development management - where do I store and work with my EA Program?

[Christopher Steven Pinter]

Hello,

I am creating a EA program and it is getting quite large.  It has many files now.   These files are created using the Meta Editor but I have made a copy inside my "documents folder" on my MAC. So...I now have two copies of the same program,  which is not a good development practice. I really need these files stored in one place and be able to develop the program, manage the file versions and run it on Metatrader5.   I need a simple way of getting to the files, moving them around and running it from into Metatrader5.

I need to be able to share, edit and run this program both inside and outside MT5 / Meta Editor.

How do I work from my documents from my "documents folder" instead of the metatrader5 file system?  Can I do this?

How do I get this group of files into Metatrader5 so someone else can test it?

How do I work with these files as a software developer?  

Any help would be great.

Chris

[Dominik Egert]

There are multiple options to go about your requirements. Some of them are:

GitHub, Dropbox, MQL Shared Storage, OneDrive. To name a few.

For local path management you can use symlinks or Filelinks, depending on your OS.

That should cover your needs.

Do some research on them, there are threads on this forum concerning these topics.

[Christopher Steven Pinter]

Symlink for filelink will allow me to use one location to store my files and still be able to open those files inside the mq5 environment.  I like this....Thanks,

https://www.howtogeek.com/297721/how-to-create-and-use-symbolic-links-aka-symlinks-on-a-mac/

How do I port the files to a new machine?  Do I need to search for the MQ5 file location and copy them?   When I do this I still cannot see the files in the maket watch window.   The only way I have been able to add the mq5 file is by doing a copy of the text within the file....then create a new mq5 file inside meta editor and paste the file data....then it will appear in the market watch window.

There should be a better way?.....such as import.