increase text size for nt_strategy.name

[jdfagan]

I found the table that stores my saved backtests (by inspecting the contents) and see the issue is the text size of nt_strategy.name (http://nt_strategy.name/) is only 50.

Please see attached pics for proof of existing bug in 6.5 that causes it to crash if you try to save backtest name > 50 characters. This should be trapped by UI and not allow NT to crash first of all. But I'd like to also ask for consideration of increasing nt_strategy.name (http://nt_strategy.name/) field within your NinjaTrader.mdb database for NT7. Please increase the Text size of 50 to at least 100 or 150 to allow for longer names which are useful for descriptive purposes of backtest names.

JD

ps: Can't attach due to tiny file size limits of 97k. Maybe NT can increase file size limit as well to 200k? :)

[NinjaTrader_Bertrand]

Thanks for your post JD, could you please send me the directly to support at ninjatrader dot com Attn Bertrand - Thanks and good weekend!

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

We do not advise changing anything in the NinjaTrader.mdb. I will remove your post since we would not want to promote this approach.

[NinjaTrader_Dierk]

NT7 will have have a max length of 250 for the strategy name field.

[jdfagan]

Thanks for the updates. While we're on the subject, allowing for renaming of a backtest strategy would be useful too. Currently, you have one shot to name it. If you want to rename, it takes a delete plus another re-run of the backtest to achieve that effect.

[NinjaTrader_Dierk]

Not exactly sure I follow: Tools->Edit NinjaScript->Strategy->click on the strategy name to edit it.

[jdfagan]

I'm talking about saved backtests within the Strategy Analyzer. I'm not talking about the actual Strategy script, but the saved strategy backtest. There's no way to rename as far as I can tell from right-clicking a saved backtest result in Strategy Analyzer.

To duplicate:

File > New > Strategy Analyzer
Run a backtest with a strategy
Click save icon to save the backtest > Fill in name of your saved backtest result
Right-click on newly saved backtest item under Strategies hierarchy within Strategy Analyzer
Edit... is grayed out for individual backtest results. Only Delete... is offered.

[NinjaTrader_Bertrand]

Thanks for your input and suggestion JD.

[jdfagan]

This limitation still exists in NT 7 beta 17. Just wanted to re-iterate the need for allowing us the basic ability to update the name of a saved strategy from within Strategy Analyzer (i.e., the "U" in the CRUD software design pattern is missing for saved SA strats - http://www.mindspring.com/~mgrand/pattern_synopses3.htm#CRUD). After running several dozen backtests and saving the results, its important to allow the user using Strategy Analyzer to be able to organize/re-organize his work particularly when some backtests based on multi-year tick data can take quite some time to re-run and you only have one chance to name your saved strategy.

JD

[jdfagan]

Note: I just found a unintuitive workaround. Just select existing saved backtest and click the "Save" button to create a new saved backtest. Then you can delete the original one thus achieving a Rename via Save + Delete. So you can put this back on low priority list.

[NinjaTrader_Bertrand]

Thanks for the added beta feedback JD.

[jdfagan]

I might have spoken too soon. Shortly after doing a Save + Delete, I started seeing blank graphs for my other saved backtests. Not sure if doing the Save + Delete is related to this error. After a few more clicks, I got the following error (see attachment).

Here is exception I just got in my trace log:


2010-06-22 10:27:45:844 Code.Editor.OnLoad: Failed to reference 'NinjaTrader.Custom, Version=7.0.0.17, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null': System.IO.FileNotFoundException: The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E)
at System.Reflection.Assembly._nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, Assembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection)
at System.Reflection.Assembly.nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, Assembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forIntrospection)
at System.Reflection.Assembly.InternalLoad(AssemblyNa me assemblyRef, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean forIntrospection)
at System.Reflection.Assembly.InternalLoadFrom(String assemblyFile, Evidence securityEvidence, Byte[] hashValue, AssemblyHashAlgorithm hashAlgorithm, Boolean forIntrospection, StackCrawlMark& stackMark)
at System.Reflection.Assembly.LoadFrom(String assemblyFile)
at NinjaTrader.Code.Editor.OnLoad(Object sender, EventArgs e)
2010-06-22 10:34:10:307 in OnUnhandledThreadException
2010-06-22 10:34:10:334 ********* exception trapped *********
2010-06-22 10:34:10:334 Overflow error.
2010-06-22 10:34:10:334 at System.Drawing.Graphics.CheckErrorStatus(Int32 status)
at System.Drawing.Graphics.FillRectangle(Brush brush, Int32 x, Int32 y, Int32 width, Int32 height)
at System.Drawing.Graphics.FillRectangle(Brush brush, Rectangle rect)
at NinjaTrader.Gui.PerformanceViewerControl.PaintNow( Graphics graphics, Rectangle bounds)
at NinjaTrader.Gui.PerformanceViewerControl.pnlGraph_ Paint(Object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnPaint(PaintEventArg s e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.PaintWithErrorHandlin g(PaintEventArgs e, Int16 layer, Boolean disposeEventArgs)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmPaint(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Mes sage& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.O nMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.W ndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

[NinjaTrader_Josh]

jdfagan,

Can you please clarify what you were doing with "a few more clicks"? We would appreciate any additional information you can provide to help us get as close as possible steps to reproduce. Thank you.

[jdfagan]

I will try to reproduce that exact same exception and if I can will post back here. Note, shortly after this error, I started to get a different error with my charts periodically vs. Strat Analyzer (which I have been able to narrow down to a reproducible case --> see
http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/forum/showthread.php?p=174434#post174434).

Some of those steps listed in my post on that thread (regarding initial NT 7 install + loading of historical data + leaving ZenFire feed connection off) were also true at time of this error. But so far haven't been able to reproduce this exception quite yet without resorting to re-installing NT7 and attempting to retrace my steps that led up to this error (which I may have to resort to soon as my Strategy Analyzer seems very unstable at the moment - can't run anymore backtests without "Backtest in process..." screen hanging yet NT7 process having no CPU activity).

JD