Add a way to enable/disable Conditions & Actions in the Strategy Builder

[codeowl]

Hi there,

I am creating a Strategy and I have a heap of conditions in there that I have taken a bit of time to build up, and an action that draws an arrow, but no arrows are currently being drawn.
To debug this, it would be awesome if I had the ability to just disable a heap of conditions and them bring them back in one at a time and see which one was causing the problem. As it is, the only thing I can do is remove the conditions. So now I have to document them all so I can re-add them one at a time, in order to identify the condition(s) that is preventing my strategy from executing the actions, and this will add a heap of time onto my Strategy development and debugging, both documenting and re-adding the conditions. Having the option in the grid that lists the conditions to just tick or untick a check box to enable/disable that group or condition would be such a time saver.
It would also be great if I could enable/disable actions as well. Then I could have some logging in there that I could turn off when not using it, but turn on when I need it to trouble shoot.

I think this would add a heap of value to the Strategy Builder and everyone that uses it!!

Also, how about adding the copy/past functionality to the condition group dialogue, and of course enable/disable to conditions in the groups as well.
It would make the Strategy Builder so much more efficient to use, and give the product a real edge.

Regards,

codeOwl.

[itrader46]

I use bools for the stuff that I want to enable / disable temporarily, like prints on some sections of my code.
That gives me a check-box on the strategy start screen that I can enable / disable before i activate the script

protected override void OnStateChange()
        {
            #region Set Defaults

            if (State == State.SetDefaults)
            {
PrintStart                = true;
}
...

protected override void OnBarUpdate()
        {                      
            // Make sure this strategy does not execute against historical data
            if (State == State.Historical)
                return;

            int LowestBarIndex = Math.Max(DmiPeriod, LookbackPeriod);

            if (!strategyStart)
            {
                if(PrintStart)
                {
                    if (BarsInProgress == 0)
                    Print ("Strategy start 1 min bar: " + CurrentBar + " - " + Time[0]);

                    if (BarsInProgress == 2)
                    {
                        Print ("Strategy start 5 min bar: " + CurrentBar + " - " + Time[0]);        
                        strategyStart = true;
                    }                    
                }
            }    
#region Properties        
[NinjaScriptProperty]
        [Display(Name = "Print Start", Order=7, GroupName="Parameters")]
        public bool PrintStart
        { get; set; }

[NinjaTrader_ChrisL]

Hi codeOwl, thanks for your suggestions. I'll submit a feature request to add the ability to disable conditions and also the ability to copy/paste conditions.

[codeowl]

itrader46,

Thanks for the response. That is a great idea for "Unlocked" Strategies, or hand coded Strategies, but does not help much with Strategies built and maintained with the Strategy Builder.

NinjaTrader_ChrisL,
Thanks for the response. To clarify, you can already copy paste conditions, just not within condition groups. But of course being able to enable / disable conditions, condition groups and actions is the main request here.

[itrader46]

Yes, that's right, it is only suited for hand coding, but given how awkward modifying a script with the builder, it's not worth bothering for me.
What I do is get the script into a starting form, then copy the code and do most of the changes a lot easier by hand, comment out parts of it that I want to temporarily disable, etc.
Then I just get back into the builder script if I needed to quickly add stuff that I don't know how to do by hand.
In my experience, this saves a huge amount of time and I learned a lot more about coding as well this way.

[NinjaTrader_ChrisL]

Hi codeowl, noted. I will post a feature tracking ID shortly.

Thanks in advance for your patience.