Chart Study Profile Manager (CSPM)

aka Chart-study overlay manager (to avoid confusion)


CSPM is a tool that makes it easy and intuitive to manage different chart-study-profiles. Unlike other programs that overwrite the default template to manage a single set of studies, CSPM serializes chart objects/state and saves, loads, and manages groups of chart-object-studies into segregated profiles (bin files) which are controlled by a discrete toolbar at the top of the chart. Switching between time-frames and/or symbols is seamless and persistent due to the way it loads/saves the objects and object-states to disk. CSPM creates the opportunity to create an unlimited number of unique chart-study-profiles and also gives the trader the ability to visually combine separate profiles by overlapping on the same chart simply by selecting deselecting the profile button in the toolbar.

https://github.com/nicholishen/Chart...ileManagerMql4

Changelog:
Updated to v00.00.02 - 2018/01/23

1. Fixed bug with ellipse
2. Changed tooltip for clear button.
3. Added feature to toggle profiles with the corresponding number keys.
4. Added feature to colorize the active profile button (green)

This has nothing todo with the built in MT4 Profiles (which are more like "desktops") but your chart profiles are symbol specific?

Yes symbol specific. Each "profile" is a persistent collection of chart studies for that symbol. This does not have anything to do with template. So this runs on top of whatever template you want so you can markup your charts in different ways to be able to toggle/overlay groups of studies.

A good example for practical use... Let's say you want to markup a chart with a bullish bias with profile 1 selected. Once finished you'd toggle off 1 and select a different profile to markup with a bearish bias. Once finished you overlay both to ensure you have a congruent perspective.

Another use would be to markup different perspectives from MTF and overlay.

It seems very ineresting and useful. Where do we put the ex4 file, Indicators or Experts?

Indicators folder....

Thank you. Have a happy new year...

Hi Nicholishen,

Another great tool from you, thanks.

I'm still getting used to it, but I have a few initial impressions and suggestions.

* Since it has nothing to do with MT4 "Profiles", the word "Profile" is a bit misleading. No big deal, but I've been thinking of alternatives:
Chart Study Object-Set Manager
Chart Study Object Overlay Manager
Chart Study Overlay Manager

* I assume that just the .ex4 is needed in Indicators\ folder. I see that to compile, one puts the .mq4 and the folders all under Indicators\

* Your choice of: #property version "00.00.01"
... causes a nuisance compiler warning (which can be ignored of course) :
version is incompatible with MQL5 Market, must be xxx.yyy ChartStudyProfileManager.mq4 8 19

I'm curious: Is that choice of version somehow better for your use of github?

* (Bug) I notice that ellipses do not property restore the Scale property. It sets it to 1.618 which ends up as a flat ellipse (a line).

* The UI might need a little tweaking with respect to which set is receiving new objects. The last one selected gets the new objects, which... there is no visible clue which set that is, when more than one are checked.

Suppose I create a couple of sets, 1 and 2. I intend for these to be static/master sets, at least for awhile. But I want to add some more objects and NOT pollute either of the original sets, so, I turn on 3. So long as it's the last one turned on, it collects the new objects. But if I toggle 1, or toggle 2, whichever, that becomes the "current" set for new objects, but... there is no visual indicator this is true.

After using it more, I might get used to it, but it seems I'll be doing a lot of clicking off/on of "3" (or "5" of 5) just to be sure it's my current set that gets the new objects.

I guess what I'm getting at is I'd like a way to have some set visible but not getting changed (unless it's clear I am intending to make a change).

This idea just came to me: Add a set "L" (for Local chart objects). These will not pass from chart to chart, and when selected, takes precedence over any other set chosen. If "on", it would mean any new objects added are local, and do not add to any selected set.

How you might implement this depends on lots of variables, but one would be whether there is a 3-way-visible status for each button, for basically off/read/write modes? If no way, then you might consider that the highest # button selected is considered the "current" set. Just my suggestion, take it or leave it or modify as desired.

* Does a single click on the "C" (clear) button do anything? It flashes selected then off. I read that double-click clears the current object-set. If only a double-click works, I suggest to update the tooltip to change "Press to clear ..." to "Double-Click to clear ..."

