This article explains how to add the ability to use user-created ADO files in your Stata session on the Virtual Lab.
Q and A section
How do I add the ability to use user-created ADO files in your Stata session on Virtual Lab.
The solution is to set your ADO personal directory space in Stata to a location on your personal computer in which you downloaded the appropriate ADO files. For example, if I have downloaded ADO files that I wish to use to my computer to “C:\users\myusername\documents\stataado”, here is the command I would use to set this directory as a personal location in Stata:
.sysdir set PERSONAL “\\client\c$\users\myusername\documents\stataado” (Do not cut and paste as it might cause issues)
In these commands “myusername”, is referring to the username on your computer which may not be the same as your onyen.
If you would like to be able to download a user-created ADO in Stata via an “SSC install” command, here is the command to change the ado plus storage location for those files (in this example the “statado” folder is a folder on the local machine where the downloaded files will be sent to):
.sysdir set PLUS “\\client\c$\users\myusername\documents\stataado” (Do not cut and paste as it might cause issues)
Please note that the Stata command portion is case sensitive (though the path should not be) and you also have to make sure to allow local drive access in Virtual Lab for this to work (write-access in the case of the second example). Once you download the files to your local computer, the next time you use Stata in Virtual Lab, you should be able to run the first command and not need to download it again. Once you set the path, you should then be able to use the user defined ADO in your Stata session. Also, please note that you will need to set your Personal Stata directory each time you launch Stata from Virtual Lab.