Hi Yair, great post!

“Of course, we could always loop over all the relevant GUI handles and set their Enable property to ‘inactive’ or ‘off’. But this is tedious, lengthy, and in complex GUIs that have multiple layers of nested panels, it also requires careful recursive programming.”

I believe you could avoid the complexity described by using findobj:

h = findobj(figHandle,'Enable','on');

h contains handles to all objects with “Enable” set to “on” (even through nested panels) and then you can simply:

set(h,'Enable','off')

Of course, there is still the issue of remembering the state of the pre-disabled figure so that you only enable those there were beforehand. I’ve done this in the past either with persistent or storing the state in the figure appdata.

@Kolemay – thanks for your comment. In general you are correct. However, it’s slightly more complicated:

* Firstly, we need to use findall rather than findobj, in order to also process hidden handles (such as the toolbar/menubar
* Secondly, it doesn’t work for axes – you will still be able to interact with axes (zoom, pan, context menu etc.) since Matlab axes don’t have a simple Enable property
* Thirdly, it doesn’t work for Java components added to the figure using the ^[18] function or its relatives.
* Finally, it also doesn’t work for ActiveX controls added to the figure using the actxcontrol function.

Each of these require separate tailored disabling. The Java disabling method I’ve shown automatically takes care of everything.

Hi Yair, this is failing for me in 2011b (OS X):

No appropriate method, property, or field fFigureClient for class com.mathworks.hg.peer.HG1FigurePeer.

If I replace “fFigureClient” with “fHG1Client” it then works:

obj.jFrame = get(handle(obj.uihandle),'JavaFrame');
obj.jWindow = obj.jFrame.fHG1Client.getWindow;

@Ian – Correct: this is an artifact of R2011b. Please see a discussion of this issue in ^[19].

Yair Altman and Ian Andolina, u both are absolutely my saviors.
thx a lot.
it really work 🙂

I was using a figure as webfigure (Java JA builder), and I wanted to get rid of the popup window ( the figure window ), while this happens at server GUI.

This is how to suppress the window being created:

f = figure('Visible','off');
// Do stuff here
webFigureHandle = webfigure(f);
close(f);

ps: your WP installation is outdated

Hi Yair,

Thanks for your detailed article. They’re always excellent!

I have been looking for a way to disable controls and menus while I populate a figure with controls, set up axes, etc so that the user can’t access callbacks before everything is set up.

Matlab Help says that the OpeningFcn of a GUIDE figure executes just before the figure becomes visible, but in several cases I have the figure appear well before the end of OpeningFcn is complete, which lets the user muck everything up.

I thought your code would be pretty handy as I’d planned to disable it at the top of OpeningFcn and enable it at the bottom before it returns or enters uiwait. It doesn’t seem to work before the figure is visible. (Fair enough. 🙂 ) I was wondering if you had any idea if I can find out exactly when the figure appears so it can be disabled using the enableDisableFig function.

@Quenten – here’s a simple idea that you can try:

1. at the top of your OpeningFcn, create a javax.swing.JButton and set its ComponentShownCallback to some special Matlab function wasShown
2. add this component to your figure via the javacomponent function
3. in your wasShown function, which should get called when the figure becomes visible, you can immediately hide/delete the javacomponent and then disable the entire figure

I never tested this myself so please report back whether it actually works or not.

[…] ^[20] […]

[…] a separate processing thread (typically, a callback function) calls the corresponding uiresume (I discussed uiwait/uiresume, together with their uisuspend/uirestore siblings, last year). […]

[…] The warnings about the figure’s JavaFrame property becoming deprecated have fortunately not been fulfilled (hopefully never). […]

Do you know if this still works in Matlab 2012a?

I got the following error:

>> jFigPeer = get(handle(gcf),'JavaFrame')
jFigPeer =
  com.mathworks.hg.peer.HG1FigurePeer@628016f7
   
>> jWindow = jFigPeer.fFigureClient.getWindow
No appropriate method, property, or field fFigureClient for class com.mathworks.hg.peer.HG1FigurePeer.

@Jed – the internal field name has changed over the years. The following code snippet should be backward and forward compatible (for the near future at least):

jFrame = get(handle(hFig), 'JavaFrame');
try
    % This works up to R2011a
    jWindow = jFrame.fFigureClient.getWindow;
catch
    try
        % This works from R2008b and up, up to HG2
        jWindow = jFrame.fHG1Client.getWindow;
    catch
        % This works in HG2
        jWindow = jFrame.fHG2Client.getWindow;
    end
end

Yair,

Thanks for the very fast and helpful reply… you have a great site here!

Your suggestion seemed to work in that I no longer get the error, but it still doesn’t have the desired effect, unfortunately.
I tried the code below and when I click on the button, I still get the beep and the “hello world” echoed to the screen when I click on the uicontrol. I guess I am doing something wrong, or I misunderstand what to expect.

