Iefolder

iefolder is used to set up standardized project folder structures with master do-files and to add to them as the project expands.

This article is meant to describe use cases, work flow and the reasoning used when developing the commands. For instructions on how to use the command specifically in Stata and for a complete list of the options available, see the help files by typing help iefolder in Stata. This command is a part of the package ietoolkit, to install all the commands in this package including this command, type ssc install ietoolkit in Stata.

Intended use cases

This command is intended to set up folder structure for a new project. The folder structure template used by this command is DIME's folder structure template described in the DataWork folder page. Our strong recommendation is that all organizations should have a standardized folder structure, and that all individual projects should set up their own or someone else's standardized folder structure, but this structure can of course differ in many ways compare to DIME's folder structure. iefolder makes it easy to set up DIME's standardized folder structure in a new project.

iefolder also makes it easy to add folders as needed to project folders that was initially set up by iefolder as the project moves forward and need more sub-folders. See more details in the work flow section below.

Instructions

These instructions are meant to help you understand how to use the command. For technical instructions on how to implement the command in Stata see the help files by typing help iefolder in Stata. At the start of project, iefolder is used to set up the project folder based on DIME's project folder template. See the link for a detailed description of the folder structure, this article will focus on how to use the command.

The first time you set up a project folder you use the new project to set up the top folder DataWork and the main master do-file. For the command to work properly you may not change the name of this folder or do-file. You set the project up like this:

global folder "C:\Users\username\DropBox\ProjectABC" //Update this to your folder
iefolder new project, projectfolder("$folder")

After you have created the project folder you can use iefolder add the folders to the project folder according to the need of your project. The type of folders you can add is unit of observation folder, round foulder and subfolder folder.

global folder "C:\Users\username\DropBox\ProjectABC" //Update this to your folder

//Create a place where to store all time invariant data on households and clinics
iefolder new unitofobs households, projectfolder("$folder")
iefolder new unitofobs clinics, projectfolder("$folder")

//Create a subfolder for all baseline rounds can be organized
iefolder new subfolder baseline, projectfolder("$folder")

//Create a folder for each data collection activity, see that they are organized into the subfolder
iefolder new round farmer_baseline, projectfolder("$folder") subfolder(baseline)
iefolder new round clincs_baseline, projectfolder("$folder") subfolder(baseline)

Note that you do not have to create all these folders at the time when the project folder is set up in the first place. You can add these folders as the need arise throughout the duration of the project. Remember to not change the names of the folders or master do-files that iefolder creates as the command might not work as intended then.

Reasoning used during development

The decisions in this command follows the decisions made when developing the DIME's folder structure template described in the DataWork folder page. See that page for more details.

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This article is part of the topic ietoolkit