Organizing indicators / scripts / EAs / etc

[NeoTrader]

hi jjasper7,
garys descriptions are accurate and this should work...

I would put all my Empty4 Platforms in a subdirectory in root...my directory structure looks like this

C:\
|-trading
|-trading\global
|-trading\global\experts
|-trading\global\sounds
|-trading\global\templates
|-trading\global\dev\experts
|-trading\global\dev\sounds
|-trading\global\dev\templates
|-trading\demo\
|-trading\demo\crim-account
|-trading\demo\crim-account
|-trading\demo\crim-account
.
.
.
|-trading\dev\crim-account
|-trading\dev\crim-account
|-trading\dev\crim-account
.
.
.
|-trading\live
|-trading\live\crim-account
|-trading\live\crim-account
|-trading\live\crim-account
.
.
.

crim = shortname for the criminal
account = accountnumber

The demo directories are all demo accounts and platforms...
The dev directories are also demo accounts and platforms i use for my development endeavors...
the live directories are my live accounts.

If you have multiple accounts it would also be wise to have a spreadsheet with all your account infos in them...live account info only in password protected sheets that are in zip/rar archives that are also password protected...if you are a little paranoid like me...


happy trading,

NeoTrader

-

[w633]

And in fact only ex4 files work in the "indicators" folder too. Usually Empty4 automatically compiles mq4 files to ex4, so you see them in the indicator list -- but that doesn't seem to be working now. I wonder if my CommonExperts trick has thrown that off somehow?? Help?

Thanks for any insights!
Gary

as for organizing it... how about just prefix the name instead of placing it into sub-directories?
for example demo.subcat.indi-name.mq4

i also deleted my expert folder and replaced with something else, however i only make my development using 1 forex platform, if i need to replicate the compiled things to different installation of Empty4, i will use the utility called always sync

[garyfritz]

Yes, you could use prefixes like that. It's just a pain that folders don't work properly. I have indicators from 20 or 30 different past experiments, and I'd rather not have to wade through all of them to find the one I want. If they're in different folders, they're out of sight.

[w633]

Yes, you could use prefixes like that. It's just a pain that folders don't work properly. I have indicators from 20 or 30 different past experiments, and I'd rather not have to wade through all of them to find the one I want. If they're in different folders, they're out of sight.

How about just move the old ones that are not actively used into some other folders?

I am not sure how many people here do software development for a living, as for myself, I use source control for my own code so there's really no risk in deleting ones that are old since I can always bring it back.

[jjasper7]

gary, your command to enter as admin did not work here (user error or just that i am on vista)but i googled and tried enough to get the mklink to work so the directories look ok, but when i try the Empty4 platform navigator, i see only a world icon and its name is 528 more... and a similar appearance for Custom Indicators. so at present i do not know how to get the common eas or indis into the charts. is there another step to activate the new directory?

neo, how do you point the Empty4 to the common directory you are using? (c:\trading\global\...)

[garyfritz]

I just tried it on Vista and it's basically identical. Try this -- though it sounds like you figured out how to get the mklink working.

Cmd.gif

Then, once you have the Administrator-level command prompt running, you run the mklink command like I explained earlier. Do a "DIR" after you create it. Does it look like this?

Symlink.gif

Yours will probably point to a different place than mine, so it won't say "[ ..\CommonExperts ]" at the end, but it should show "<SYMLINKD>". That's what you should get if you do "mklink /d experts <<your common experts dir>>".

[jjasper7]

bingo, that looks better. thanks for sticking with me.
my prior attempt looked the same except i tried to use /j, thinking it would act the same on this computer, but this /d shows and runs the files, and the picture made it much easier to get into admin mode.

[jjasper7]

another question, gary... how do i get mt4a to use the templates, ea, indicators, etc from mt4b? is there a Empty4 function to redirect the folders it tries to use? wouldn't they conflict if multiple instances of Empty4 run concurrently? or should i redirect each Empty4 to look at the same commonexperts folder?

[garyfritz]

Multiple MT4s can share one "experts" folder, at least with the caveats I mentioned originally. So under that folder you have EAs, and indicators under experts\indicators, templates under experts\templates, etc. All can be shared. Note that Empty4 defaults to loading templates from the "templates" folder that is parallel to (not inside) the experts folder, so you have to make sure it loads and saves in the shared experts\templates folder.

If you move the original "experts" folder to "experts-original" or whatever, and use mklink to create a symbolic link to your commonexperts folder, that's all you need to do. Empty4 will wake up and look in its "experts" folder, but that's actually your commonexperts folder.

[Jemook]

Just stumbled across this thread. I did pretty much the exact same thing tonight using Dropbox.

All 6 Empty4 Platform's indicator folders now link to a single Dropbox folder called Indicators. I did the same with Templates and Scripts. Works perfectly from what I can see!

I used an app called 'Dropbox Folder Sync' which makes the process very easy.