* I notice a few messages in the Experts log:
2017.12.29 13:34:39.956 ChartStudyProfileManager USDCADpro,H1: VProfile::Load <!!> invalid function parameter value
2017.12.29 13:31:21.979 ChartStudyProfileManager USDCADpro,H1: __error: object add error: no error

I'm not yet sure what's causing them.

* Suppose I add a new object to a set. If some of my own tools rename the object, it drops out of the set. I don't see any way to get an existing object (as-is after I renamed it) added into a set. I tried delete then un-delete but that didn't work. Any ideas?


Thanks again.
Kent (pips4life)

I experienced the same issues Kent. I think with a few tweaks that this can be a very tool to use on a daily basis. Just like most, I do my markups and would love a way to hide them on the same chart. My idea was to keep the drawn objects associated with each TF (monthly, weekly & daily) and when I want them all I just select the toggles. I also like your suggestion as well for adding an "L" set.

Nicholishen, great job on the development! This could turn out to be a great lifesaver! Please consider the above suggestions. Thanks!

Nice, i am planning on developing something similar for MT.

The idea is to:

- Bind the hide/show functions to keyboard inputs (1-9). I am not fan of screen cluttering nor "Woops, miss-click" accidents while scrolling.
- It should be able to hide indicator objects aswell. This is a bit problematic as most of them repaint on a new tick basis, but i guess there must be a way to quickly remove/add or change their color settings.
- You should be able to select what kind of objects are hidden by typing in the objects suffix names on the E.A Inputs and also have a "show/hide all" option.

Will share as soon i build, and will build as soon as i can renew my coding platform subscription.

Nevertheless, thanks for sharing yours

I missed the notifications on this thread for some reason - so I'm just now catching up. These are all great suggestions, and here is what I'm thinking for the next release...

1. Name: I thought Chart Study Profile Manager was an appropriate description for the tool, however, I now see where things could get confusing. In hindsight I should have hyphenated the title as Chart-Study-Profile Manager.
2. Version number: I freaking hate MQL's version numbering because V1.0 implies that the tool has made it past beta. This is still what I would consider to be early Beta. It doesn't hurt anything to assign it the version number as I have since I have no intention on publishing this to the marketplace.
3. Active profile: I also have experienced frustration with how you need to toggle on/off the profile in order to remember/establish the active profile. I'm not a fan of the "local profile" idea (sorry pips), however, I think an excellent compromise would be toggling the color of the active profile button so there's a visual reference of which profile is accepting the new chart studies.
4. Keystrokes: I like the idea of toggling profiles with keystrokes, however, I feel that the visual reference needs to persist because things will get too confusing without it. ...they apparent already are with it
5. Bugs: noted and hopefully ironed out in the next release!

Additional notes:
The profiles are designed in a way that the user is responsible for assigning the meaning/use to each profile. Trader A may want to reserve profile #1 for bullish sentiment and #2 for bearish; while Trader B may want to reserve them for different TFs. It's up to the discretion of the trader how to assign the use/meaning/role of the individual profiles.

As far as indicators go; let's face it, 99% of them are slapped together with lazy-code that doesn't take into consideration any proper naming conventions or object handling -- it's like, "let's create them with random unique names and if I want to remove them then I'll just call ObjectsDeleteAll." In short there's no way to properly manage someone else's poorly coded indicator. Working with indicators and indicator derived chart-objects was never the intention for this tool, and as such will remain an unexplored feature within this fork.

Stay tuned...

Ok, it is now updated to version 00.00.02 and there are some much needed feature additions which should address all of your concerns. The only suggestion I didn't implement was the L button since a non-selected (no green profiles) profile is the same thing. Let me know what you think. Changelog and file in OP

Hi Nicholishen,

The UI changes are good, getting closer. Some comments:

* Regarding your comment , "In hindsight I should have hyphenated the title as Chart-Study-Profile Manager."
It's easy to miss, but for a limited time at least, a thread OP can click on "Admin" and can change the title. (It used to allow title changes forever, but I see there's now a time limit and I don't know how long that is).

