Chart Templates in NT 7

[laocoon]

Hi

When I open a new chart in NT 7, there's no option that allows me to save default settings for *parameters* (not indicators) like "chart style" (color for up bars, etc.) like there was in NT 6.5.

Am I missing something or is this feature not supported? (Would be a pity because it becomes very time consuming if you open a lot of charts)

Thanks

[JS999]

Hi

When I open a new chart in NT 7, there's no option that allows me to save default settings for *parameters* (not indicators) like "chart style" (color for up bars, etc.) like there was in NT 6.5.

Am I missing something or is this feature not supported? (Would be a pity because it becomes very time consuming if you open a lot of charts)

Thanks

I agree with you... I started a poll about this, to see what the rest of the members on this board think:

http://www.ninjatrader-support2.com/vb/showthread.php?t=21928

[NinjaTrader_JoshP]

Chart Templates concept is completely different. You save chart styles on a per Period Type basis. Just right click in the right hand side and select save.

[JS999]

Chart Templates concept is completely different. You save chart styles on a per Period Type basis. Just right click in the right hand side and select save.

This is correct, but we would like the ability to save multiple templates per period type instead of just one default. (That is what I started a poll about.) I can easily conceive of multiple templates that a user would want to have where bar width, bar color, and other features were settable and saveable on a per-chart basis. It was possible to do this in 6.5, and it should be possible to also do it in 7 one way or another.

[Larry22]

Wow , talk about drastic changes in Ninja 7.

I was very anxious about it but the more I see it the more it would seems I will have to stay with V6.5 as a big part of my set ups are based on templates, so I don't see myself being caught with only 1 template for charts and having to set one for every time frame.

Anyway I will wait and see but I sure do hope things will improve much as this could make me regret having bought a lifetime license.

[Radical]

I agree, I think that the way templates were handled in 6.5 is much better, and this is how they should be handled in 7. The way they are handled in 7 is a big step backward.

[JS999]

I agree, I think that the way templates were handled in 6.5 is much better, and this is how they should be handled in 7. The way they are handled in 7 is a big step backward.

It's too bad that all of these changes were supposedly made just to accommodate multi-time series charts. Did anyone at Ninja bother to poll the community to see how much we actually wanted to be able to plot multiple time series on the same chart, and how important this really was to us in the first place? I personally will not be using them very often, so given a choice I would not have chosen to implement multi-time series if it eliminated the ability to use templates as they existed in 6.5. I suspect that a number of other people would have felt the same way.

Guys, in the future, assuming you are faced with a major design trade off like this - you need to ask us what we want instead of just going ahead and doing what you want. I don't see any kind of public poll where the community was asked whether they would prefer to have multi-time series charts instead of keeping 6.5-style templates with all that entailed. If the community had responded that they wanted multi-time series charts over templates that would have been fine, but they were never given the chance.

[eDanny]

I think the changes in NT7 were not thought up out of the blue but came from suggestions in the forums and from the need to be competitive with other platforms. The problems arise when a good feature has to be dumped for a lesser feature to accommodate these other advancements. I really think they could somehow figure out a way to keep the old features with the updates.

[JS999]

I think the changes in NT7 were not thought up out of the blue but came from suggestions in the forums and from the need to be competitive with other platforms. The problems arise when a good feature has to be dumped for a lesser feature to accommodate these other advancements. I really think they could somehow figure out a way to keep the old features with the updates.

There is nothing wrong with adding a feature if it doesn't take something else away.

They don't seem to have realized that taking away the ability to set bar width, horizontal lines, chart background color and other things as part of a chart template would be problematic. They should have known that this was not a minor take-away, and they should have done their best to not compromise on it. The excuse that multi-series charts prevent old-style templates is completely ridiculous. They could have easily designed a dual system where the old code was used to construct charts in a manner similar to 6.5 (possibly with some tweaks), and then used a new code path to construct charts based on the multi-series template whenever the user called up a chart with more than one series on it. It would have taken a bit of engineering and some work, but it most certainly could have been done. A hell of a lot more complex things have been solved in code.

Even assuming that they had to compromise on it, they most definitely should have asked us as a community if this was what we wanted. Having a couple of people on a forum suggest that they want multi-series charts, especially when they don't realize that it's going to cost them something else, does not constitute "asking the community". The complaints on this forum are just a preview of what are likely to be larger complaints once this is released to the public. It would have been smart to ask the community in a poll whether we actually were OK with this or not, instead of just going ahead and implementing it and assuming that there would be no problems.

Anyways, this type of change is not really minor, as it affects the architecture of their code. It's not the type of thing that you change in a beta - so the chances of them fixing it are probably low at this point. It's a design issue that should have been addressed at the beginning.

[r2kTrader]

Radical,

Your post fits your name ;-)

In fairness to NT, you have to understand they are trying to make it more scaleable and flexible.

With that being said, I am sure this concern will be addressed. In other words, the puzzle pieces are there, they just needs to be a tether to keep the pieces together as one object. It's not a far off stretch.

Remember, this is a beta and we don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water. Also, try to adopt the new model. Sometimes you might like it even more.

I do understand what you are saying and I am sure you are not alone. I just think when you take such a radical position, it is counterproductive. I'm sure they put thought into this very issue before they made their decision.

I agree, I think that the way templates were handled in 6.5 is much better, and this is how they should be handled in 7. The way they are handled in 7 is a big step backward.

[r2kTrader]

If I had to speculate, I would assume they will be able to plug in an old version of the charting for those who want retro, and then continue with the new model for those who want multi-series (which is more valuable in my opinion than bells and whistles).

Also, there is nothing to keep you from running 6.5 is there?

Let's try to look at the big picture and approach our criticisms constructively rather than emotionally.

There is nothing wrong with adding a feature if it doesn't take something else away.

They don't seem to have realized that taking away the ability to set bar width, horizontal lines, chart background color and other things as part of a chart template would be problematic. They should have known that this was not a minor take-away, and they should have done their best to not compromise on it. The excuse that multi-series charts prevent old-style templates is completely ridiculous. They could have easily designed a dual system where the old code was used to construct charts in a manner similar to 6.5 (possibly with some tweaks), and then used a new code path to construct charts based on the multi-series template whenever the user called up a chart with more than one series on it. It would have taken a bit of engineering and some work, but it most certainly could have been done. A hell of a lot more complex things have been solved in code.

Even assuming that they had to compromise on it, they most definitely should have asked us as a community if this was what we wanted. Having a couple of people on a forum suggest that they want multi-series charts, especially when they don't realize that it's going to cost them something else, does not constitute "asking the community". The complaints on this forum are just a preview of what are likely to be larger complaints once this is released to the public. It would have been smart to ask the community in a poll whether we actually were OK with this or not, instead of just going ahead and implementing it and assuming that there would be no problems.

Anyways, this type of change is not really minor, as it affects the architecture of their code. It's not the type of thing that you change in a beta - so the chances of them fixing it are probably low at this point. It's a design issue that should have been addressed at the beginning.

[r2kTrader]

Josh,

As a temp work around to the concerns posted by the others (justified, but I'm keeping the faith that this will be resolved), could we create custom "period types" and use them as a type of "template" for now?

Thanks,

Chart Templates concept is completely different. You save chart styles on a per Period Type basis. Just right click in the right hand side and select save.

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

We have incorporated Chart Templates back into NT7 for our next beta update.

[Larry22]

We have incorporated Chart Templates back into NT7 for our next beta update.

That is very good news.

[terratec]

We have incorporated Chart Templates back into NT7 for our next beta update.

great news!!!!