Figure toolbar components

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

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Toolbars are by now a staple of modern GUI design. An unobtrusive list of small icons enables easy access to multiple application actions without requiring large space for textual descriptions. Unfortunately, the built-in documented support for the Matlab toolbars is limited to adding icon buttons via the uipushtool and uitoggletool functions, and new toolbars containing them via the uitoolbar function. In this post I will introduce several additional customizations that rely on undocumented features.

This article will only describe figure toolbars. However, much of the discussion is also relevant to the desktop (Command Window) toolbars and interested users can adapt it accordingly.

Accessing toolbar buttons – undo/redo

Let’s start by adding undo/redo buttons to the existing figure toolbar. I am unclear why such an elementary feature was not included in the default figure toolbar, but this is a fact that can easily be remedied. In another post I describe uiundo, Matlab’s semi-documented support for undo/redo functionality, but for the present let’s assume we already have this functionality set up.

First, let’s prepare our icons, which are basically a green-filled triangle icon and its mirror image:

% Load the Redo icon
icon = fullfile(matlabroot,'/toolbox/matlab/icons/greenarrowicon.gif');
[cdata,map] = imread(icon);
 
% Convert white pixels into a transparent background
map(find(map(:,1)+map(:,2)+map(:,3)==3)) = NaN;
 
% Convert into 3D RGB-space
cdataRedo = ind2rgb(cdata,map);
cdataUndo = cdataRedo(:,[16:-1:1],:);

Now let’s add these icons to the default figure toolbar:

% Add the icon (and its mirror image = undo) to the latest toolbar
hUndo = uipushtool('cdata',cdataUndo, 'tooltip','undo', 'ClickedCallback','uiundo(gcbf,''execUndo'')');
hRedo = uipushtool('cdata',cdataRedo, 'tooltip','redo', 'ClickedCallback','uiundo(gcbf,''execRedo'')');

Undo/redo buttons

In the preceding screenshot, since no figure toolbar was previously shown, uipushtool added the undo and redo buttons to a new toolbar. Had the figure toolbar been visible, then the buttons would have been added to its right end. Since undo/redo buttons are normally requested near the left end of toolbars, we need to rearrange the toolbar buttons:

hToolbar = findall(hFig,'tag','FigureToolBar');
%hToolbar = get(hUndo,'Parent');  % an alternative
hButtons = findall(hToolbar);
set(hToolbar,'children',hButtons([4:end-4,2,3,end-3:end]));
set(hUndo,'Separator','on');

Undo/redo buttons in their expected positions

We would normally preserve hUndo and hRedo, and modify their Tooltip and Visible/Enable properties in run-time, based on the availability and name of the latest undo/redo actions:

% Retrieve redo/undo object
undoObj = getappdata(hFig,'uitools_FigureToolManager');
if isempty(undoObj)
   undoObj = uitools.FigureToolManager(hFig);
   setappdata(hFig,'uitools_FigureToolManager',undoObj);
end
 
% Customize the toolbar buttons
latestUndoAction = undoObj.CommandManager.peekundo;
if isempty(latestUndoAction)
   set(hUndo, 'Tooltip','', 'Enable','off');
else
   tooltipStr = ['undo' latestUndoAction.Name];
   set(hUndo, 'Tooltip',tooltipStr, 'Enable','on');
end

We can easily adapt the method I have just shown to modify/update existing toolbar icons: hiding/disabling them etc. based on the application needs at run-time.

