jIPField = com.jidesoft.field.IPTextField('255.255.255.0');  % set default IP
[jIPField, hContainer] = javacomponent(jIPField, [10,10,120,20], hParent);  % hParent: panel/figure handle

vals = jIPField.getValue';         % 1x4 uint32 array => [255,255,255,0]
vals = cell(jIPField.getRawText)'; % 1x4 string cells => {'255','255','255','0'}
ip   = char(jIPField.getText);     % entire IP string => '255.255.255.0'

The IPTextField component auto-validates the IP values, ensuring that the displayed IP is always valid (for example, IP components cannot be negative or larger than 255). The component has many other features, including the ability to enable/disable, color or format the IP components etc.

We can set a callback function to process user changes, by setting the component’s *StateChangedCallback* property, for example:

jIPField.StateChangedCallback = @(jComponent,jEventData) disp(jComponent.getValue');

The JIDE libraries that come with Matlab contain numerous other similarly-useful components, including date/time/font/color/file/folder selectors, calendars in various formats, credit-card fields, and many more.
For more information about using the javacomponent function and handling Java components in Matlab GUI, see other posts on this website – particularly those marked with the “JIDE” tag.
Additional discussion of JIDE’s combo-boxes, and JIDE controls in general, is available in Chapter 5 of my Matlab-Java Programming book.
If you need to integrate professional-looking controls such as these in your Matlab GUI, consider hiring my consulting services.

Caution

Remember that JIDE evolves with Matlab, and so JIDE’s online documentation, which refers to the latest JIDE version, may be partially inapplicable if you use an old Matlab version. In any case, Matlab releases always lag the latest JIDE release by at least a year (e.g., Matlab R2017b still uses JIDE v3.4.1 that was released in June 2012 – MathWorks used to update the bundled JIDE libraries to newer versions, but for some reason has stopped doing that in 2013). The older your Matlab, the more such inconsistencies that you may find. For example, I believe that DateSpinnerComboBox only became available around R2010b; similarly, some control properties behave differently (or are missing altogether) in different releases. To determine the version of JIDE that you are currently using in Matlab, run the following (the result can then be compared to JIDE’s official change-log history):

>> com.jidesoft.utils.Lm.getProductVersion
ans =
3.4.1

Note that JIDE is a commercial product. We may not use it without JIDESoft’s permission outside the Matlab environment. It is my understanding however, that we can freely use it within Matlab. Note that this is not legal advise as I am an engineer, not a lawyer. If you have any licensing questions, contact sales@jidesoft.com.
Also note that all of JIDE’s controls use the Java-based figures (that are created using GUIDE or the figure function), and will not work on the new web-based uifigures (created using App Designer or the uifigure function). There is currently no corresponding IP entry/display control for web-based GUIs, and since there is [still] no way to integrate external Javascript/CSS libraries in uifigures, the only resort is to use a plain-vanilla edit-box. If MathWorks would simply open a hook to integrate external JS/CSS libraries, that would enable users to use 3rd-party libraries that have such custom controls and MathWorks would then not need to spend a huge amount of effort to develop multiple UI control variants.

The post IP address input control appeared first on Undocumented Matlab.

• August 29 (full day) – Interactive Matlab GUI
• August 30 (full day) – Advanced Matlab GUI

The seminars are targeted at Matlab users who wish to improve their program’s usability and professional appearance. Basic familiarity with the Matlab environment and coding/programming is assumed. The courses will present a mix of both documented and undocumented aspects, which is not available anywhere else. The curriculum is listed below.
This is a unique opportunity to enhance your Matlab coding skills and improve your program’s usability in a couple of days.
If you are interested in either or both of these seminars, please Email me (altmany at gmail dot com).
I can also schedule a dedicated visit to your location, for onsite Matlab training customized to your organization’s specific needs. Additional information can be found on my Training page.
Around the time of the training, I will be traveling to various locations around Switzerland. If you wish to meet me in person to discuss how I could bring value to your project, then please email me (altmany at gmail):

• Geneva: Aug 22 – 27
• Bern: Aug 27 – 28
• Zürich: Aug 28 – 30
• Stuttgart: Aug 30 – 31
• Basel: Sep 1 – 3

 Email me

Interactive Matlab GUI – 29 August, 2017

1. Introduction to Matlab Graphical User Interfaces (GUI)
   • Design principles and best practices
   • Matlab GUI alternatives
   • Typical evolution of Matlab GUI developers
2. GUIDE – MATLAB’s GUI Design Editor
   • Using GUIDE to design a custom GUI
   • Available built-in MATLAB uicontrols
   • Customizing uicontrols
   • Important figure and uicontrol properties
   • GUIDE utility windows
   • The GUIDE-generated file-duo
3. Customizing GUI appearance and behavior
   • Programmatic GUI creation and control
   • GUIDE vs. m-programming
   • Attaching callback functionality to GUI components
   • Sharing data between GUI components
   • The handles data struct
   • Using handle visibility
   • Position, size and units
   • Formatting GUI using HTML
4. Uitable
   • Displaying data in a MATLAB GUI uitable
   • Controlling column data type
   • Customizing uitable appearance
   • Reading uitable data
   • Uitable callbacks
   • Additional customizations using Java
5. Matlab’s new App Designer and web-based GUI
   • App Designer environment, widgets and code
   • The web-based future of Matlab GUI and assumed roadmap
   • App Designer vs. GUIDE – pros and cons comparison
6. Performance and interactivity considerations
   • Speeding up the initial GUI generation
   • Improving GUI responsiveness
   • Actual vs. perceived performance
   • Continuous interface feedback
   • Avoiding common performance pitfalls
   • Tradeoff considerations

At the end of this seminar, you will have learned how to:

• apply GUI design principles in Matlab
• create simple Matlab GUIs
• manipulate and customize graphs, images and GUI components
• display Matlab data in a variety of GUI manners, including data tables
• decide between using GUIDE, App Designer and/or programmatic GUI
• understand tradeoffs in design and run-time performance
• comprehend performance implications, to improve GUI speed and responsiveness

