Discussing the article: "Automating Terminal Startup for Service Tasks"

[MetaQuotes]

Check out the new article: Automating Terminal Startup for Service Tasks.

The article explores the possibility of launching a terminal with a configuration file to perform automated routine tasks, programmatically handling such launches, and creating a fully-fledged system for auto-optimizing an EA using Windows OS tools.

Let's imagine this situation: We have a simple trading EA running all the time and would like to re-optimize it from time to time based on the most recent trading history. This means that we should periodically, for example, once a week or a month, run the optimization of its parameters and look at the results for new optimal settings for its parameters. This process can be automated so that the client terminal launches automatically, for example, on weekends at a specified time, runs our EA in the optimizer, and creates an XML file based on the results, from which we can select the desired optimal parameter values. Once optimization is complete and the report file is generated, the terminal closes, and all we have to do is launch the report file from the terminal data folder to analyze it.

In addition, if the EA, when launched from the configuration file in the tester, should do additional things, but at the same time should avoid doing the same things in the combat mode, then we can, by analyzing the MQL_STARTED_FROM_CONFIG flag, make a branch in the program to handle such a launch. This could be, for example, an analysis of the latest trading history, taking screenshots of the screen with trades, and so on. We can easily do all this using the new capabilities of the client terminal.

Author: Artyom Trishkin

[Dragan Drenjanin]

I don’t usually comment on articles, but this one deserves a comment. Well done. Well done!

[Slava]

There is one point the author did not mention.

If you run the script from the config file (not for testing or optimisation using historical data, but specifically the script using current data!), the terminal continues to run once the script has finished executing.

If you insert the following lines at the end of the script

   if(MQLInfoInteger(MQL_STARTED_FROM_CONFIG))
      TerminalClose(some_return_code);

the client terminal will be shut down once the script has finished running.

Furthermore, the exit code can be processed in the terminal’s launch batch file.

[Artyom Trishkin]

Slava used to launch the terminal.

Thanks, Slava, I’d missed that...

[Artyom Trishkin]

Slava used to launch the terminal.

I have updated and expanded the article in the ‘Programmatic processing of startup from a configuration file’ section.

Thank you, Slava.