How Do You Rename a Strategy?
Author: joannakim
Creation Date: 11/10/2010 3:00 PM
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joannakim

#1
I tried right clicking on strategies within the Select One of More Strategies to Open window ( I get this window opened when I click on Open strategy,) and it does not give me any options to click on. How do I rename my strategies? Thanks.
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Eugene

#2
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thodder

#3
Eugene,

Are there any plans to allow renaming a strategy from within WLP? The solutions above seem to say 'use Windows Explorer' and it also appears you may have to edit the XML file yourself if you're changing the name. It would be much more user friendly to provide renaming from within the application.

My solution to rename a strategy is use 'Save As' to a new name and then delete the old one. I'm always a little nervous that I'll delete the wrong strategy in the process. Once it's deleted it's gone -- there's no undo.


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Eugene

#4
Sorry, none that I'm aware of. Undoubtedly, this would be a usability enhancement.
QUOTE:
Once it's deleted it's gone -- there's no undo.

Once in the past I had to use a free file undelete utility because of accidentally deleting the Strategy code of a monthly magazine code submission. There was no backup because I managed to delete the XML before taking it (and because WL doesn't have an AutoBackup feature like WL4 used to have.) Nevertheless, the immediately installed undelete utility restored the lengthy code from that NTFS drive. Should defragmentation take place at the time, chances would be low.
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Cone

#5
If you delete a renamed strategy, how can it be the wrong one if it's the same strategy? Just rename it again ;)
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thodder

#6
Cone, You can have two scripts with the same name in different folders. As we are discussing, I can copy a script to a different name using the 'Save As', but I have to be careful which folder I return to when deleting the old script. If I pick the wrong one to delete, that script could be lost for good (unless you have an undelete utility to retrieve it). A rename feature would be a much safer way to change the name of the script.

* * *

Moving, renaming, deleting, etc are all basic script file management functionality that the application should be able to provide without too much difficulty. It would certainly improve on the user experience of the application. I've seen a few people ask for it in the forum, so obviously there's an user interest in having it.

In my opinion, users should not be required to exit the application and go to Windows Explorer (or My Computer) to do file manipulation of WealthLab scripts.

Btw, I also believe you should be able to use copy, cut and paste to move scripts between folders from within the application. Currently I do not see any of that kind of file manipulation from within the application.

Btw2, Have you considered moving the strategy directory to a subdirectory in the user's My Documents folder? A lot of backup utilities are designed to automatically backup the My Documents folder. It might even help with support issues as I'm sure the current location of the folder is hard for some users to find. Wouldn't it be easier to say, go to 'My Documents' and look for sub directory WealthLab\Strategies?

Sorry to go on about this stuff, but I've noticed a few script file management issues that I've wanted to share for a while.
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thodder

#7
Support ticket created pointing to this post to request an enhancement for script renaming.
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joannakim

#8
Thanks Tim for working on this issue. please update us all about the development of this issue now that a Support ticket has been created.
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Eugene

#9
QUOTE:
Btw2, Have you considered moving the strategy directory to a subdirectory in the user's My Documents folder?

Splitting application files like that can be a questionable idea. Any serious backup software can easily go to individual file/folder level instead of focusing on "My Documents". Have you considered a more general workaround as answered in this Wiki FAQ?

Can I relocate the whole "Data" folder (or only some subfolder) of my Wealth-Lab 6 from C: to a different drive or directory?

QUOTE:
Support ticket created pointing to this post to request an enhancement for script renaming.

OK thank you.
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thodder

#10
The Symlinks idea sounds interesting. I'm using Windows XP, so I'm not sure I want to try it. It's not that important to me that the strategies are separated from the rest of the data.

I understand splitting application files is a debatable topic. Mainly I was suggesting user edited files such as dataset lists and scripts should go in a subdirectory within 'My Documents' whereas downloaded data such as prices would stay in the directories they currently reside. It would be easier to find and backup the script files for novice users while possibly making automated backups (or synchronizing folders) easier. There's no need to backup all that price data as that could just be downloaded again from the appropriate servers.

For backup purposes, I currently zip up the strategies directory and copy the zip file to 'My Documents' plus an external drive in case of data loss. A primitive method but it is fine for the amount of script changes I make.

Splitting the strategy files into 'My Documents' is not a high priority issue for me. I only thought it would be a nice to have.
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