We just released new version of the ChartsAccess Metatrader Add-on that fixes an issue with charts that contain non-english letters in object descriptions, custom indicator parameters or custom indicator file names.

This bug caused chart transfer failure, so if you recently tried to use ChartsAccess without success then I recommend to grab the new version from here:

http://www.chartsaccess.com/download/camtaddon-win32-2.0.5-install.exe

and give it a try.

Many thanks to XiaoHui from http://blog.sina.com.cn/szczsc for helping me to track and fix this issue.

We’ve  just updated chartsaccess service with a new version of the Add-on. In this release we’ve changed the chart time period used by Add-on gather bar data.

Some of you reported that there was not always one full week of data on an M1 chart. Add-on needs to know how many bars there are on an M1 chart to be able to show trend lines properly.

The new version will use an M5 chart instead of M1. This will also save you some scrolling when the ChartsAccess Expert Advisor is added to a chart that hasn’t had much history data loaded yet.

We are still working hard on big new features that will include trade support, live charts with fast zooming and fast period change, so stay tuned for more news!

There is a great news from development battlefield. We are moving forward and today the first BUY trade order was sent from the ChartsAccess service to Metatrader and executed successfully.

What does this mean?

The basic infrastructure for handling trade orders is done. All the servers, connections and tools are ready. All we need to do is to add the rest of order types, web forms for modifying and closing existing orders.

If you are waiting for MT4 mobile trading with a phone without the Windows Mobile OS on board – subscribe to newsletter on the bottom of this page. This feature will be available soon!

We have just released version 2.0 of ChartsAccess service. This is a major upgrade that fixes a lot bugs and has some new features.

You can grab it with the following link:

http://www.chartsaccess.com/download/camtaddon-win32-2.0.0-install.exe

A quick summary of changes:

Fixed Add-on malfunction that occurred when a custom indicator with literal input
parameters was attached to a chart. You do not need to modify custom indicator source code to make it work. One restart of Metatrader is needed after such custom indicator has been attached to a chart. New communication method allows to refresh quotes and indicator data every 5 seconds and chart objects every 10 seconds. Version 1.0 used a 30 seconds refresh period.

ChartsAccess Expert Advisor now shows on chart what it is doing. No more confusion why the chart is not online yet. It reports data gathering progress, chart data transmission progress and errors. You do not need to switch to the Add-on window to see if a chart has been correctly prepared for online access.

Add-on shows quotes received from Metatrader. This helps to verify if Add-on is sending chart data correctly for web access.

No “resend chart data…” option – it is not needed anymore.

Old versions of ChartsAccess Add-on will not work with 2.0 version of the service, so please upgrade before trying again. If you have already registered for the trial version your trial period has been reset and extended until 15 October 2011. We had to introduce incompatibility with 1.0.x version of Add-on to be able to support more features in the future. We are sorry for this inconvenience.

If you need more features like trading or analytics tools please let us know. We appreciate any information about the road of improvement that we should take in the future development of our service.

This article is now obsolete. ChartsAccess 2.0 works fine with custom indicators that have literal input parameters.

The version 1.0 of ChartsAccess Metatrader Add-on does not support custom indicators that have at least one literal input parameter. You can recognize literal (string) input parameters by the “ab” icon on the indicator input list:

We are working to get rid of this limitation in the version 2 of our Add-on. In the meanwhile here are simple steps that will allow you to use such indicators with chartsaccess.com.

Prerequisites

You need to have a source file for your custom indicator. If you don’t have source code the only option is to wait for version 2 of ChartsAccess Add-on. You can subscribe to our newsletter below to get notified about the release.

Your custom indicator must not use literal input parameters for anything but comments or documentation for other inputs. In this workaround we will remove all literal input parameters from your indicator to make it work with ChartsAccess service. If you are not sure if any of literal parameters are used by indicator for calculations do not worry – it will turn out after doing steps described below.

Optional step: If you are using Vista or Windows 7 and your Metatrader is installed in Program Files I recommend reinstalling it to C:\users\your_user_name This will save you a lot of headaches related to new windows security system (called UAC).

Make it work

Right click on your indicator in the Metatrader navigator window and select “Modify”:

An editor with the indicator source file will appear. Save the file under new name – this way you can always use original file in case when something go wrong.