Adding non-button toolbar components – undo dropdown

A more advanced customization is required if we wish to present the undo/redo actions in a drop-down (combo-box). Unfortunately, since Matlab only enables adding uipushtools and uitoggletools to toolbars, we need to use a Java component. The drawback of using such a component is that it is inaccessible via the toolbar’s Children property (implementation of the drop-down callback function is left as an exercise to the reader):

% Add undo dropdown list to the toolbar
jToolbar = get(get(hToolbar,'JavaContainer'),'ComponentPeer');
if ~isempty(jToolbar)
   undoActions = get(undoObj.CommandManager.UndoStack,'Name');
   jCombo = javax.swing.JComboBox(undoActions(end:-1:1));
   set(jCombo, 'ActionPerformedCallback', @myUndoCallbackFcn);
   jToolbar(1).add(jCombo,5); %5th position, after printer icon
   jToolbar(1).repaint;
   jToolbar(1).revalidate;
end
 
% Drop-down (combo-box) callback function
function myUndoCallbackFcn(hCombo,hEvent)
   itemIndex = get(hCombo,'SelectedIndex');  % 0=topmost item
   itemName  = get(hCombo,'SelectedItem');
   % user processing needs to be placed here
end

Undo dropdown list

Note that the javax.swing.JComboBox constructor accepts a cell-array of strings (undoActions in the snippet above). A user-defined dropdownlist might be constructed as follows (also see a related CSSM thread):

...
dropdownStrings = {'here', 'there', 'everywhere'};
jCombo = javax.swing.JComboBox(dropdownStrings);
set(jCombo, 'ActionPerformedCallback', @myUndoCallbackFcn);
jToolbar(1).addSeparator;
jToolbar(1).add(jCombo);  % at end, following a separator mark
jToolbar(1).repaint;
jToolbar(1).revalidate;
...

A similar approach can be used to add checkboxes, radio-buttons and other non-button controls.

In next week’s post I will describe how the toolbar can be customized using undocumented functionality to achieve a non-default background, a floating toolbar (“palette”) effect and other interesting customizations. If you have any specific toolbar-related request, I’ll be happy to hear in the comments section below.

Figure toolbar customizations Matlab's toolbars can be customized using a combination of undocumented Matlab and Java hacks. This article describes how to customize the Matlab figure toolbar....
Customizing figure toolbar background Setting the figure toolbar's background color can easily be done using just a tiny bit of Java magic powder. This article explains how. ...
Customizing the standard figure toolbar, menubar The standard figure toolbar and menubar can easily be modified to include a list of recently-used files....
Setting status-bar components Matlab status-bars are Java containers in which we can add GUI controls such as progress-bars, not just simple text labels...
uicontrol side-effect: removing figure toolbar Matlab's built-in uicontrol function has a side-effect of removing the figure toolbar. This was undocumented until lately. This article describes the side-effect behavior and how to fix it....
Color selection components Matlab has several internal color-selection components that can easily be integrated in Matlab GUI...

Categories: Figure window, GUI, Icons, Java, Medium risk of breaking in future versions, Semi-documented function

Tags: GUI, Icons, Java, Semi-documented function, Toolbar, uitools, uiundo

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34 Responses to Figure toolbar components

Jason McMains says:

August 31, 2009 at 11:28 am

I’m still a little fuzzy on the idea of “memory leaks” so this may be unneccessary, but I usually modify your code like this:

jToolbar = handle(get(get(hToolbar,'JavaContainer'),'ComponentPeer'),'callbackproperties');
if ~isempty(jToolbar)
   undoActions = get(undoObj.CommandManager.UndoStack,'Name');
   jCombo = javax.swing.JComboBox(undoActions(end:-1:1));
   jCombo = handle(jCombo,'callbackproperties')
   set(jCombo, 'ActionPerformedCallback', @myUndoCallbackFcn);
   jToolbar(1).add(jCombo,5); %5th position, after printer icon
   jToolbar(1).repaint;
   jToolbar(1).revalidate;
end

not sure that getting the handle is necessary to prevent memory leakage, it doesn’t seem to hurt anything though.

Jason McMains says:

October 13, 2009 at 9:26 am

Also I have a few figures that use swing objects, and occasionally doing a uistack or reordering the children of the figure will remove the swing objects in the toolbar. I have done a few work arounds, mostly just avoiding the reorg at all. Just thought I would post that as an issue along with this post so people know about it.