Advanced Matlab GUI – 30 August, 2017

1. Advanced topics in Matlab GUI
   • GUI callback interrupts and re-entrancy
   • GUI units and resizing
   • Advanced HTML formatting
   • Using hidden (undocumented) properties
   • Listening to action and property-change events
   • Uitab, uitree, uiundo and other uitools
2. Customizing the figure window
   • Creating and customizing the figure’s main menu
   • Creating and using context menus
   • Creating and customizing figure toolbars
3. Using Java with Matlab GUI
   • Matlab and Java Swing
   • Integrating Java controls in Matlab GUI
   • Handling Java events as Matlab callbacks
   • Integrating built-in Matlab controls/widgets
   • Integrating JIDE’s advanced features and professional controls
   • Integrating 3rd-party Java components: charts/graphs/widgets/reports
4. Advanced Matlab-Java GUI
   • Customizing standard Matlab uicontrols
   • Figure-level customization (maximize/minimize, disable etc.)
   • Containers and position – Matlab vs. Java
   • Compatibility aspects and trade-offs
   • Safe programming with Java in Matlab
   • Java’s EDT and timing considerations
   • Deployment (compiler) aspects

At the end of this seminar, you will have learned how to:

• customize the figure toolbar and main menu
• use HTML to format GUI appearance
• integrate Java controls in Matlab GUI
• customize your Matlab GUI to a degree that you never knew was possible
• create a modern-looking professional GUI in Matlab

The post Matlab GUI training seminars – Zurich, 29-30 August 2017 appeared first on Undocumented Matlab.

uisetfont

The only documented font-selection alternative in Matlab is uisetfont, which presents a popup dialog window that returns the selected font properties in a simple Matlab struct:

>> font = uisetfont
font =
      FontName: 'Arial'
    FontWeight: 'normal'
     FontAngle: 'normal'
     FontUnits: 'points'
      FontSize: 10

DesktopFontPicker

DesktopFontPicker is a Swing component that presents a font selection panel that can easily be inserted into any Matlab GUI container (figure, panel or tab) using the javacomponent function:

font = java.awt.Font('Tahoma',java.awt.Font.PLAIN, 11);
jFontPanel = com.mathworks.widgets.DesktopFontPicker(true, font);
[jhPanel,hContainer] = javacomponent(jFontPanel, [10,10,250,170], gcf);

jFontPanel.setUseDesktopFontLabel('Use Yair''s standard font...')

jFont = jFontPanel.getSelectedFont();  % returns a java.awt.Font object
flag = jFontPanel.getUseDesktopFont();  % true if top radio-button is selected; false if custom font is selected

FontPrefsPanel

The builtin com.mathworks.mlwidgets.prefs.FontPrefsPanel class is used in Matlab to display the font preferences panel in the Preferences window. We can integrate it directly in our GUI:

jFontPanel=com.mathworks.mlwidgets.prefs.FontPrefsPanel(java.awt.Dimension);
[jhPanel,hContainer] = javacomponent(jFontPanel, [1,1,500,470], gcf);

Using this class is admittedly more cumbersome than DesktopFontPicker and I would not recommend using it in practice.

FontPicker

Font selection can also be shown with drop-downs (combo-boxes), rather than with lists as in DesktopFontPicker, FontPrefsPanel, or uisetfont. Use of drop-downs significantly reduces the display “real-estate” required by the control. This is useful in forms where the font selection is only one of several user-configurable options, and where enough space must be reserved for other configuration controls. We can do this using the com.mathworks.widgets.fonts.FontPicker class.
Up until Matlab release R2010a, FontPicker‘s constructor accepted optional parameters of a pre-selected font (a java.awt.Font object), an optional boolean flag indicating whether to display sample text using the selected font, an optional layout indicator, and optional list of selectable font names. Several screenshots of different parameter combinations are shown below:

import com.mathworks.widgets.fonts.FontPicker
jFontPicker = FontPicker(font, sampleFlag, layout);
[hjFontPicker, hContainer] = javacomponent(jFontPicker, position, gcf);

font=	[]	java.awt.Font('Tahoma', java.awt.Font.PLAIN, 8 )	[]
sampleFlag=	false	false	true
layout=	FontPicker.GRID_LAYOUT (=1)	FontPicker.LONG_LAYOUT (=2)	FontPicker.LONG_LAYOUT (=2)
position=	[10,200,140,40]	[10,200,225,20]	[10,200,225,80]

As before, the selected font can be retrieved using jFontPicker.getSelectedFont().
In Matlab release R2010b, FontPicker‘s interface changed, and the above code no longer works. This highlights a common pitfall in future-compatibility of internal components: even when the components remain, their interface sometimes changes. Here is the new code format, starting with R2010b:

jLayout = javaMethod('valueOf', 'com.mathworks.widgets.fonts.FontPicker$Layout', 'WIDE_WITH_SAMPLE');  % options: COMPACT, WIDE, WIDE_WITH_SAMPLE
jFont = java.awt.Font('Tahoma', java.awt.Font.PLAIN, 10);  % initial font to display (may not be [])
jFontPicker = com.mathworks.widgets.fonts.FontPicker(jFont, jLayout);
jFontPanel = jFontPicker.getComponent;
[jhPanel,hContainer] = javacomponent(jFontPanel, [10,10,250,120], gcf);

FontChooserPanel

As a final alternative for font selection, we can use the JIDE font-selection component. This component has two variants: as a drop-down/combo-box (com.jidesoft.combobox.FontComboBox) and as a standard JPanel (com.jidesoft.combobox.FontChooserPanel):

jFont = java.awt.Font('arial black',java.awt.Font.PLAIN, 8);
jFontPicker = com.jidesoft.combobox.FontComboBox(jFont);
[hjFontPicker, hContainer] = javacomponent(jFontPicker, position, gcf);
set(hjFontPicker, 'ItemStateChangedCallback', @myCallbackFunction);

popupmenu uicontrol

As another example of using a font-selection drop-down (combo-box), we can use a standard Matlab popupmenu uicontrol, setting its String property value to a cell-array containing the supported system’s fonts (as returned by the listfonts function). A nice twist here is to use the undocumented trick that all Matlab uicontrols inherently support HTML to list each of the fonts in their respective font style:

fontStr = @(font) ['' font ''];
htmlStr = cellfun(fontStr, listfonts, 'uniform',false);
uicontrol('style','popupmenu', 'string',htmlStr, 'pos',[20,350,100,20]);

Austria visit, 11-15 October, 2015

I will be travelling to clients in Austria next week, between October 11-15. If you are in Austria and wish to meet me to discuss how I could bring value to your work, then please email me (altmany at gmail).

The post Font selection components appeared first on Undocumented Matlab.

