New NT upgrade and 3rd party indicators

[rafleischman]

Will installing this most recent NT update affect my current workspaces, templates, indicators...including my 3rd party indicators, that I am using now with the 8.0.27.1 version. I ask because I tried the update on my laptop and it totally wiped away all my previous installed indicators and workspaces which I had to reinstall and reconfigure all my charts. A major pain in the a$$. There has been a lot of changes on the website and the the platform with a lot of different issue I have been dealing with including password problems.

[NinjaTrader_Jesse]

Hello rafleischman,

Upgrading should not have any effect on workspaces or templates but it can in some cases cause third party indicators to not load. Before updating it would be best to visit the third party vendors websites to check if they have already updated to one of the newer releases, if so you can download those new versions and import them after updating the platform. When you update and see third party items missing its generally caused by that item failing to load. The result is that the item is missing from workspaces. As long as you don't re save the workspace it will keep trying to reload that item each time you start the platform, so as long as you dont save and then import the item it will be present the next time you reload the workspace. If you save a workspace that has missing items they will be removed so you would have to re configure the workspace and charts again.

[rafleischman]

Thanks for the quick reply, Jesse. I have never had any problem with any of the updates up to this most recent one so I was wondering if there had been some major code changes that would cause this. Doesn't sound like it so I may give it a try.

[NinjaTrader_Jesse]

Hello rafleischman,

There were some changes to NinjaScript moving from 8.0 to 8.1 release that does affect vendors in some cases. There were some unsupported code items that were removed which can cause some items to not work if the vendor was using those items. In most cases vendors only use supported code so updates don't have breaking changes to NinjaScript. Most commonly there would be no problem migrating to a newer version.

[rafleischman]

So basically it comes down to "give it a shot and see what happens." If I backup before I try this update, I can always revert back and all will be as before, correct?

[NinjaTrader_Jesse]

Hello rafleischman,

If you extensively use third party items then yes it would be a case of try and and make sure everything works. Most items won't be affected but that really depends on the complexity of the items in question.

If you are concerned there will be a problem I would suggest to not use the backup/restore tool but instead just copy the user folder so you can easily revert back. here are some simple steps you can use to do that:

1. Exit NinjaTrader
2. make a copy of the folder: Documents\NinjaTrader 8 -> Documents\NinjaTrader 8 Copy
3. Update the platform
4. Run the platform and check that everythign works
5. If everything works you can just delete that copy of the folder.

If something is not working and you need to revert back:

1. Exit NinjaTrader
2. Remove the folder Documents\NinjaTrader 8
3. Uninstall the platform
4. Install the previous release
5. Remove the folder Documents\NinjaTrader 8 <- do this again
6. Rename the folder Documents\NinjaTrader 8 Copy to Documents\NinjaTrader 8
7. Launch the platform

[rafleischman]

Thanks Jesse. That is great advise. I do use quite a few 3rd party indicatotrs that I really like and rely on. I will give it a shot. I appreciate all your help.