* Open a completely blank chart. Add the indicator. Save it as a template, e.g. "test1". Now just load the template.
The Experts log file has an error, I suppose due to the uninit reason though I didn't debug:

0 13:59:37.721 ChartStudyProfileManager AUDUSDpro,H1: uninit reason 7
1 13:59:37.722 ChartStudyProfileManager AUDUSDpro,H1: incorrect casting of pointers in 'list_buttons.mqh' (30,4) <=========
0 13:59:37.725 Custom indicator ChartStudyProfileManager AUDUSDpro,H1: removed
0 13:59:37.749 Custom indicator ChartStudyProfileManager AUDUSDpro,H1: loaded successfully

* I like your UI improvements. I also have some more suggestions:

Scenario:
Start with no button selected.
At present: 1st click on "1" goes to green/write mode. 2nd click on "1" turns it off, but if instead the 2nd click is on "2", now "1" is read-only, and "2" is now green/write.

There is no way to make "1" go from green/write mode to just read mode other than to select another "2" - "N" button, which always makes the later green/write mode, even if I don't want to write to another set. After I've done major work to create some set, then I just want to read the set and use it, not necessarily change it or create another.

One proposal (A):
Since only a double-click on the "C" button does anything (it clears a green/write mode cell), may I suggest that a single-click on the "C" button do something:
1) If one of the buttons is in green/write mode, then ONLY change that button to read mode.
2) If none of the buttons are in green/write mode, but at least one is read mode, then deselect ALL of them.
(... optional 3)
3) If none are read or write mode (i.e. all are off), then a single click on "C" would turn back on the last-cleared set of read-mode buttons (by "b").
(Obviously this is counter-intuitive to the meaning of "C" as "Clear", because it's doing the opposite. But on the other hand, why would one need to click on "C" if nothing is selected?? But if one did by accident, than merely another click on "C" does "2" which makes all de-selected. Using "C" for this additional purpose is great for toggling between the-selected-sets on, vs. turn them all off).

4) or ... If you don't like using button "C" for this 3rd option, should there be another button? On/off ("E" for enable?) would be the meaning, which saves the current status of all buttons, turns them off, but if already off, turns the last set back on. (For this purpose, one could actually restore one of them back to "write" mode).
(Let's call this proposal A.4 for a new On/Off button instead of A.3)


AND/OR ... Another proposal (B):

At present, each button has 3 status's (off/write/read). When you interact with just one button, it toggles (write/off/write/off ...)
Change the toggling to either:
1) read/write/off/ (repeat) <=== my preference
or 2) write/read/off (repeat)


I would think that "1)" is better. Very often one would like to read the saved objects on any number of charts. Less often, one will want to edit and make changes, so it justifies a 2nd click to go into write-mode.

Along with proposal (A), then the "C" button is useful to go from write to just read mode.

Just to be clear, I best like these proposals, A.123 and B.1 (And if you don't like A.3, then I suggest instead proposal A.4 )

Until it's implemented and one gets to play around and feel the UI, it's hard to be sure, but I think these would work well.



* A major source of confusion for me is... I can have two same symbol charts open at the same time, both of them in *write* mode. They fight each other. I am seeing very strange interactions, having assumed that I wrote some objects from one chart, but they don't reflect in the other chart, at least not right away. There may be differences whether I create an object vs. move an existing object. I'm not sure.

But it is confusing me, as I am never sure what have I just changed and safely saved it, or will it be undone by another chart. I don't always notice that I have >= 2 charts in write mode. Edits in one don't reflect real-time in another.

I find myself thinking I made a change, but then discover it didn't write in a way updated for use in other charts. But on the chart I'm using, toggling the button shows the objects as they are on the given chart.

Should any "write" mode ON automatically turn off "write" mode on other same-symbol charts? I foresee some difficulties with "closing" a write mode button and not losing any edits, but then taking over the "write" mode by a chart which was read mode but becomes write mode, but isn't quite synchronized.


This topic is really complicated. I don't know what can be done about this, but to reduce the emphasis on "write" mode coming up *always* when you turn on a button could be helpful to reduce confusion. Hence, proposal "B.1" should help reduce the frequency of problems. (Because each button would be from off/read/write/ (repeat), so just to read -- which is most common(?) -- only takes one button and it never interferes with what is saved).