Thanks Yair as always

Jason

Reply
Dani says:

November 11, 2009 at 5:09 am
Fascinating – I wish Matlab would natively give us access to toolbars and status bars the same way it possible with your “hacks”. I have a question though. If I add a jButton to the toolbar and the status bar they look very different, i.e. the status bar button looks like a nice button but the one in the toolbar lacks the 3D effects. This can be reproduced with the following code:
%SETUP FIGURE AND FIND TOOLBAR hFig= figure; hToolbar = findall(gcf,'tag','FigureToolBar'); jToolbar = get(get(hToolbar,'JavaContainer'),'ComponentPeer'); %ADD BUTTON jButton = javax.swing.JButton('Toolbar Button'); jToolbar.add(jButton, 'East'); jToolbar.revalidate; jToolbar.repaint; %GET STATUS BAR sb = statusbar(hFig, 'Status Bar'); jb = javax.swing.JButton('Status Button'); sb.add(jb,'East'); sb.revalidate; sb.repaint;
How can I make the button in the toolbar look ‘nice’ too?

Another problem is that I have to use your statusbar function since none of the methods described in your status bar post on this site seem to work on my 2009b Matlab, i.e.
jFrame = get(hFig,'JavaFrame'); jRootPane = jFrame.fFigureClient.getWindow; statusbarObj = com.mathworks.mwswing.MJStatusBar; jRootPane.setStatusBar(statusbarObj); statusbarObj.setText('test');
gives
??? Attempt to reference field of non-structure array.
in
jRootPane.setStatusBar(statusbarObj);
The strange thing is that if I execute line by line in the command window it does work fine….
Reply
- Yair Altman says:
  
  November 11, 2009 at 5:48 pm
  @Dani –
  
  1. The toolbar button actually behaves consistently with the other buttons on the toolbar (and your windowing system, for that matter), namely that its border is painted only when you hover your mouse over the button. This is controlled by the JButton’s RolloverEnabled property (which is true by default, and can be turned off if you wish):
  jButton.setRolloverEnabled(0); set(jButton,'RolloverEnabled','off'); % an alternative
  To always display a border, you need to override the JButton’s default Border property. Here’s a link to get you started and also sample code: http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/components/border.html
  jBorder = javax.swing.BorderFactory.createRaisedBevelBorder; jButton.setBorder(jBorder);
  2. Yes I know – this issue also occurred in earlier Matlab releases: there’s is a delicate timing issue involved here, which is solved in the statusbar utility but for space considerations was left out of the short code snippets in my posts. When you run the commands in the Command Window one at a time, there is enough delay between commands to solve this problem. Well – that’s what we have utilities for, right?
  
  Yair
- Dani says:
  
  November 12, 2009 at 12:48 pm
  @Yair
  
  this
  jBorder = javax.swing.BorderFactory.createRaisedBevelBorder; jButton.setBorder(jBorder);
  helps, but the status bar button is still a lot ‘nicer’, e.g. rounded corners, 3D color transition effect, larger button relative to text size – what else do I have to invoke to get this effect in the toolbar?
  
  Dani

Henrik Toft says:

November 11, 2009 at 2:38 pm

Collecting most of the pieces of code above I get:

hFig = figure;
% Load the Redo icon
icon = fullfile(matlabroot,'/toolbox/matlab/icons/greenarrowicon.gif');
[cdata,map] = imread(icon);
 
% Convert white pixels into a transparent background
map(find(map(:,1)+map(:,2)+map(:,3)==3)) = NaN;
 
% Convert into 3D RGB-space
cdataRedo = ind2rgb(cdata,map);
cdataUndo = cdataRedo(:,[16:-1:1],:);
 
% Get handle to figure toolbar
hToolbar = findall(hFig,'tag','FigureToolBar');
 
