Comments on: Accessing the Matlab Editor

By: Rex

Rex — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 01:30:45 +0000

Hi, Yair
This function works. I want to add a button to the Editor, with the same function. Or change the function of “Run” button.

By: Yair Altman

Yair Altman — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:45:25 +0000

@Rex - Windows shortcuts cannot be run via the dos function, as far as I know. Instead, you need to refer to the actual file location (not a shortcut). Also, you might need to use winopen rather than dos.

By: Rex Deng

Rex Deng — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:53:02 +0000

hi, Yair Altman, i want to add a run function of VBScript codes in the editor, now i just make a shortcut in the matlab desktop like this. can you give me some help? thanks a lot!

try
    % Matlab 7
    desktop = com.mathworks.mde.desk.MLDesktop.getInstance;
    jEditor = desktop.getGroupContainer('Editor').getTopLevelAncestor;
    % we get a com.mathworks.mde.desk.MLMultipleClientFrame object
catch
    % Matlab 6
    % Unfortunately, we can't get the Editor handle from the Desktop handle in Matlab 6:
    %desktop = com.mathworks.ide.desktop.MLDesktop.getMLDesktop;
    % So here's the workaround for Matlab 6:
    openDocs = com.mathworks.ide.editor.EditorApplication.getOpenDocuments;  % a java.util.Vector
    firstDoc = openDocs.elementAt(0);  % a com.mathworks.ide.editor.EditorViewContainer object
    jEditor = firstDoc.getParent.getParent.getParent;
    % we get a com.mathworks.mwt.MWTabPanel or com.mathworks.ide.desktop.DTContainer object
end
jEditor.toFront;
title = jEditor.getTitle;
currentFilename = char(title.replaceFirst('Editor - ',''));
if isequal(lower(currentFilename(end-3:end)),'.vbs')
    [s,w]=dos(currentFilename);
else
    error('The current file is not *.vbs file!');
end

By: kristian svartveit

kristian svartveit — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:31:02 +0000

Would it be possible to add functionality to the context menu? I would like to be able to evaluate a function with the selected text as input, i.e size() of the variable i right-clicked on.

By: Punit

Punit — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:28:37 +0000

Hi Yair,
Thanks a lot. That article is really helpful
-Punit

By: Yair Altman

Yair Altman — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:07:56 +0000

@Punit – instead of re-parenting the Editor document as you had attempted, why not use one of the simpler options suggested in http://undocumentedmatlab.com/blog/syntax-highlighted-labels-panels/?

-Yair

By: Punit

Punit — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:33:11 +0000

Hi Yair,
Thanks a lot for undocumented matlab articles, those are really helpful.
I’m trying to build a GUI which has matlab editor in the figure. Currently I can use following program to show the editor in my GUE

edit('test.m')
desktop = com.mathworks.mde.desk.MLDesktop.getInstance;
editors=desktop.getGroupMembers('Editor');
CurrEdit=editors(end);
hedit=javacomponent(CurrEdit,pos,gcf);

but, a blank editor window still remains open, and when I close that window, the program displayed in the matlab figure is also closed. Is there any other way I can bring the editor in a matlab figure? I think this is not impossible because the GUI of s-function editor block in simulink has that facility.
Thanks
-Punit

By: Yair Altman

Yair Altman — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 09:28:16 +0000

@Ralf – in R2010b (Matlab 7.11), the Java class interface has changed. In R2010b, we get the editor handle as follows:

editorservices = com.mathworks.mlservices.MLEditorServices;
jEditorApp = editorservices.getEditorApplication;

The method names and parameters have also changed from those of the pre-R2010b Java class. Each edited document now has a separate com.mathworks.mde.editor.MatlabEditor object. The jEditorApp.getActiveEditor() method returns the MatlabEditor object for the currently-edited document; the other documents can be retrieved using jEditorApp.getOpenEditors(), which returns a java.util.Collections.UnmodifiableList of such MatlabEditors.

Once you get your desired document (a MatlabEditor reference), its functionality can be accessed via its MatlabEditor’s methods (bringToFront(), close(), goToLine(…), reload(), replaceText(…), setEditable(…) etc.) or properties (e.g. CaretPosition, Document, Language, Length, LongName, ShortName, Selection, Text, etc.). I suggest using my CheckClass or UIInspect utilities if you want additional information about the supported properties, callbacks and methods. I may also post about this in the upcoming months, since it needs much more space than a simple comment here, so stay tuned.

Of course, you can always continue to use the partially-documented/supported editorservices object that Mike Katz introduced last year (see his comment above).

-Yair

By: Ralf

Ralf — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 07:15:29 +0000

Hi Yair,

as for MATLAB 7.11 the code

com.mathworks.mlservices.MLEditorServices.newDocument(str,true);

does not work anymore. Do you know any workaround?

Thank you for your constant efforts digging out the internals of MATLAB and sharing them with us.

Ralf.

By: Omid

Omid — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 06:22:49 +0000

Hi,
I sent this question on MATLAB central but received no answer, so I post it here again in case you’ve not seen it!

I have a time tracking software that records the time I spend on each application. It recognizes the applications by their window caption. I’m used to have the MATLAB editor docked into the main window, so all my working time in MATLAB is reported under the name of “MATLAB 7.8.0 (2009a)”. I’m thinking of a way to change the main window title to the name of the document I’m currently working on. Thanks to undocumentedmatlab.com now I know how to get the name of the active document and how to change the window title by accessing related java components. What I need is to code a callback function to be triggered whenever I switch to another document in the editor. However I didn’t find the right callback property. Any idea?

P.S. What I said I know works when the editor is undocked which is not what I’m looking for! So I correct that: I don’t even know how to get the title of the active document in the editor when the editor is docked into the main window