• Matlab vs. Java sliders
• Using JSlider
• Range (dual-knob) sliders
• AppDesigner – Matlab’s new GUI
• Conclusions and some personal musings

Matlab vs. Java sliders

As funny as it may sound, Matlab’s so-called “slider” control (uicontrol('Style','slider')) is actually implemented as a scroll-bar, rather than the more natural JSlider. I believe that this is due to a design decision that occurred sometime in the 1990’s (sliders were not as prevalent then as they are nowadays). This was never corrected, probably for backward-compatibility reasons. So to this day, Matlab’s so-called “slider” is actually a scroll-bar, and we do not [yet] have a real slider control in standard Matlab, apparently since the ‘slider’ uicontrol style is already in use. Spoiler alert: this will change soon — keep reading.
It gets worse: for some reason Matlab’s implementation of the so-called “slider” uses a Windows95 look-and-feel that makes the control look antique in today’s GUI standards. Using Java Swing’s standard JScrollBar control would at least have made it appear more consistent with the other Matlab controls, which are all based more closely on Java Swing:

% Standard Matlab "slider"
uicontrol('style','slider', 'position',[10,10,200,20]);
% Standard Java JScrollBar
jScrollbar = javax.swing.JScrollBar;
jScrollbar.setOrientation(jScrollbar.HORIZONTAL);
javacomponent(jScrollbar,[10,40,200,20]);
% Standard Java JSlider (20px high if no ticks/labels, otherwise use 45px)
jSlider = javax.swing.JSlider;
javacomponent(jSlider,[10,70,200,45]);

I advise users of the current Matlab GUI to use JScrollBar or JSlider, rather than Matlab’s standard “slider” uicontrol. The rest of today’s post will discuss the JSlider variant.

Using JSlider

As shown above, we can use the javacomponent function to display any Java component in a Matlab container (such as uipanel or figure). We can easily modify the slider’s appearance using its internal properties:

set(jSlider, 'Value',84, 'MajorTickSpacing',20, 'PaintLabels',true);  % with labels, no ticks

set(jSlider, 'Value',22, 'PaintLabels',false, 'PaintTicks',true);  % with ticks, no labels

jSlider.setPaintLabels(true);  % or: jSlider.setPaintLabels(1);  % with both ticks and labels

[jhSlider, hContainer] = javacomponent(jSlider,[10,10,100,40]);
set(jSlider, 'Value',72, 'Orientation',jSlider.VERTICAL, 'MinorTickSpacing',5);
set(hContainer,'position',[10,10,40,100]); %note container size change

>> value = get(jSlider,'Value');  % or: value = jSlider.getValue;
value =
    29

We can easily attach Matlab callback functions to slider value-change events:

>> hjSlider = handle(jSlider, 'CallbackProperties')
hjSlider =
	javahandle_withcallbacks.javax.swing.JSlider
>> hjSlider.StateChangedCallback = @(hjSlider,eventData) disp(get(hjSlider,'Value'));
>> set(hjSlider, 'StateChangedCallback', @myCallback);  %alternative

As you can see, standard Java controls (such as JSlider here) are very simple to customize and use in Matlab GUI. I have shown more complex customizations elsewhere in this blog, as well as in my Matlab-Java programming book.
Note that JSlider (and Java sliders in general) only supports integer values, so if you need floating-point values you’d either need to find some other Java Swing component somewhere that supports what you need, or do the scaling yourself with some text label. I recently created a Matlab class wrapper for a client that does exactly that: the underlying component was a Java slider and the labels were updated to display floating-point values, dynamically updated based on the Matlab class object’s properties. It only took a short morning to create a fully-functional generic slider class that works quite well.

Range (dual-knob) sliders

This brings me to my client’s query that I mentioned at the beginning of this post: JSlider only contains a single knob. Is it possible to integrate a range (dual-knob) slider?
My initial response was to simply google for “Java range slider“. This returns numerous different controls, both open-source and commercial, that we can download and integrate in Matlab. All it takes is to download the *.class, *.zip or *.jar file that contains the component, add it to Matlab Java classpath using the javaaddpath function, and then use the javacomponent to display it, just as we did with JSlider above.
This is simple enough, but then I thought of an even simpler solution, namely to use JIDE’s library of commercial-grade controls that is pre-bundled in Matlab. Surely enough, a quick search in JIDE’s enormous catalog yielded its RangeSlider component, which extends JSlider with a dual knob. RangeSlider‘s appearance has changed somewhat across Matlab releases (or actually, JIDE releases, as they are integrated within the corresponding Matlab releases), but its basic functionality remained unchanged:

jRangeSlider = com.jidesoft.swing.RangeSlider(0,100,20,70);  % min,max,low,high
jRangeSlider = javacomponent(jRangeSlider, [0,0,200,80], gcf);
set(jRangeSlider, 'MajorTickSpacing',25, 'MinorTickSpacing',5, 'PaintTicks',true, 'PaintLabels',true, ...
    'Background',java.awt.Color.white, 'StateChangedCallback',@myCallbackFunc);

 

>> com.jidesoft.utils.Lm.getProductVersion
ans =
3.4.1

Note that JIDE’s online documentation (PDF, javadoc, webpage) always refers to the latest version. To use the latest Common-layer library in Matlab, simply download it and replace Matlab’s pre-bundled <matlabroot>/java/jarext/jide/jide-common.jar file. Be careful with changing Matlab’s installation files (such as this one), as there is always a risk that some Matlab functionality might break. So always keep a copy of the original file, in case you need to revert your changes. Alternatively, place the jide-common.jar file in some other user folder and use it in Matlab on an as-needed basis using javaaddpath and javarmpath.
Using the latest commercial (non-open-sourced) JIDE libraries, such as jide-grids.jar, jide-components.jar or jide-charts.jar, is only possible if you purchase them from JideSoft. But as noted, we can freely use the older bundled libraries in our Matlab GUIs without paying JideSoft anything.
Disclaimer: I am an engineer, not a lawyer. What I said above is my personal opinion; it is not legal advice. If you are unsure about licensing of JIDE components in your programs, contact MathWorks or JideSoft.