>> figure
>> h = uicontrol;
>> set(h,'callback','beep,fprintf(''hello world\n'');')            
>> jFrame = get(handle(gcf),'JavaFrame')            
jFrame =
com.mathworks.hg.peer.HG1FigurePeer@f7d11f0
>> jWindow = jFrame.fHG1Client.getWindow
jWindow =
com.mathworks.hg.peer.FigureFrameProxy$FigureFrame[fClientProxyFrame,393,247,576x483,layout=java.awt.BorderLayout,title=Figure 1,resizable,normal,defaultCloseOperation=DO_NOTHING_ON_CLOSE,rootPane=com.mathworks.widgets.desk.DTRootPane[,8,30,560x445,layout=com.mathworks.widgets.desk.DTRootPane$DTRootLayout,alignmentX=0.0,alignmentY=0.0,border=,flags=449,maximumSize=,minimumSize=,preferredSize=],rootPaneCheckingEnabled=true]
>> set(handle(jWindow),'Enabled',false)
>> get(handle(jWindow),'Enabled')
ans =
     0

For now, I found I can minimize the window when I want it disabled:

jFrame.fHG1Client.setMinimized(1)

This works well enough for my purpose.

jWindow.setEnabled(false)

Thanks again, but I still get the same result with

jWindow.setEnabled(false)

I’m currently working on a resize function for a GUI but I don’t want my users to go below a certain resolution.
The problem I have is that

 
   jWindow = jFrame.fHG1Client.getWindow;

always returns an empty array.
Here’s the entire function:

 
function gui_CreateFcn(hObject, eventdata, handles)
   jFrame  = get(hObject, 'JavaFrame');
   jWindow = jFrame.fHG1Client.getWindow;
   jWindow.setMinimumSize(java.awt.Dimension(200,200));

The other 2 versions provided in this post, namely

 
   jWindow = jFrame.fFigureClient.getWindow;
   jWindow = jFrame.fHG2Client.getWindow;

crash since there’s no field named fFigureClient or fHG2Client for class com.mathworks.hg.peer.HG1FigurePeer.

My GUI was created with guide and consists of a few buttons, an axes and a few text elements but I don’t think that matters to much.
From what I understand getWindow should return the jWindow even if the gui just consists of a grey screen right?
Does anyone know why getWindow returns an empty array here?

@Matthias – it looks like you’re using a GUIDE-generated GUI. Try placing your JavaFrame code in the figure’s OutputFcn, not its CreateFcn, since the Java peers are not instantiated until the figure becomes visible.

@Yair – Thank you very much. It worked liked a charm.

Yair, I’m using your code in my GUI in Matlab R2013a and it seems it doesn’t work. The code doesn’t give any error, but all the components are still enabled except a popupmenu.

Get javaframe gives this result:

com.mathworks.hg.peer.HG1FigurePeer@37953f1e

Then, jWindow is:

com.mathworks.hg.peer.FigureFrameProxy$FigureFrame[fClientProxyFrame,296,107,772×504,invalid,layout=java.awt.BorderLayout,title=Módulo de Movimientos,normal,defaultCloseOperation=DO_NOTHING_ON_CLOSE,rootPane=com.mathworks.widgets.desk.DTRootPane[,2,35,768×465,layout=com.mathworks.widgets.desk.DTRootPane$DTRootLayout,alignmentX=0.0,alignmentY=0.0,border=,flags=449,maximumSize=,minimumSize=,preferredSize=],rootPaneCheckingEnabled=true]

Do you know where could be the problem?

Best regards,

Charlie

@Charlie – the components may appear enabled, but if you try to click on them (or anywhere in the window) you will see that the entire window is disabled.

What about R2013?

jFrame = get(handle(hFig), 'JavaFrame');
try
    % This works up to R2011a
    jWindow = jFrame.fFigureClient.getWindow;
catch
    try
        % This works from R2008b and up, up to HG2
        jWindow = jFrame.fHG1Client.getWindow;
    catch
        % This works in HG2
        jWindow = jFrame.fHG2Client.getWindow;
    end
end

@John – both R2013a and R2013b are covered by this code, why do you ask? have you seen otherwise?

Hi Yair,
I have a startup GUI, that opens other GUIs by clicking on buttons. If they are opened the first time, the user is able to enter data in uicontrols etc. By closing, I just set visible off and if the user opens it again, it will be set on. So the data remain in the textfields, tables,… If it is reopened, the user should not be able to change the data.

Therefor I used this code to lock it, after making it visible:

jFrame = get(handles.esr_basic, 'JavaFrame');
jWindow = jFrame.fHG1Client.getWindow;
set(handle(jWindow),'Enabled',false);

Problem: The GUI appears, is locked and can’t be closed again.