% Add the icon (and its mirror image = undo) to the latest toolbar
hUndo = uipushtool('parent',hToolbar','cdata',cdataUndo, 'tooltip','undo', 'ClickedCallback','uiundo(gcbf,''execUndo'')');
hRedo = uipushtool('parent',hToolbar','cdata',cdataRedo, 'tooltip','redo', 'ClickedCallback','uiundo(gcbf,''execRedo'')');
 
% Retrieve redo/undo object
undoObj = getappdata(hFig,'uitools_FigureToolManager');
if isempty(undoObj)
  undoObj = uitools.FigureToolManager(hFig);
  setappdata(hFig,'uitools_FigureToolManager',undoObj);
end
 
% Customize the toolbar buttons
latestUndoAction = undoObj.CommandManager.peekundo;
if isempty(latestUndoAction)
  set(hUndo, 'Tooltip','', 'Enable','off');
else
  tooltipStr = ['undo' latestUndoAction.Name];
  set(hUndo, 'Tooltip',tooltipStr, 'Enable','on');
end

which runs nicely, and adds the two new buttons at the end of the toolbar. However, doing the following:

% Reposition buttons on toolbar
hButtons = findall(hToolbar);
set(hToolbar,'children',hButtons([4:end-4,2,3,end-3:end]));
set(hUndo,'Separator','on');

I get the error:

??? Error using ==> set
Children may only be set to a permutation of itself

Inspecting “hButtons”, it contains 19 handles, but looking at:

get(hToolbar,'Children')

it only contains 2 (!!!) handles, namely the two buttons that I just added.

I use MATLAB R2009b, and since I don’t have other versions of MATLAB installed, I don’t know if the is a “new feature” of the latest MATLAB release. I have tried setting “Toolbar” to both “figure” and “auto” but it doesn’t makes any difference.

Thanks for some inspiring reading

Henrik

Yair Altman says:

November 11, 2009 at 3:07 pm
@Henrik – You got this odd error because the toolbar buttons have hidden handles, which are only exposed to findall but not to findobj or get/set(hToolbar,’Children’). To solve this, temporarily set the desktop to show hidden handles, as follows:
oldState = get(0,'ShowHiddenHandles'); set(0,'ShowHiddenHandles','on') set(hToolbar,'children',hButtons([4:end-4,2,3,end-3:end])); set(0,'ShowHiddenHandles',oldState)
- this is actually what findall does, if you look at its source with
edit('findall')
Yair
Henrik Toft says:

November 13, 2009 at 3:35 am
@Yair
@Henrik

In order for the rearrangement of the buttons to work, in R2009b, it is better to do:
oldState = get(0,'ShowHiddenHandles'); set(0,'ShowHiddenHandles','on') hButtonsChildren = get(hToolbar,'Children'); set(0,'ShowHiddenHandles',oldState)
rather than:
hButtonsFindall = findall(hToolbar);
Since in the first case, only the buttons are found (length(hButtonsChildren) == 18) whereas in the second case also the the handle to the figure toolbar is included AND the undocumented “uitogglesplittool” is divided into two handle elements (length(hButtonsFindall) == 20)!

Another interesting (although irretating) feature is, that if the following is performed:
oldState = get(0,'ShowHiddenHandles'); set(0,'ShowHiddenHandles','on') hButtons = get(hToolbar,'Children'); set(hToolbar,'children',hButtons([3:end-4,1:2,end-3:end])); set(0,'ShowHiddenHandles',oldState)
the undocumented “uitogglesplittool” which used to the 11th element has now forcefully placed itself as the first element!!! And there it insist on remaining even if I do the following (with “ShowHiddenHandles” = ‘on’):
set(hToolbar,'children',flipud(hButtons));
I don’t konw if “interesting” is the right word

Henrik

Dani says:

