chart templates bundled with custom indicators?

[e-man]

is it possible to include chart templates along with custom indicators via the NT import/export utility? or is that something that must be offloaded to a custom installer?

cheers,
-e

p.s. if import/export of chart templates is not currently supported, perhaps it could be considered as a feature enhancement for future releases?

[NinjaTrader_Ben]

Hello,

Not in NT6.5. What version are you using?

[e-man]

Hi Ben,

i'm actually using NT7 (latest beta 17). is that supported now?

cheers,
-e

[NinjaTrader_Bertrand]

e-man, unfortunately not directly in the import / export utility, but you can add chart and MA templates quickly to your zip export following those steps here - http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/h..._procedure.htm

[e-man]

fantastic! that is very good to know

cheers,
-e

[e-man]

works great the first time you import a chart template ... love it.

but when i release a new version of my indicator and bundle the chart template again *with the same name*, then i get an error:
"import failed ... {zip file} is likely corrupt and can't be imported: Could not find a part of the path 'C:\{nt user path}\bin\Custom\Tmp\Org\templates/Chart/my_template.xml'

notice the \ and / in the error path ... not sure if that means anything.

i did a diff on my two xml templates and the changes have to do with additional parameters in the indicator which were not present in previous-version-template and are now exposed in the new-version-template.

the indicator *is* being imported, but the chart templates are purged ... the work-around is to simply re-import the zip file a second time and everything works great.

one other note: i do have charts open when doing the import and they are initialized using that chart template.

let me know if i can provide any additional info -- hopefully i gave you enough details so you can duplicate it on your end.

cheers,
-e

[NinjaTrader_Bertrand]

Thanks for testing e-man - please try importing the updated file again with the workspaces where the already installed template is used closed down, this would ensure the import process has the needed rights to overwrite this template file then.

[e-man]

Hi Bertrand,

tried what you said ... twice ... same error, even when the workspace is closed (i just opened up a new Untitled1 with no charts in it).

i'm using Windows7 64-bit loading up NT7b17 in 32-bit mode logged in as the administrator account. nothing really out of the ordinary with my config.

cheers,
-e

[NinjaTrader_Bertrand]

Thanks again for your testing, will attempt to reproduce this issue here.

[NinjaTrader_Bertrand]

e-man, I could run into your issue as well - I believe the deal is this - you would need to ensure to not store relative paths when recreating the zip file after you added your templates - this would explain why you saw the strange folder structure / path NT was complaining about on import.

The needed file option in my WinRar is called 'Do not store paths', I believe other compression utilities would have a similiar one.

[e-man]

interesting ... i was just dragging the files into the archive using windows explorer.

tried manually creating the archive with 7zip but i got the same error.

thanks for the idea on further troubleshooting the issue ... will have to play around with it some more here.

for now, i have just resorted to doing the import 2x.

cheers,
-e

[NinjaTrader_Bertrand]

e-man, anyway you could send me your test zips used to our support at ninjatrader dot com Attn Bertrand so I can take a look into for you?

Thanks