adodown—a framework for Stata package development

Kristoffer Bjarkefur and Arthur Shaw
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Kristoffer Bjarkefur: The World Bank, DIME/LSMS
Arthur Shaw: World Bank, DIME/LSMS

2024 Stata Conference from Stata Users Group

Abstract: adodown aims to make Stata packages easier for both developers to create and users to understand. For developers, adodown offers workflow commands that automate manual tasks at each stage of development. At project's start, adodown creates the necessary scaffolding for the package (folders, pkg-file, etc). For each package command, it uses templates to create necessary files (i.e., ado, documentation, unit test) and adds appropriate entries in the pkg-file. For documentation, it allows developers to draft in plain Markdown while creating standard help files in SMCL. And for publication, adodown collects the required files, puts them in proper format, and prepares a zip file for SSC submission. Also, adodown automatically deploys a package documentation website. For users, this provides an easy way to discover packages, to understand what they do, and to explore how commands work—all without installing the package. For developers, this provides packages with a welcome web presence and offers a home for additional documentation (e.g., how-to guides, technical notes, FAQs) and keeps HTML documentation up to date with SMCL documentation through continuous deployment via GitHub Actions. This talk will demonstrate how adodown works, showcase a few live examples, and seek feedback from the Stata community.

Date: 2024-08-04
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