November 12, 2009 at 1:04 pm
@Henrik
@Yair

I have another question reqgarding access to the toolbar. If I replace access to the standard figure toolbar
hToolbar1 = findall(gcf,'tag','FigureToolBar');
with a new toolbar through
hToolbar2 = uitoolbar;
then the java access to hToolbar2 does not work, i.e.
jToolbar2 = get(get(hToolbar2,'JavaContainer'),'ComponentPeer');
returns empty and I can consequently not add ojects such as jButton to it.
What is the reason for this?
Reply
- Yair Altman says:
  
  November 12, 2009 at 1:12 pm
  
  @Dani – read my response above – the answers to your 2 questions are exactly the same answers I gave above:
  
  1. You need to play around with the Border property. Search the web – there are numerous resources about this issue.
  2. This is a timing issue again. Place a short delay/drawnow between your toolbar creation, your get(…,’JavaContainer’) and your get(…,’ComponentPeer’) to let everything render.
  
  Yair

danny says:

February 24, 2010 at 6:49 pm

Hi,

I’d like to add a button to the default “figure” Matlab toolbar and have it become part of the button group that contains the zoom/pan etc. buttons. In particular, when the user clicks my button, i want the other buttons in the group to be deselected (btnup function). However, the btnup function requires the “groupid” of the button group; I cannot seem to find this default “id” that Matlab is using for this button group (the group that contains the zoom, pan, etc. buttons).

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Yair Altman says:

February 25, 2010 at 2:18 am

@Danny – the btn* set of functions (btnup, btndown, btnpress, btnstate, btnresize and btnicon) work with btngroup. Specifically, you can use btngroup to define the group ID, which is stored in the buttons’ Tag property.

These functions are obsolete and are not supported (they have a valid help section but no doc page), although for some unknown reason they do not issue an obsolescence warning.

Although in this blog I frequently advocate the use of undocumented functions, this is NOT the case here. My advise: don’t use btn* functions.

Nowadays, Matlab uses an altogether different approach to toolbar buttons. There are actually two grouping levels: Low-level grouping logic (zoom in/zoom-out) is done programmatically in zoom.m (near the end of the file), whereas high-level grouping (zoom/pan modes) is done using a ModeManager (which will be described in a dedicated article sometime in the future). This mode-manager object can be gotten via the following code:

>> cbScribe = getappdata(gcf,'ScribeClearModeCallback')
cbScribe = 
    @set  [1x1 uitools.uimodemanager]  'CurrentMode'  ''
>> uimodeMgr = cbScribe{2}
uimodeMgr =
	uitools.uimodemanager
>> uimode = get(uimodeMgr,'CurrentMode')
uimode =
	uitools.uimode
>> get(uimode)
               WindowButtonDownFcn: {2x1 cell}
                 WindowButtonUpFcn: []
             WindowButtonMotionFcn: {2x1 cell}
                 WindowKeyPressFcn: []
               WindowKeyReleaseFcn: []
              WindowScrollWheelFcn: {2x1 cell}
                     KeyReleaseFcn: []
    WindowButtonMotionFcnInterrupt: 0
                UIControlInterrupt: 0
                       KeyPressFcn: {2x1 cell}
                      ModeStartFcn: {2x1 cell}
                       ModeStopFcn: {2x1 cell}
                   ShowContextMenu: 1
                              Name: 'Exploration.Zoom'
                         IsOneShot: 0
                    UseContextMenu: 'on'
                      FigureHandle: [1x1 figure]
                  ButtonDownFilter: []
                     UIContextMenu: []
                     ModeStateData: [1x1 struct]

danny says:

February 25, 2010 at 9:48 am
Thanks for the advice! I’m trying your code and I got this output (below). Any ideas why it’s returning a null cbScribe value?
>> plot(1, 1, '.') >> cbScribe = getappdata(gcf,'ScribeClearModeCallback') cbScribe = []
Yair Altman says:

February 25, 2010 at 10:08 am

@danny – this could be because of a different Matlab version/platform than mine, or because your figure toolbar is hidden.

