the installation folder, and you are not supposed to touch anything there, and this is not strange or weird: it's the ONLY way to ensure you can screw up with files and being always able to go back to a working situation. It's not "incredibly weird" either, is EXACTLY the same function of the "Check Integrity" on Steam, for example. The main install folder is not a place where you are supposed to touch things.
Now, before say "but I want to modify some GSX files" with some custom settings. You still can do that, using better methods, and the installer will never touch these changes, for example:
- You can change the operator and model assignment rules using custom rules files which will override stock rules file, without having to touch these. GSX Manual has a whole chapter on Pages 100-103 explaining how they work.
- You can create new set of vehicles using an EXTERNAL PACKAGE. This is a Package that can be stored in the Community folder and can contain new vehicles, liveries, and custom rules. These packages won't be touched by the installer either.