AppDesigner – Matlab’s new GUI

Last autumn, with little fanfare, MathWorks released the App Designer toolbox, which can be freely downloaded from the File Exchange. This is not just another File Exchange utility. It is in fact an official MathWorks Technical Preview that is both functional by itself, and also provides very interesting insight of Matlab’s upcoming new GUI. MathWorks have not announced exactly when this new AppDesigner will replace the aging GUIDE in Matlab. But the fact that AppDesigner is an actual working product in the public domain since late 2014, and that MathWorks has officially endorsed it as a “Technical Preview”, mean that this day is close.
In the new AppDesigner, sliders finally appear modern, complete with all sorts of customizable properties:

Conclusions and some personal musings

Matlab itself has kept its Desktop GUI relatively modern, and integrates advanced JIDE GUI controls internally. But until AppDesigner came about, Matlab application builders were not provided with similarly modern documented GUI components and design tools, in keeping with the times.
It is indeed possible, as I’ve repeatedly claimed in this blog, to create professional-looking GUIs in Matlab. However, this currently requires using undocumented features and Java controls.
In Matlab’s upcoming AppDesigner, making professional-looking Matlab GUIs will be easier, with sleek new controls, user-friendly visual layout, and easy-to-maintain class-based code. I still find the tech-preview to be lacking in some respects, and not integrated with the existing GUI functionality. Still, the fact that MathWorks has gone out of its way to provide a Technical Preview of its upcoming new GUI, despite its normal reluctance to provide a technical development roadmap, shows a commitment to improving Matlab’s user-facing front-end. This makes me optimistic that most shortcomings will be solved by the time AppDesigner is officially released, hopefully soon.
Until this happens, and possibly even later, we can significantly improve Matlab’s standard GUI using Java in standard figure windows. Interested readers can find out more information about integrating Java controls in Matlab GUI in my book “Undocumented Secrets of MATLAB-Java Programming” (CRC Press, 2011, ISBN 978-1439869031). If you already have this book, please be kind enough to post your feedback on it on Amazon (link), for the benefit of others.

The post Sliders in Matlab GUI appeared first on Undocumented Matlab.

JIDE combo-boxes

JIDE’s combo-box controls are generally grouped in the JIDE Grids package and extend the standard Java Swing JComponent (JIDESoft actually found it easier to extend JComponent than JComboBox, but users really have nothing to complain – all the extra functionality and more have simply been reimplemented). The JIDE Grids package is included in each Matlab installation (/java/jarext/jide/jide-grids.jar under the Matlab root). In particular, JIDE Grids includes the com.jidesoft.combobox Java package, which groups the combo-box components. You can find further details on JIDE Grids in the Developer Guide and the Javadoc documentation.
Back in 2010, I explained how we can use one of these components, DateComboBox, and its close associate DateSpinnerComboBox. Today I extend the coverage to briefly examine JIDE’s other custom combo-box controls.
Each of the following classes has both a combo-box control and a corresponding panel that is presented when the combo-box arrow button is clicked (activated). The panel is normally called xxxChooserPanel and its corresponding combo-box is called xxxComboBox. So, for example, we would have ColorComboBox coupled with ColorChooserPanel. After the combo-box is created, the panel can be accessed and customized via the combo-box’s PopupPanel property or the corresponding getPopupPanel() method. The panel can also be displayed as a standalone control, as I’ve shown in the DateComboBox article. GUI designers can choose whether to use a compact combo-box or the full-size panel control.

• ListComboBox – a simple combo-box that accepts a list (cell array) of selectable values (e.g., string values). This is the simplest JIDE combo-box. It doesn’t add much over Matlab’s standard combo-box control except the ability to easily set the MaximumRowCount property (default value =8). On the other hand, using findjobj we can do the same thing with Matlab’s control…
• MultilineStringComboBox – a combo box that enables entering a string item that has multiple lines of text. A similar control is StringArrayComboBox that simply formats the multi-line string differently in the result, separating the multi-lines with a ‘;’ character.
• MultiSelectListComboBox – a combo-box that enables selecting multiple items using a combination of <Shift>-click and <Ctrl>-click
  

  

• CheckBoxListComboBox – a combo-box that presents a multi-selection panel using check-boxes. It will be discussed in next week’s article.
  

  

• CalculatorComboBox – a combo-box control that displays the result of simple arithmetic calculations. Possible customizations include the ability to set the calculator buttons’ size and gap, the displayed number format, the initial value etc. – all via the Calculator property that returns a customizable com.jidesoft.swing.Calculator object.
  

  

• ColorComboBox – a combo-box control that enables color selection. Matlab includes a large number of color selectors, as explained in this article. Possible customizations of the ColorComboBox control include the ability to hide the color’s RGB value (ColorValueVisible property, boolean, default=true), hide the colored icon rectangle (ColorIconVisible property, boolean, default=true), make the control look like an editbox rather than a combo-box (ButtonVisible property, boolean, default=true), allow the “More colors…” features (AllowMoreColors, boolean, default=true) etc.
  

  

• JideColorSplitButton – a control very similar to ColorComboBox, meant for usage in toolbars or wherever a narrow color-selection control is needed:
  

  

• DateComboBox – presents a date-selection combo-box, whose attributes (day/month names, display format etc.) are taken from the system definitions. JIDE’s date-selection components were discussed in a dedicated article. Possible customizations include the ability to display an integrated time-selector sub-component (via the TimeDisplayed property: boolean, default=false and TimeFormat string), week numbers (ShowWeekNumbers, boolean, default=true), <OK> button (ShowOKButton, boolean, default=false), the <Today> button (ShowTodayButton, boolean, default=true) and the <None> button (ShowNoneButton, boolean, default=true).
  

  

• DateSpinnerComboBox – presents a date-selection combo-box that includes both the DateComboBox and a spinner control
  

  

• MonthComboBox – a month-selection combo-box, similar to DateComboBox but without the ability to select individual days, only full months
  

  

• FileChooserComboBox – a combo-box that displays a file-selection window when activated. Customizations include the ability to set the CurrentDirectoryPath used by the popup window.
• FolderChooserComboBox – a combo-box that displays a folder-selection window when activated
• FontComboBox – a font selection combobox (Matlab has several other font-selection components that we can use, in addition to uisetfont)
  

  

• InsetsComboBox – enables interactive definition of insets (margins)
  

  

• TreeComboBox– a combo-box that displays selectable data in tree format (i.e., a hierarchy of items)
  

  

• TableComboBox – a combo-box that displays selectable data in table format (i.e., multiple columns). The combo-box’s value is the selected table row’s left-most column value. Here’s an example:

  data = num2cell([magic(3); -magic(3)]);  % needs to be a 2D cell-array
  headers = {'one', 'two', 'three'};
  tableModel = javax.swing.table.DefaultTableModel(data, headers);
  jCombo = com.jidesoft.combobox.TableComboBox(tableModel);
  [hjCombo, hContainer] = javacomponent(jCombo, [150,300,120,20], gcf);
  