Try to simply display getappdata(gcf), to check maybe the data is named something other than ‘ScribeClearModeCallback’ on your system.

Otherwise, tell me your Matlab version and platform and I’ll see if I have anything intelligent to say about this…
danny says:

February 25, 2010 at 10:35 am
Here’s the output of this command on my version (7.9.0 R2009b):
>> plot(1, 1) >> x = getappdata(gcf) x = 1x1 struct array with no fields.
Yair Altman says:

February 25, 2010 at 12:28 pm

@danny – you need to enable one of the modes before this appdata property becomes available. For example, by clicking on one of the buttons or programmatically (e.g., zoom(‘on’) or pan(‘on’)).

danny says:

February 25, 2010 at 1:03 pm

OK, I got it to work, but I don’t see any information that corresponds to a “button group”. I was able to copy and paste some code from a GUIDE output file that works as far as creating a “group” of two buttons that are mutually exclusive (a previously selected button will become deselected if the other button becomes selected). However, I’m unable to add my own “custom” button to this group! Any tips? In the example code snippet below, I’m trying to add a third button “select region” to a group of two other buttons. The first two buttons seem to know about each other but don’t see the third button… I think it has something to do with the “createfcn” called “local_CreateFcn” that I copied from the GUIDE output. Any help is MUCH appreciated!!!!!!!!! Thanks!!

    icons = load('icons') ;    
    appdata = [];
    appdata.lastValidTag = 'zoom';
 
    handles.tb = uitoolbar(...
      'Parent',handles.fig,...
      'Tag','zoom',...
      'CreateFcn', {@local_CreateFcn, blanks(0), appdata} );
 
    appdata = [];
    appdata.toolid = 'Exploration.ZoomIn';
    appdata.CallbackInUse = struct('ClickedCallback', 'zoom');
    appdata.lastValidTag = 'zoom';
 
    handles.zoom = uitoggletool(...
      'Parent',handles.tb,...
      'ClickedCallback', 'zoom',...
      'CData',icons.zoomin,...
      'TooltipString','Zoom',...
      'Tag','zoom',...
      'CreateFcn', {@local_CreateFcn, blanks(0), appdata} );
 
    appdata = [];
    appdata.toolid = 'Exploration.Pan';
    appdata.CallbackInUse = struct(...
      'ClickedCallback', 'pan');
    appdata.lastValidTag = 'pan';
 
    handles.pan = uitoggletool(...
      'Parent',handles.tb,...
      'ClickedCallback','pan',...
      'CData',icons.pan,...
      'TooltipString','Pan',...
      'Tag','pan',...
      'CreateFcn', {@local_CreateFcn, blanks(0), appdata} );
 
    A = 1 - [ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ; 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 ; 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 ; 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 ; 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 ; 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 ; 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 ; 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 ; 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 ; 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 ; 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 ; 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 ; 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 ; 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 ; 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 ; 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 ; 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 ; 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 ;  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0] + 1 ;
    m = gray(2) ;
 
    appdata = [];
    appdata.toolid = 'Exploration.SelectRegion';
    appdata.CallbackInUse = struct(...
      'ClickedCallback', '');
    appdata.lastValidTag = 'selreg';
    handles.selreg = uitoggletool(handles.tb, 'TooltipString', 'Select Region', 'OnCallback', @selreg_on, 'OffCallback', @selreg_off, 'CData', ind2rgb(A, m),...
      'CreateFcn', {@local_CreateFcn, blanks(0), appdata}) ;    
  end
 
  function local_CreateFcn(hObject, eventdata, createfcn, appdata)
    if ~isempty(appdata)
      names = fieldnames(appdata);
      for i=1:length(names)
        name = char(names(i));
        setappdata(hObject, name, getfield(appdata,name));
      end
    end
 
    if ~isempty(createfcn)
      if isa(createfcn,'function_handle')
        createfcn(hObject, eventdata);
      else
        eval(createfcn);
      end
    end
  end

Yair Altman says:

February 25, 2010 at 1:16 pm

Your first two buttons are zoom and pan, which know of each other and have internal code to handle mutual exclusivity. Your third button is different, so you need to let them know of each other.

