EViews 7 Add-Ins

At the heart of the EViews 7.1 upgrade is a new, easy-to-use EViews Add-ins infrastructure that provides seamless access to user-defined programs using the standard EViews command, menu, and object interface.

Add-ins offer you an exciting new way of running EViews programs. You may readily define Add-ins that augment the EViews language with user-defined commands, specify new menu entries for point-and-click program interaction, and display program output in standard EViews object windows.

Using Add-ins, you can add user-defined features of power and sophistication that are virtually indistinguishable from built-in features. Get started by downloading and installing any of the Add-ins currently available on the EViews website (with the promise of more to come).

The Add-In Infrastructure

An EViews Add-in is a program which extends the functionality of EViews. Any EViews program file is a candidate to be an Add-in.

What makes an Add-in more than just an ordinary EViews program is the degree to which it may be integrated with the rest of EViews. With just a bit of effort, an EViews Add-in may be designed so it is virtually indistinguishable from a built-in feature.

In particular, the Add-in infrastructure allows you to:

• Specify a user-defined single-word global or object-specific command which may be used to run the Add-in program.
• Add entries to EViews main and object menus to offer point-and-click execution of the display Add-in output in standard EViews object windows.

Using Add-Ins

Once installed and configured, you can use the Add-in just like any in-built EViews routine.

Issue an Add-in object command or open an object and select the Add-in menu item, and EViews will run an object-specific program. Or enter a global command or select the corresponding main menu item and EViews will run the global program.

Used alongside new EViews 7 features for creating dialogs and customizing output, the only limit is your imagination.

Downloading Add-Ins

All EViews users may benefit immediately by installing prepackaged Add-ins which add functionality to EViews. A single click is all that you need to download and install any of the Add-ins currently available on the EViews website, with the promise of more to come.

The easiest way to get started using Add-ins in EViews 7.1 is to download and install an Add-in package from the EViews website. Simply go to the main menu in EViews 7.1 and select Add-ins/Download Add-ins:

to open your browser and navigate to the EViews website where you may read the descriptions of the various Add-ins packages. Alternately, you may manually point your browser to http://www.eviews.com/Addins/addins.shtml to display the Add-ins page, where you may examine the currently available selection of predefined Add-In packages.

To download an Add-in package to your computer, simply click on package name. Your browser will prompt you to open the file using EViews. Click on OK and EViews will do the rest.

More Info

Since Add-ins are a new feature of EViews 7.1, they are not documented in the printed EViews 7 manuals. For additional detail, see the electronic documentation provided with your EViews 7.1 update.

To access the EViews 7.1 Help system discussion of Add-ins, you may click on the Add-ins Help button on the Add-ins management dialog. The latter is accessed from the main EViews menu by selecting Manage Add-ins... Alternately, you may select Help/Quick Help Reference/What's New in EViews 7.1 for information of Add-ins and other new EViews 7.1 features.

To access the EViews 7.1 supplemental PDF documentation, select Help/EViews 7.1 Supplement (pdf) from the main menu, or navigate to the Docs subdirectory of your EViews installation.