* I notice that for a given symbol, whatever is saves applies to all timeframes. That's a good feature, and I'm sure I wouldn't want to completely isolate by period+timeframes. However, it's also clear that a short TF object is useless on larger timeframes and vice-versa. Suppose I want to have both small, medium, and large TF's of stored objects.

Do you have a use-model in mind? Just use more buttons, so say 1-5 for short, 6-10 for higher. (Whatever I decide?).

Would it make sense at all to have another set of status buttons that somehow incorporates TF focus? I don't have any clear idea in mind to suggest.


* Not sure what to do about this, but...

I can imagine I will be frustrated sometimes when I'm looking at a chart with several read-modes on. Maybe I have made some changes by adding to the chart new objects, and/or maybe I've moved some object(s).

Since I am read-only mode, my changes are out-of-sync with what is saved. I'm not sure of any way to get the changes to propagate back into either the original set (for modified objects), or into some new set to take -- after the fact -- what I have added, and NOT include the objects that are part of other sets.

I don't have a suggestion for what to do about it. I guess if I want to save anything new and/or changes to existing, I must remember to go into write-mode before I make the changes.

Perhaps if I could turn off all-but-one set, leaving only objects that are not part of any. If I could add all existing objects into a blank set, it would be like a "Save-as" feature.

Or if I have just one set as read-only, BUT I have made some edit to an object (or added more), again, a "Save-as" feature would be how I could update some set after-the-fact.

What about some kind of Save-As feature? Possible?


Thanks again for this tool!


Kent (pips4life)

Thanks for the feedback, and I appreciate the thorough write-up! I really like your B1 proposal, that one makes the most sense to me so I've implemented it in this new beta. As far as the remaining challenges, they would require a much more programmatically intensive solution in order to sync objects from chart to chart and track which changes get saved etc...

I find this tool most amazing concept, the problem that I am having is when I put it on the chart it doesn't work. For instance I click the (1) button put on some text and fibs, then I click the (1) button to off position and nothing disappears. Am I missing some information? I would really like this to work for me because I do a lot of studies.
Thank you
Rick

Hi Rick,

The newest version has implementented some interesting trickery which allows greater control over which studies are added to the profiles. In short, each profile button is a three-way toggle. Click once and display previously saved studies, twice and the button turns green indicating that the profile is in save mode and ready to accept new studies, and finally a third click which removes save studies. It's important to remember that if you are dropping new studies on the chart when a profile is not in save mode (green) then you are working with that object in a temporary scope and it will be deleted when the chart closes. My advice is that if you are marking up a chart that you want to recall later then make sure you have the appropriate profile selected and running in save mode.

Somehow I missed those details, it is working great don't know how to thank you enough.

Nikolishen, i like this utility very much. I would make A LOT of sense of it in my routine if i would be able to differentiate buttons - i use 4 contexts (which you call profiles/overlays)

Buttons could differentiate in any of this way:
- with color of background, OR
- with color of font, OR
- with type of windings to appear on the button, OR
- with combination of 2 letters on the button

Would you develope any of this to differentaite the buttons ? I am willing to donate reasonable amount if you decide to spend your precious time on it.

Alternatively maybe you tell me where exactly is color defined - in which piece of code and i will try myself.

I see many errors like shown in the attachment when I click for example 1 (when I want to add/record new objects to the charts)

Greetings Nicholishen
may i ask are here any version from this amazing indi for mt5
if no do you have any alternative solution
blessing and thank you

Hi Nicholishen,

1. Could u pls change the code, so Chart Study Profile Manager (CSPM) will display in sub windows ( not in main chart windows ) or we can have option to add Chart Study Profile Manager (CSPM) in main windows or sub windows ?
2. And the position the Chart Study Profile Manager (CSPM) not just in "TOP CENTER MAIN CHART" but we have option to display Chart Study Profile Manager (CSPM) in "TOP RIGHT CORNER" or "TOP LEFT CORNER" or "BOTTOM LEFT CORNER" or " BOTTOM RIGHT CORNER" ?

Sorry for my pure English and thanks advance for your help.
Hudson