If you installed the MetaStockCSV
Plug-in to the default directories (recommended) and are
doing the initial test of your installation, your Titles
file will be located in the
"C:\MasterDATA\CSVPlug-in\Data\CSVfiles" directory.
You will also see four subdirectories located in this
directory, Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Quarterly.
These four subdirectories will contain your .csv format
datafiles and must be located in the directory
containing your Titles file. Initially, after
installation, these subdirectories contain the sample
.csv format historical datafiles.
Once you complete the test
immediately following the installation of the MetaStockCSV
Plug-in, you can then locate your Titles file anywhere
you wish. The four subdirectories, Daily, Weekly,
Monthly and Quarterly, however, must located in the
directory containing the Titles file.. Your
historical .csv format datafiles must be located in the
appropriate directory of these four subdirectories.
●
The .csv Datafile Name List will
initially be located in the "C:\MasterDATA\CSVPlug-in\"
directory (default). Once you complete the test
immediately following the installation of the MetaStockCSV
Plug-in, you can then locate your .csv Datafile Name
List file anywhere you wish.
●
Open the MetaStockCSV Plug-in
configuration utility.
●
Complete and save your configuration
under the "Settings" tab.
●
Under the "Test Your Set Up" tab,
enter a MetaStock symbol that has a related data file in
your "Daily" data directory (see above). Version
2.12 provides a drop down menu allowing you to choose a
symbol as configured in your .csv Datafile Name List
(see above).
●
Click on the "Test" button.
What
happens when you click on test
First, a check is made of all your settings
displayed under the "Settings" tab (these settings are saved
in a file called CSV.ini). This portion of the test
simply makes sure the configuration is complete and makes
basic sense. Additionally, these settings are checked to
make sure your configuration meets the minimum requirements of
MetaStock and Windows.
Next, a more nuts and bolts examination is
made of your configuration, data files and titles file.
Columns of data and titles are counted and compared to your
configuration settings. All titles in your titles file
are checked for "illegal" characters (only letters and numbers
are allowed). The column you specified as the column
containing the date is verified for accuracy and its value
compared to the "Date Format" you specified in your settings
to verify it fits properly.
Finally, the results of the test are
displayed. Successful test results are displayed in the
lower window. Errors needing attention are displayed in
in red in the upper window.
What to do
when you see errors
If the test finds errors in your
configuration settings, data file, or titles file, it is
displayed in the top window in red. These messages are
self-explanatory and must be corrected before the
plug-in will operate. For instance:
The above error message is displayed
because the data file "_DJI.csv", has 68 columns and the
plug-in is configured for 69 column data files.
Additionally, the titles file, "StatisticTitles.csv" (from
our sample files), has 68 columns and, because the titles
file must have the same number of columns as your data file,
the message reflects that, it too, has 68 columns versus the
configured 69 columns.
Correcting this error is simply a matter of changing the plug-in's
configuration for number of columns from 69 to 68.
This kind of error might occur if you miscounted the number
of data fields (columns) in a row of data in your data file.
This error is included as an example
because titles are the most common source of problems for
new users. MetaStock does not allow names used in its
External Functions, to contain anything but letters and
numbers (they must begin with a letter). The character
most often mistakenly included by new users is the
underscore, "_". The underscore is not a letter or
number thus cannot be used in titles.
The example error message above indicates
that there are two title names that have problems. The
first is "Upper_Trend_Channel". This title contains
two underscore characters and, as such cannot be used.
The solution is simply to remove the underscores.
Similarly, another title, "ETF*TradeVolume contains an
illegal asterisk ,"*". Remove the asterisk and the
name can be used.
An important note.
A space within a statistic name cannot be used. To a computer, a
space is just another character like an underscore or
asterisk. Thus a space is an illegal character.
Click here for more on
Rules for Statistic Names
to be Used in the MetaStockCSV Plug-in.
The above display is your objective upon
running a test. No errors. The test is thorough
but not foolproof. However, if you receive this
display, there is a high probability that your plug-in, data
files and titles file are configured properly. Most of
the time, if you encounter a problem with the plug-in after
passing this test, the problem lies in the structure of your
data file. This could be rows containing differing
numbers of values, dates occurring in different columns or
numerous other items. As long as your data files are
consistent in their structure, chances are, you will not
encounter any further problems and you will move on to
working with your data files directly in MetaStock.