  

Integrating in Matlab GUI

To use any of these controls, we first need to initialize JIDE usage in Matlab, then create an instance of the control, and finally place it onscreen using the semi-documented javacomponent function:

% Initialize JIDE's usage within Matlab
com.mathworks.mwswing.MJUtilities.initJIDE;
% Display a DateChooserPanel
jCombo = javaObjectEDT(com.jidesoft.combobox.DateComboBox);  % javaObjectEDT is optional but advisable
[hjCombo, hContainer] = javacomponent(jCombo, [10,10,100,20], gcf)

Each combo-box control accepts its combo-list elements somewhat differently. For example, for DateComboBox we can specify the acceptable date-range (via DefaultDateModel) and initial date, for a FontComboBox we can specify the initial font, and for any of the list controls we need to specify the list elements (as a cell-array of strings). However, most if not all of these components have default constructors so we can initialize the controls without any inputs and let it automatically use the defaults. For example, the date-selection controls will use the current date (today) as its default value.
In most cases, we can set the control handle’s ActionPerformedCallback to process a selection event (or modification of the combo-box value via direct editing in its integrated editbox):

set(hjCombo, 'ActionPerformedCallback', @myMatlabCallbackFcn);

The selected item can in most cases be retrieved via

selectedItem = get(hjCombo,'SelectedItem');  % or: hjCombo.getselectedItem

For some combo-boxes, non-numeric results may need to be converted into Matlab strings, via the char function:

selectedItem = char(selectedItem);

Next week I plan to present a non-trivial customization of the CheckBoxListComboBox control.
Additional discussion of JIDE’s combo-boxes, and JIDE controls in general, is available in Chapter 5 of my Matlab-Java Programming book.
If you need to integrate professional-looking controls such as these in your Matlab GUI, consider hiring my consulting services.

Caution

Remember that JIDE evolves with Matlab, and so JIDE’s online documentation, which refers to the latest JIDE version, may be partially inapplicable if you use an old Matlab version. In any case, Matlab releases always lag the latest JIDE release by at least a year (e.g., Matlab R2013b uses JIDE v3.4.1 that was released in June 2012). The older your Matlab, the more such inconsistencies that you may find. For example, I believe that DateSpinnerComboBox only became available around R2010b; similarly, some control properties behave differently (or are missing altogether) in different releases. To determine the version of JIDE that you are currently using in Matlab, run the following (the result can then be compared to JIDE’s official change-log history):

>> com.jidesoft.utils.Lm.getProductVersion
ans =
3.4.1

Note that JIDE is a commercial product. We may not use it without JIDESoft’s permission outside the Matlab environment. It is my understanding however, that we can freely use it within Matlab. Note that this is not legal advise as I am an engineer, not a lawyer. If you have any licensing questions, contact sales@jidesoft.com.

The post Using JIDE combo-boxes appeared first on Undocumented Matlab.

headers = {'ID','Label','Logical1','Logical2','Selector','Numeric'};
data = {1,'M11',true, false,'One', 1011;  ...
        1,'M12',true, true, 'Two', 12;   ...
        1,'M13',false,false,'Many',13.4; ...
        2,'M21',true, false,'One', 21;  ...
        2,'M22',true, true, 'Two', 22;   ...
        3,'M31',true, true, 'Many',31;   ...
        3,'M32',false,true, 'One', -32;  ...
        3,'M33',false,false,'Two', 33; ...
        3,'M34',true, true, 'Many',34;  ...
};
selector = {'One','Two','Many'};
colTypes = {'label','label','char','logical',selector,'double'};
colEditable = {true, true, true, true, true}
icons = {fullfile(matlabroot,'/toolbox/matlab/icons/greenarrowicon.gif'), ...
         fullfile(matlabroot,'/toolbox/matlab/icons/file_open.png'), ...
         fullfile(matlabroot,'/toolbox/matlab/icons/foldericon.gif'), ...
}
% Create the table in the current figure
jtable = treeTable('Container',gcf, 'Headers',headers, 'Data',data, ...
                   'ColumnTypes',colTypes, 'ColumnEditable',colEditable, ...
                   'IconFilenames',icons, 'Groupable',true, 'InteractiveGrouping',false);
% Collapse Row #6, sort descending column #5 (both are 0-based)
jtable.expandRow(5,false);  % 5=row #6; false=collapse
jtable.sortColumn(4,true,false);  % 4=column #5; true=primary; false=descending

The basic implementation concept

Unfortunately, uitable as-is cannot be customized to have groupable rows. It derives from JIDE’s SortableTable, rather than one of its groupable derived classes. On the other hand, uitree (don’t you agree that after a decade of this so-useful function being semi-documented it ought to be made official?) uses a different class hierarchy outside com.jidesoft.grid, and so it cannot be easily customized to display rows (as opposed to simple labels).
These limitations mean that we cannot use uitable or uitree and need to use a custom component. Luckily, such a component is available in all Matlab installations, on all platforms. It is part of the grid components package, on which Matlab GUI has relied for many years, by JIDE Software. JIDE Grids is a collection of components that extend the standard Java Swing JTable component, and is included in each Matlab installation (/java/jarext/jide/jide-grids.jar under the Matlab root). I discussed multiple JIDE controls in this blog over the years. You can find further details on JIDE Grids in the Developer Guide and the Javadoc documentation.
In fact, there are no less than three different components that we could use in our case: TreeTable, GroupTable and HierarchicalTable:

Data model

The above-mentioned table classes all derive from SortableTable (which also underlies uitable). Unfortunately, something in the Matlab-Java interface breaks the ability of the JIDE table classes (or rather, their data model) to understand numeric values for what they are. As a result, sorting columns is done lexically, i.e. “123” < “34” < “9”. To fix this, I’ve included a custom Java table model (MultiClassTableModel) with the treeTable utility, which automatically infers the column type (class) based on the value in the top row (by overriding the getColumnClass() method).
Using this new class is pretty easy:

% Create the basic data-type-aware model using our data and headers
javaaddpath(fileparts(mfilename('fullpath')));  % add the Java class file to the dynamic java class-path
model = MultiClassTableModel(data, headers);  % data=2D cell or numeric array; headers=cell array of strings
% Wrap the standard model in a JIDE GroupTableModel
com.mathworks.mwswing.MJUtilities.initJIDE;  % initialize JIDE
model = com.jidesoft.grid.DefaultGroupTableModel(model);
model.addGroupColumn(0);  % make the first column the grouping column
model.groupAndRefresh;  % update the model data
% Use the generated model as the data-model of a JIDE GroupTable
jtable = eval('com.jidesoft.grid.GroupTable(model);');  % prevent JIDE alert by run-time (not load-time) evaluation
jtable = handle(javaObjectEDT(jtable), 'CallbackProperties');  % ensure that we're using EDT
% Enable multi-column sorting
jtable.setSortable(true);
% Present the tree-table within a scrollable viewport on-screen
scroll = javaObjectEDT(JScrollPane(jtable));
[jhscroll,hContainer] = javacomponent(scroll, tablePosition, hParent);
set(hContainer,'units', 'normalized','pos',[0,0,1,1]);  % this will resize the table whenever its container is resized

Here, com.mathworks.mwswing.MJUtilities.initJIDE is called to initialize JIDE’s usage within Matlab. Without this call, we may see a JIDE warning message in some Matlab releases. We only need to initJIDE once per Matlab session, although there is no harm in repeated calls.
javacomponent is the undocumented built-in Matlab function that adds Java Swing components to a Matlab figure, using the given dimensions and parent handle. I discussed it here.

Callbacks

There are two main callbacks that can be used with treeTable:

• table data update – this can be set by uncommenting line #237 of treeTable.m:

  set(handle(getOriginalModel(jtable),'CallbackProperties'), 'TableChangedCallback', {@tableChangedCallback, jtable});

  which activates the sample tableChangedCallback() function (lines #684-694). Naturally, you can also set your own custom callback function.

  % Sample table-editing callback
  function tableChangedCallback(hModel,hEvent,jtable)
      % Get the modification data
      modifiedRow = get(hEvent,'FirstRow');
      modifiedCol = get(hEvent,'Column');
      label   = hModel.getValueAt(modifiedRow,1);
      newData = hModel.getValueAt(modifiedRow,modifiedCol);
      % Now do something useful with this info
      fprintf('Modified cell %d,%d (%s) to: %s\n', modifiedRow+1, modifiedCol+1, char(label), num2str(newData));
  end  % tableChangedCallback
  

• row selection update – this is currently enabled in line #238 of treeTable.m:

  set(handle(jtable.getSelectionModel,'CallbackProperties'), 'ValueChangedCallback', {@selectionCallback, jtable});

  which activates the sample selectionCallback() function (lines #696-705). Naturally, you can also set your own custom callback function.

  % Sample table-selection callback
  function selectionCallback(hSelectionModel,hEvent,jtable)
      % Get the selection data
      MinSelectionIndex  = get(hSelectionModel,'MinSelectionIndex');
      MaxSelectionIndex  = get(hSelectionModel,'MaxSelectionIndex');
      LeadSelectionIndex = get(hSelectionModel,'LeadSelectionIndex');
      % Now do something useful with this info
      fprintf('Selected rows #%d-%d\n', MinSelectionIndex+1, MaxSelectionIndex+1);
  end  % selectionCallback
  

Some useful features of treeTable

• Sortable columns (including numeric columns)
• Rearrangeable columns (drag headers left/right)
• Auto-fit the table columns into the specified container width
• Manually resize columns by dragging the column divider gridlines (not just the header dividers as in uitable)
• Flat or groupable table, based on the specified Groupable parameter (default=true)
• Ability to interactively group columns (just like Microsoft Outlook) using the InteractiveGrouping parameter (default=false)
• Selector cells only show the drop-down arrow of the currently-selected cell (unlike uitable which shows it for all the column cells)
• Selector cells enable editing, unlike uitable that only enables selecting among pre-defined values
• Ability to attach user-defined icons for the leaf rows and the grouping rows (expanded/collapsed)
• Easily attach custom cell editors or renderers to any table column (see my book and my detailed uitable customization report for details)

All of these features can be turned on/off using the control’s properties. Again, see my book or report for details (or ask me to do it for you…).
I remind readers that I will be visiting clients in Austria (Vienna, Salzburg) and Switzerland (Zurich) in August 18-29. If you live in the area, I will be happy to meet you to discuss how I could bring value to your needs, as consultant, contractor or trainer (more details).

The post treeTable appeared first on Undocumented Matlab.

The propertiesGUI utility

propertiesGUI, which can be downloaded from the Matlab File Exchange, presents a generic solution to this problem. propertiesGUI is based on Levente Hunyadi’s articles here back in 2010, and on his “Property grid” utility on the File Exchange.
propertiesGUI expects the following syntax:

[hPropsPane, parameters] = propertiesGUI(hParent, parameters)

where:

• hParent (input) is an optional handle of a parent GUI container (figure/uipanel/uitab) in which the properties table will appear. If missing or empty or 0, the table will be shown in a new modal dialog window; otherwise it will be embedded in the parent container.
• parameters (input) is an optional struct or object with data fields. The fields are processed separately to determine their corresponding cell renderer and editor. If parameters is not specified, then the global test_data will be used. If test_data is also empty, then a demo of several different data types will be used.
• hPropsPane (output) is the handle of the generated properties panel widget, which can be customized to display field descriptions, toolbar, etc.
• parameters (output) is the resulting (possibly-updated) parameters struct. Naturally, this is only relevant in case of a modal dialog.

When passing the properties in an input parameters struct, propertiesGUI automatically inspects each struct field and assigns a corresponding cell-editor with no description and a field label that reflects the field name. The properties are automatically set as modifiable (editable) and assigned a default callback function (propUpdatedCallback sub-function).
The global test_data variable is updated internally when the <OK> button is clicked. It is meant to enable easy data passing between the properties GUI and other application component. Using global vars is generally discouraged as bad programming, but it simplifies GUI component interaction and has performance advantages. In this specific case I decided that the benefits of simplicity outweigh the pedagogical aspects. After all, propertiesGUI is meant to illustrate how to customize/use a properties pane, not to teach GUI programming best practices. In your real-world application you should consider using other information-sharing mechanisms (getappdata or guidata, for example).