Custom indicator inputs are usually near the beginning of the file. All inputs begins with a word “extern”. Literal parameters are defined in lines that starts with “extern string”. Navigate from the beginning of the file and locate all lines that starts with “extern string”:

Now you will  ”turn off” those parameters. This will remove entries from the custom indicator input list. To do it just add two slashes at the beginning of the line. The entire line will turn into grey:

Save the file and click “compile”.  You should see “0 errors” in the bottom editor window:

If there was an error it usually means that your custom indicator is using literal parameter for calculations or other operations. In this case you need to contact author to make necessary changes to the code. You can undo all changes or just delete modified file if you saved it under different name than original.

Now you can switch back to the terminal and re-add your custom indicator to the chart. Remember to use the one with new name. On the input list there should be no more literal input parameters. After adding ChartsAccess Expert Advisor to the chart you will be able to access it from mobile or web browser.

Suppose you see a candle not so far in the past on the D1 chart and you want to check how this candle has been built on a M15 timeframe. Changing timeframe to M15 will position the chart starting from the first candle that was visible on D1 chart:

For the candles far in the past you could scroll the chart and position your candle in question to be the first visible candle from the left. But this method will not work for over a dozen last candles. You cannot scroll them that way.

There are two tools that you can use to control chart positioning after changing timeframe. If you use them you will never have to scroll back and forth to find the beginning and the end of the candle time period.

The magic of the bottom triangle.

There is a grey triangle on chart bottom edge. Drag this triangle with a mouse and move it to your candle:

Now when you change timeframe to M15 the first candle that the triangle will point to will match the time when the candle from the D1 chart was started to be built:

Now you can switch between timeframes without a feeling that Metatrader shows random date range every time you switch.

Word of caution:
There is one exception to this rule: Metatrader needs to have history data to be able to position your chart on a shorter timeframe. If you select a candle that is far, far away on D1 chart and there is no data on the M5 chart then Metatrader will show the first available candle on M5 from history.

A rectangle as a date range visualizer.

The second tool that you can use to get a better view is a rectangle. Switch back to D1 and draw a small rectangle from the candle in question to the edge of the next candle. Be careful to cover both shadows of the candle:

Now when you switch to H1 your rectangle will cover all the candles that the D1 candle was built from:

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Two important features have been added to ChartsAccess Metatrader Add-on in version 1.0.6:

• ChartsAccess Expert Advisor now outputs information about collecting history data.
• ChartsAccess Metatrader Add-on has more chart statuses to better inform what is going on.

The previous version of the Add-on reported that a chart was active (which means that it can be viewed from a web service) after the chart description was sent to our server. This caused confusion when you were trying to display your chart on a mobile phone and ended with message that there is no data yet.

This was happening because indicator data and quotes history were always sent a little bit later than chart objects, windows and labels.

Now you can monitor the whole synchronization process, which basically looks like this:

1. ChartsAccess Expert Advisor is added to a chart. The chart description (window sizes, colors, objects, indicator configuration)  is sent to a web service.
2. The Add-on reads this data and tells the Expert Advisor to create quotes history and compute indicator data. At this step our EA outputs the “generating history data” message and starts computing indicator values.
3. The Add-on displays “waiting for history data” message. When the Add-on receives data from the EA it shows the “sending indicator data” message.
4. After the history data has been created and sent to the Add-on, the Expert Advisor enters the “sync mode”. In this mode it sends only recent changes to the Add-on. This is also reported by Add-on: chart status is changed to “active”.

Indicator data computation can be a lengthy process. Depending on how many indicators are there on your chart and how complex they are, it can take a long time for Metatrader to compute data for the Add-on. If you see the “waiting for history data” message for a long time you can set “Diagnostic Messages” to true when adding Expert Advisor and watch which indicator causes the delay.

The Add-on version can be checked in the about box. If you have version earlier than 1.0.6 please download the latest one from here.

Welcome to the ChartsAccess blog. We run a service that allows you to access your Metatrader charts from any mobile phone.

Through this blog we’ll post all news related to our service, enhancement  ideas, Metatrader tips and tricks and more.

Stay tuned!

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