This is more than the space here allows, so if you want to continue discussion, please contact me offline using the email link on the top-right of this page.

Pingback: Modifying default toolbar/menubar actions | Undocumented Matlab
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Kesh says:

July 29, 2010 at 7:38 am
Yair,

Good stuff! I’ve been always wondered about the possibility of adding popupmenu to a uitoolbar. I do have a question though.

I found if you save a figure (either via GUI or via hgsave) with added JComboBox toolbar component, the JComboBox is not saved. Do you know of any workaround to save java components to a .FIG file?

Here’s a quick example:

Let say we created a figure with a popupmenu toolbar:
fig = figure; tb = uitoolbar; drawnow jToolbar = get(get(tb,'JavaContainer'),'ComponentPeer'); jCombo = javax.swing.JComboBox({'Test Item 1','Test Item 2'}); jToolbar.add(jCombo); jToolbar.repaint; jToolbar.revalidate; hgsave('test'); hgload('test');
TIA!
Reply
- Yair Altman says:
  
  July 29, 2010 at 9:01 am
  @Kesh – good point. Java toolbar customizations are not stored in the saved FIG files. However, you can place your code in the figure’s CreateFcn property, and it will automatically get executed whenever the figure is reloaded from disk:
  codeStr = ['tb=uitoolbar;' ... 'drawnow;' ... 'jToolbar=get(get(tb,''JavaContainer''),''ComponentPeer'');' ... 'jCombo=javax.swing.JComboBox({''Item 1'',''Item 2''});' ... 'jToolbar.add(jCombo);' ... 'jToolbar.repaint;' ... 'jToolbar.revalidate;']; set(gcf,'CreateFcn',codeStr) hgsave('test'); eval(codeStr); % display the new toolbar hgload('test');
- Kesh says:
  
  July 29, 2010 at 3:35 pm
  @Yair – Brilliant solution!
  
  I have another little annoyance that I’d love to get rid of. It’s a focus-related issue with JComboBox (I suspect it’s more than JcomboBox specific and applies to all Java GUI Components).
  
  Here’s an example:
  fig = figure; set(fig,'WindowKeyPressFcn','disp(''1'')'); tb = uitoolbar; drawnow jToolbar = get(get(tb,'JavaContainer'),'ComponentPeer'); jCombo = javax.swing.JComboBox({'Test Item 1','Test Item 2'}); jToolbar.add(jCombo); jToolbar.repaint; jToolbar.revalidate;
  WindowsKeyPressFcn is supposed to display “1″ in Command Window if a key is pressed anytime when the figure is on top. However, clicking on JComboBox causes WindowsKeyPressFcn to be not called until another part of the figure is clicked.
  
  I’m guessing that this behavior comes from the fact that the figure window control has been passed on from Matlab to Java when JComboBox gets the focus; thus, Matlab callback events are no longer happening.
  
  I’m currently using java.awt.Robot.mousePress to force the control back to Matlab. It works, but I’m wondering if there is a better solution (Can we mess with Java Focus Manager?).
  
  Any ideas?
- Yair Altman says:
  
  July 29, 2010 at 11:44 pm
  
  @Kesh – this is actually the expected behavior: the combo-box “consumes” the keyboard event and so the figure window is not aware that an event has occurred. Change your combo-box items to {’1′,’2′,’3′,’4′} and then click 1,4,3,2 to see that the combo-box moves the selection to the next relevant entry. It is really quite intuitive once you see it.
  