Usage demo

For an illustration of propertiesGUI, simply run it without any parameters to display its demo (see screenshot above):

propertiesGUI;

This creates (in the demoParameters sub-function) the following demo parameters struct:

      floating_point_property: 3.14159265358979
      signed_integer_property: 12
    unsigned_integer_property: 12
                flag_property: 1
                file_property: ''
              folder_property: 'C:\Yair'
                text_property: 'Sample text'
        fixed_choice_property: {'Yes'  'No'  'Maybe'}
     editable_choice_property: {'Yes'  'No'  'Maybe'  ''}
                date_property: [1x1 java.util.Date]
        another_date_property: 734895.957829132
                time_property: '22:59:16'
            password_property: '*****'
          IP_address_property: '10.20.30.40'
                  my_category: [1x1 struct]
               color_property: [0.4 0.5 0.6]
       another_color_property: [1x1 java.awt.Color]

A template for customization

propertiesGUI is meant to be used either as stand-alone, or as a template for customization. For example, we can attach a unique description to each property that will be shown in an internal sub-panel: see the customizePropertyPane and preparePropsList sub-functions.
We can have specific control over each property’s description, label, editability, cell-editor and callback function. See the preparePropsList sub-functions for some examples. Additional cell-editors/renderers can be added in the newProperty sub-function.
Specific control over the acceptable property values can be achieved by entering custom code into the checkProp sub-function. For example, checkProp already contains skeleton code to highlight missing mandatory field values in yellow, and non-editable properties in gray (see highlighted lines; the necessary modifications to make it work should be self-evident):

function isOk = checkProp(prop)
  isOk = true;
  oldWarn = warning('off','MATLAB:hg:JavaSetHGProperty');
  warning off MATLAB:hg:PossibleDeprecatedJavaSetHGProperty
  propName = get(prop, 'UserData');
  renderer = com.jidesoft.grid.CellRendererManager.getRenderer(get(prop,'Type'), get(prop,'EditorContext'));
  warning(oldWarn);
  mandatoryFields = {};  % TODO - add the mandatory field-names here
  if any(strcmpi(propName, mandatoryFields)) && isempty(get(prop,'Value'))
      propColor = java.awt.Color.yellow;
      isOk = false;
  elseif ~prop.isEditable
      %propColor = java.awt.Color.gray;
      propColor = renderer.getBackground();
  else
      propColor = java.awt.Color.white;
  end
  renderer.setBackground(propColor);
end  % checkProp

So if we wish to check the validity of the input or user updates, we simply need to enter the relevant checks into checkProp.
Additional control over the appearance and functionality can be achieved via the hPropsPane reference that is returned by propertiesGUI.

As an example for such customizations, here is a variant of the properties pane, embedded within a uitab panel. Note the unique description of the properties, and the absence of the OK/Cancel buttons:

TODO

Even as a template for customization, propertiesGUI is still far from perfect. Some potential items on my TODO list for this utility include:

• Fix the renderer/editor for numeric and cell arrays
• Enable more control over appearance and functionality via input parameters (for example: display or hide the OK/Cancel buttons)
• Add additional built-in cell editors/renderers: time, slider, point, rectangle (=position), font, …

Do you find propertiesGUI useful in your work? If so then please share your experience in a comment below. Suggestions for improvement of the utility will also be gladly accepted.

The post propertiesGUI appeared first on Undocumented Matlab.

Usage syntax

The basic syntax is:

hFig = uiinspect(handle)

Examples:

hFig = uiinspect(0);                         % the root handle
hFig = uiinspect(handle(0));
hFig = uiinspect(gcf);                       % current figure
hFig = uiinspect(handle(gcf));
uiinspect('java.lang.String');               % Java classname
uiinspect(java.lang.String('yes'));          % Java object
uiinspect(get(gcf,'JavaFrame'));             % Java object
uiinspect(classhandle(handle(gcf)));         % UDD class object
uiinspect(findprop(handle(gcf),'MenuBar'));  % UDD property
uiinspect(actxserver('Excel.Application'));  % COM object
uiinspect(Employee)                          % Matlab class object
uiinspect(?handle)                           % Matlab metaclass object
uiinspect('meta.class')                      % Matlab class name
uiinspect(System.DateTime.Now)               % Dot-Net object

uiinspect returns a handle to the created figure window. uiinspect opens a regular Matlab figure window which may be accessed via hFig (unlike Matlab’s methodsview and inspect functions which open Java frame that is not accessible from Matlab).
Unlike Matlab’s functions, multiple uiinspect windows can be opened simultaneously, for different objects. The differentiation is done based on figure title, which contains the inspected object’s name (if available) and its class – reinspecting the same object will reuse the existing figure window, but in all other cases a new figure window will be created.

Main panels

uiinspect includes the following information panels, that shall be described separately below:

• Class information (including superclasses, if applicable)
• Methods (for objects) or graphic handle hierarchy (for Handle Graphics)
• Callbacks (where applicable)
• Inspectable properties
• Other properties plus full meta-data (where applicable)

The panels are fully resizable. We can drag the divider lines up/down or left/right and the contents automatically adjust accordingly. Each panel has a minimal viewable width/height, and the dividers cannot be dragged to squeeze the panels below these minimums – they can only be minimized, which hides the relevant panel entirely. To minimize a panel, simply click the relevant small arrow mark on the divider. The opposite arrow mark next to it maximizes the panel, effectively minimizing the panel on the other side. Once minimized/maximized, the divider can be restored by simply clicking it once, or by dragging it (again, panel minimum sizes apply).
uiinspect only uses Java panels, so implementing the dividers required use of the simple JSplitPane. In a general case where we might wish to embed Matlab graphs in one of the side panels, we would need to employ a more sophisticated solution (see my UISplitPane utility).

Class information

The top-left panel displays a label with information about the object’s class and super-classes inheritance (where applicable).
The class name itself is hyper-linked to the class’s documentation: if this is a standard Java class, then to the official online javadoc for this class which opens up in Matlab’s internal web browser. In fact, since different Matlab releases use different JVM versions (1.3 through 1.6), the link points to the documentation page corresponding to the JVM version actually used.
If the class is non-Java, the hyperlink displays the class’s help section in Matlab’s Command Window / console. The panel’s tooltip displays the same information in a slightly different manner.
The hyperlink in the label is actually an optical illusion. In fact, the entire label is hyper-linked, and clicking any part of it will display the relevant documentation (a similar optical illusion is used to display the hyperlink at the footer of the utility window). The illusion is achieved using Matlab’s HTML formatting, where the part of the label string consisting of the class name is underlined. The cursor was dynamically modified to a pointed hand-finger when the mouse hovers over the label, using the following simple Java-based command:

methodsLabel.setCursor(java.awt.Cursor(java.awt.Cursor.HAND_CURSOR));

Special treatment is done to extract the class’s superclass, the interfaces that it implements and any possible class qualifiers (for example, “final”).
For those interested to dig within the code, all this is done in uiinspect‘s getMethodsPane function.
Next to the class label, a checkbox is presented (“Extra”). Clicking this checkbox displays additional meta-data information (qualifiers, interrupts and inheritance) in the methods pane beneath. Not all classes have all these extra meta-data fields – only the relevant extra meta-information fields are displayed. If there are is extra meta-data, then the checkbox is not displayed. This is done in the getMethodsTable function.

