Every few months, a CSSM forum reader asks how to set up a continuously-invoked slider callback: Matlab’s slider uicontrol invokes the user callback only when the mouse button is released, and not continuously while the slider’s thumb is dragged. This functionality was again referred-to yesterday, and I decided it merits a dedicated post.
There are three distinct simple ways to achieve continuous callbacks:
Using Java callbacks
As explained in an earlier article, Matlab uicontrols are basically Java Swing objects that possess a large number of useful callbacks. Matlab sliders’ underlying Java objects, which are really not JSliders but JScrollBars, have an AdjustmentValueChangedCallback property that is useful for our purposes and is accessible using the FindJObj utility. Simply download FindJObj from the File Exchange, and then:
hSlider = uicontrol('style','slider', ...); jScrollBar = findjobj(hSlider); jScrollBar.AdjustmentValueChangedCallback = @myCbFcn; % or: set(jScrollBar,'AdjustmentValueChangedCallback',@myCbFcn)
Where myCbFcn is the Matlab callback function that will be invoked continuously when the arrow buttons are depressed or the slider’s thumb is dragged.
Using an event listener
An alternative to the Java route is to use Matlab’s undocumented handle.listener function to listen to the slider’s Action event, as follows:
hListener = handle.listener(hSlider,'ActionEvent',@myCbFcn);
This alternative is used by Matlab’s own imscrollpanel function:
if isJavaFigure % Must use these ActionEvents to get continuous events fired as slider % thumb is dragged. Regular callbacks on sliders give only one event % when the thumb is released. hSliderHorListener = handle.listener(hSliderHor,... 'ActionEvent',@scrollHorizontal); hSliderVerListener = handle.listener(hSliderVer,... 'ActionEvent',@scrollVertical); setappdata(hScrollpanel,'sliderListeners',... [hSliderHorListener hSliderVerListener]); else % Unfortunately, the event route is only available with Java Figures, % so platforms without Java Figure support get discrete events only % when the mouse is released from dragging the slider thumb. set(hSliderHor,'callback',@scrollHorizontal) set(hSliderVer,'callback',@scrollVertical) end
Using a property listener
The handle.listener function can also be used to listen to property value changes. In our case, set a post-set listener, that gets triggered immediately following Value property updates, as follows:
hhSlider = handle(hSlider); hProp = findprop(hhSlider,'Value'); % a schema.prop object hListener = handle.listener(hhSlider,hProp,'PropertyPostSet',@myCbFcn);
In addition to ‘PropertyPostSet’, we could also listen on ‘PropertyPreSet’, which is triggered immediately before the property is modified. There are also corresponding ‘*Get’ options. In relatively old Matlab releases (I believe R2007b and earlier, but I’m not certain), the option names were simply ‘PostSet’, ‘PreSet’ etc., without the ‘Property’ prefix.
Do you know of any other way to achieve continuous callbacks? If so, I would be delighted to hear in the comments section below.
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