Sharing NT8 setup on two PCs | File sharing via Dropbox

[ScaleInTrading]

Hi,

Is there an FAQ on how to share the same setup of NT8 across two PCs?

In NT7 I used to be able to share the indicators, strategies, templates and workspaces by replacing the relevant folders under C:\Users\xyz\NinjaTrader 7\... with hard links to my Dropbox folders (which would mirror parts of the NT file structure). I used to keep the original folders but would rename them to "Indicators_old" etc.

As long as you only use one instance of NT7 at a time this worked beautifully.

In NT8 this fails as the _old folders still get picked up by NT8 and as such the indicator compilation fails due to 'duplicate' indicator definitions.

Unfortunately deleting the _old folders won't work either since then NT8 can't find the definition of indicator anymore.

I am stuck - can anyone help with this?

The obvious question really is:
Will it ever be possible to select a custom path for the NT8 configuration files? This has been requested since I started working with NT about 6 years ago...

Thanks in advance.
Frank

[ScaleInTrading]

SOLVED - Sharing NT8 setup on two PCs | File sharing via Dropbox - SOLVED

Hi again,

For anyone interested, the trick is to add the links to your dropbox folders as subfolders into the existing NT file structures.

You can use the below script to link up a local NT8 install with a set of Dropbox folders. If you do this across multiple PCs/laptops you essentially have a central repository of all your strategies, indicators etc.

Note that I would only ever run one instance of NT8 at the same time to avoid file conflicts and unusual behaviour. In the example below my T: drive inside my VM is mapped to MyDocuments\Dropbox\Trading on my VM host computer.

As usual no guarantees at all....

::Save this script in Windows as a .bat file 
::Configure the path parameters below
::Run this script in an elevated (admin) cmd window.

::Follow the instructions below to configure NT8 to run with a set of indicators, strategies etc. which is saved in the cloud.

::	1.) Set the environment variables below.

set localNT8Path=C:\Users\adfra\Documents\NinjaTrader 8
set dropboxNT8SettingsPath=T:\NinjaTrader 8 Settings

::	2.) ONLY REQUIRED WHEN USING A VM: 
::      Adjust the path below to reflect the mapped drive with the Dropbox NT8 data.
::      This reconnects the relevant drive with admin cmd priviledges - otherwise we can't see the shared drive in admin cmd.
net use t: \\vmware-host\Shared Folders\Trading

::	3.) Run this script in an elevated (admin) cmd
::	4.) Install 3rd party dll files such as ACME Indicators or jtEconNewsList Indicator (sharing the dll files under the bin directory does not work.)

c:
cd %localNT8Path%

ren templates templates_old
ren workspaces workspaces_old

mklink /D templates 								"%dropboxNT8SettingsPath%\templates"
mklink /D workspaces 								"%dropboxNT8SettingsPath%\workspaces"

mklink /D bin\Custom\AddOns\Custom					"%dropboxNT8SettingsPath%\bin\Custom\AddOns"
mklink /D bin\Custom\BarsTypes\Custom				"%dropboxNT8SettingsPath%\bin\Custom\BarsTypes"
mklink /D bin\Custom\ChartStyles\Custom				"%dropboxNT8SettingsPath%\bin\Custom\ChartStyles"
mklink /D bin\Custom\DrawingTools\Custom			"%dropboxNT8SettingsPath%\bin\Custom\DrawingTools"
mklink /D bin\Custom\ExportNinjaScript\Custom		"%dropboxNT8SettingsPath%\bin\Custom\ExportNinjaScript"
mklink /D bin\Custom\ImportTypes\Custom				"%dropboxNT8SettingsPath%\bin\Custom\ImportTypes"
mklink /D bin\Custom\Indicators\Custom				"%dropboxNT8SettingsPath%\bin\Custom\Indicators"
mklink /D bin\Custom\MarketAnalyzerColumns\Custom	"%dropboxNT8SettingsPath%\bin\Custom\MarketAnalyzerColumns"
mklink /D bin\Custom\OptimizationFitnesses\Custom	"%dropboxNT8SettingsPath%\bin\Custom\OptimizationFitnesses"
mklink /D bin\Custom\Optimizers\Custom				"%dropboxNT8SettingsPath%\bin\Custom\Optimizers"
mklink /D bin\Custom\PerformanceMetrics\Custom		"%dropboxNT8SettingsPath%\bin\Custom\PerformanceMetrics"
mklink /D bin\Custom\ShareServices\Custom			"%dropboxNT8SettingsPath%\bin\Custom\ShareServices"
mklink /D bin\Custom\Strategies\Custom				"%dropboxNT8SettingsPath%\bin\Custom\Strategies"
mklink /D bin\Custom\SuperDomColumns\Custom			"%dropboxNT8SettingsPath%\bin\Custom\SuperDomColumns"

PAUSE