  BTW, the combo-box keyboard listeners can be removed, but I strongly suggest to NOT do it, since it will also prevent using the arrow keys etc. Moreover, many users will actually expect the regular behavior.
- Kesh says:
  
  July 30, 2010 at 8:01 am
  Yair,
  
  Actually, I thought of that right after I posted yesterday so I did some more testing and found out that the behavior of a Matlab uicontrol popupmenu is indeed what I expect. For example, create a figure with a uicontrol popupmenu and enable both its callback and figure’s keypressfcn:
  uicontrol('style','popupmenu','string',{'1','2','3'},'Callback','disp(''popupmenu callback'')'); set(gcf,'WindowKeyPressFcn','disp(''windowskeypressfcn'')');
  Then, when you put focus on the popupmenu and press “1″ key, Matlab prints:
  popupmenu callback windowskeypressfcn
  I believe I found the fix. Simply the same KeyPress callback function can be assigned to the Java combo-box’s KeyPressCallback.
  
  Thanks for your tips and great blog!!
Thierry Dalon says:

January 8, 2013 at 3:16 am

Hi Yair&all,
I can not find out how to have the JComboBox size fitting the elements size. In my application it takes all the place available in the Toolbar.
Has anyone a clue?
Thanks
Thierry

Reply
- Yair Altman says:
  
  January 8, 2013 at 4:10 am
  
  @Thierry – try using a javax.swing.Box component following your JComboBox.
- Thierry Dalon says:
  
  January 10, 2013 at 4:31 am
  @Yair: thanks for the quick reply.
  I’ve found another way by limiting the max width:
  width = jCombo.getPreferredSize().width; height = jCombo.getPreferredSize().height; jCombo.setMaximumSize(java.awt.Dimension(width,height))
Brian says:

April 23, 2013 at 1:25 pm
Hey everybody,
I have a working JComboBox.
However, I made it Editable and I want the drop down list to contain a history of what was typed into the JComboBox.

I though it would be as easy as calling the ‘addItem’ method in the ‘ActionPerformedCallback’…but its not working.

I get the error: “Attempt to reference field of non-structure array.” when using
hCombo.addItem('newitem')
It doesn’t seem to recognise hCombo as a jComboBox object.

So I set
hndl=handle(hCombo)
and then ran
hndl.addItem('newitem')
and I got this error: “No appropriate method, property, or field addItem for class hg.javax.swing.JComboBox.”

I find it especially perplexing since I can successfully run
jCombo.addItem('newitem')
from outside of the callback, right after I create the JComboBox !?

Does anybody know how to change/add to the ComboBox item list from the callback?
Or even just retrieve the entire item list (not just the selected item)?

Thanks,
Brian

p.s. I also get this Warning every time I create the JComboBox: “Warning: Possible deprecated use of set on a Java object with an HG Property ‘ActionPerformedCallback’. ”
Should I be worried about that?
Reply
- Yair Altman says:
  
  April 23, 2013 at 1:29 pm
  @Brian – why not pass the jCombo reference directly to your callback function?
  set(jCombo, 'ActionPerformedCallback', {@myCallbackFcn,jCombo}); function myCallbackFcn(hCombo,jEventData,jCombo) jCombo.addItem(...) end
- Brian says:
  
  April 23, 2013 at 2:15 pm
  
  Thanks Yair!
  How silly of me, that works great.
  Though I thought jCombo was already being passed to the callback as hCombo.
  Apparently not…so what is hCombo ?
  Thanks again,
  Brian
- Yair Altman says:
  
  April 23, 2013 at 2:18 pm
  
  hCombo is an automatically-generated Matlab wrapper for jCombo that is created when the Java event is converted into a Matlab callback. In theory it should enable you access to the entire jCombo functionality, but in practice…
Josh says:

May 23, 2013 at 3:02 pm

Hey Yair,

This is one of the many articles I’ve read on your webpage and I just wanted to stop by and say thanks for providing the exact insight I needed!

Best,
Josh

Reply
- Yair Altman says:
  
  May 25, 2013 at 6:45 pm
  
  @Josh – I’m glad you like it

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