Afterwards I just tried to lock the content area:

jFrame = get(handles.esr_basic, 'JavaFrame');
jFrame.getFigurePanelContainer.setEnabled(false);

Problem: Nothing happened. Uicontrols can be used like before. Just the warning, that the property will be obsoleted in future release appears, no error.
In this special case, there are radio buttons in button groups. A simple push button outside the button groups is also still working.
Did I do something wrong? Do you know a solution?
Thanks!

You’d need to disable the individual controls. Disabling the content pane, root pane, or any other internal panel does not work, AFAIK.

Hello Yair,

I recently took Matlab 2014b for a spin and browsing the Matlab Jar files I found that most of the stuff in com.mathworks.hg.peer is now private or protected.

Particularly, fFigureClient is no longer accessible…

Lacking a clear overview of the internal structure of Matlab I was wondering if you are aware of any alternatives to achieving enable/disable functionality for whole figures.

Cheers,

Kris

@Kris – I already answered this ^[21].

jFrame = get(handle(hFig), 'JavaFrame');
jFrame.fHG2Client.getWindow.setEnabled(flag);

Hello Yair,

Thanks for the code enableDisableFig.m

I use this to disable the first MATLAB GUI window(figure),from which a second MATLAB GUI window is opened
once the first window is disabled, inputs are transferred to the second window
some processing is done in the second window
the outputs are passed onto the first window
the second window is then closed (deleted)
at this point the first window is enabled again

All is well, until I introduced a questdlg in the second window
when user presses a button in second window, a question dialgue pops up, and some processing happens, according to user choices
after the questdlg pops up, it seems to trigger something and the first window gets enabled for some reason, even before i use the enabledisable.m function to enable it again
(the first window gets enabled , even while the second window is still alive-after the questdlg popsup)

Can you please comment on what I am doing wrong?

The code is as follows:

hFig = findobj('Name','first_window');
enableDisableFig(hFig, 'off');

handles.outputs=second_window(handles.inputs);

hf = findobj('Name','second_window');
delete(hf);

enableDisableFig(hFig, 'on');

I use MATLAB R2016b

Thanks

P.s:
I also tested this a follows
1. Open a MATLAB GUI figure
2. disable it using enabledisablefig.m
3. double check if window is disabled
3. now just type in a questdlg command in the MATLAB command window and respond to it
4. now check if the window is still disabled( now, i find that the window has gotten enabled for some reason)

Can you Please help, thanks

@Nalla – I believe that a simple call to drawnow; pause(0.1) after your questdlg will solve the problem. See here: ^[22]

Thank you Yair!! I appreciate it!!

Hi Yair,

these details are Excellent.

I need to embed a Matlab-Figure inside a JavaFX-scene.

I know that – get(f,’Javaframe’) returns you the com.mathworks.hg.peer.HG2FigurePeer object.

How can i add “com.mathworks.hg.peer.HG2FigurePeer object” into Javafx – scene ?

Hi Yair,

these details and articles are excellent.

I want to bring the Matlab-Figure( compiled with Javabuilder) on JavaFX-Scene

here are the details,
jf.fHG2Client.getWindow will return you – com.mathworks.hg.peer.FigureFrameProxy$FigureFrame and
get(jw,'ContentPane') will return you – javax.swing.JPanel

I can convert this JPanel to JavaFX using SwingNode.
but, when i put this JPanel on a JavaFX scene i only get a blank JPanel without the Menubar, Axes and other components.
what am i missing ?

Instead of the ContentPane, I suggest that you try to reparent LayeredPane or RootPane, which are higher-up in the FigureFrame’s hierarchy.

Also, it would be easier for you to debug if you reparent into a Swing JFrame rather than JavaFX – this way you can more-easily debug the Swing reparenting aspects (which are not trivial, due to the way that Matlab’s menubar and toolbar interact with the figure contents), separately from the JavaFX aspects.

Finally, you may find the following relevant/interesting:

• ^[23]
• ^[24]
• ^[25]
• ^[26]

Heah Yair,

I could successfully embed the Matlab-Figure into Swing’s JFrame using the JLayeredPane. Thanks for this information

After getting the Figure in the Swing-JFrame: Zoom-in and Zoom-out is working sexy but Pan, Datacursor and Rotate is not working at all. Even if this works, it is inconsistent.

any possible reasons, why its so ?

Thanks once again, your input helped us a lot
regards
Jagadeesh K

Matlab figures were never meant to be reparented in this way, and there are apparently many dependencies in the built-in interaction mechanisms that break because of this. If you would like my assistance in researching this area in the hope of finding a solution, then contact me offline (altmany at gmail) for a consulting proposal. Note that I cannot promise in advance that I will be able to find a solution, because this is an area nobody has previously investigated (AFAIK).

Dear Yair,

Thanks for your inputs.

Our current plan is to bring a university-student into our team for internship to study the way for – what we are expected.
Also, we want the student to examine Java-events to be used for this purpose.

Parallely, we will get in touch with you for the consulting-proposal- at some suitable time soon

best regards
Jagadeesh K