Methods or HG hierarchy panel

The utility’s main panel displays either a table of methods (functions) for a class object, or a tree hierarchy for an HG handle.

Class object methods

The methods table takes the information from the getObjMethods function, which is an adaptation of Matlab’s built-in methodsview function. Part of the adaptation is to hyperlink all class references (used in the methods’ inputs, outputs and meta-data), such that clicking them will open new corresponding uiinspect windows.

HG hierarchy tree

For HG handles, getHandleTree creates a Java tree that displays the hierarchy of HG children (as recursively reported by any HG handle’s Children property). For convenience, I have chosen to use the built-in component com.mathworks.hg.peer.UITreePeer that underlies the built-in uitree function. For performance reasons, the tree is not fully evaluated: the inspected handle’s Parent is set as the tree’s Root. The root node is expanded to get all the parent’s Children (i.e., the inspected handle’s siblings), and then the inspected handle’s tree node is again expanded to display its direct descendents.

Callbacks panel

The callbacks panel, computed in getCbsData is based on a reflection of the object’s data as reported by the undocumented built-in classhandle function. I aggregate all the object’s events, as well as all the object property names that end with ‘Fcn’ or ‘Callback’. This takes care (I hope) of all the different manners by which different kinds of objects raise events that are trappable in Matlab callbacks. Specifically, it takes care of Java/Matlab classes as well as HG handles and COM objects. If anyone thinks that I have forgotten something, please let me know.
The getCbsPane function then displays the callbacks data (callbacks’ property name and value) in a Java table (JIDE PropertyTable, JIDE TreeTable, or failing those a simple JTable).

Properties inspector panel

The properties inspection panel, prepared in getPropsPane, is actually composed of two separate panes: the top pane uses the built-in Matlab component com.mathworks.mlwidgets.inspector.PropertyView, which in turn uses JIDE’s PropertyTable. PropertyView is the same component used by Matlab’s standard inspect function (that’s how I came to know it, if anyone wonders).

• PropertyView only displays non-hidden properties. One day when I have time, I intent to add the hidden properties to the resulting JIDE PropertyTable. But for now it only shows non-hidden properties.
• PropertyView causes a Matlab crash on some Matlab releases, in case dbstop if error is active (this can be replicated using Matlab’s standard inspect). I therefore regrettably need to disable this specific dbstop.

I’ve been meaning to do these two fixes ever since I released uiinspect back in 2007, but for now that’s the way it is…
The properties data is retrieved via the getPropsData function. This function uses the built-in Matlab functions meta.class.fromName(className) and metaclass(classObject) to get the class handle of Matlab classes (in getMetaClass); similarly, loadClass loads the class definition for a Java class. I inspect these class handles for their contained properties. I then use the fieldnames function to add static class fields, which are not standard properties (for example, “RED” is a static field of the java.awt.Color class).
From the class handle, I retrieve the full definition of each property. This includes meta-data such as whether the property is regular or hidden (undocumented); settable or not; gettable or not; and any additional qualifiers (e.g., Sealed, Dependent, Constant, Abstract, Transient, Default (factory) value).

Auto-update mechanism

TODO

• cleanup internal functions, remove duplicates etc.
• link property objects to another uiinspect window for these objects
• display object children (& link to them) – COM/Java
• find a way to merge the other-properties table with the inspector table (hidden props + meta-data)
• find a way to use the inspector without disabling dbstop if error
• Fix: some fields generate a Java Exception from: com.mathworks.mlwidgets.inspector.PropertyRootNode$PropertyListener$1$1.run
• Fix: using the “Hide standard callbacks” checkbox sometimes issues Java Exceptions on the console
• Fix: In HG tree view, sometimes the currently-inspected handle is not automatically selected

I would be happy if anyone can help with any of these.

Conclusion

I believe that this has been my longest blog post ever; certainly the one that I have labored most over. This correlates well with the uiinspect utility, which has been one of my most complex tasks. I’m guessing I must have invested 100-200 man-hours developing and improving it over the years.
I hope you find uiinspect as useful and as fun as I do. I believe that its source-code is certainly worth reading if you are interested in any advanced Matlab GUI programming, showing how Java GUI components can be combined in Matlab. Go ahead and download uiinspect from the Matlab file Exchange.

The post uiinspect appeared first on Undocumented Matlab.

First pass – basic data table

We start by displaying the data in a simple uitable. The essence of the relevant code snippet was something like this:

headers = {'Periods', ...
           'Any period
returns', ...
           'Avg return
signal', ...
           'Avg
gain', ...
           'Avg
draw', ...
           'Gain/draw
ratio', ...
           'Max
gain', ...
           'Max
draw', ...
           'Random
% pos', ...
           'Signal
% pos', ...
           'Payout', '% p-value'};
hTable = uitable('Data',data, 'ColumnEditable',false, ...
           'ColumnName',headers, 'RowName',[], ...
           'ColumnFormat',['numeric',repmat({'bank'},1,11)], ...
           'ColumnWidth','auto', ...
           'Units','norm', 'Position',[0,.75,1,.25]);

Second pass – auto-resizing that actually works…

To solve the auto-resizing issue, we resort to a bit of Java magic powder. We start by using the findjobj utility to get the table’s underlying Java reference handle. This is the containing scrollpane, and we are interested in the actual data table inside. We then use the setAutoResizeMode, as described in the official Java documentation.

jScroll = findjobj(hTable);
jTable = jScroll.getViewport.getView;
jTable.setAutoResizeMode(jTable.AUTO_RESIZE_SUBSEQUENT_COLUMNS);

Third pass – adding colors

There are still quite a few other customizations needed here: enable sorting; remove the border outline; set a white background; set row (rather than cell) selection and several other fixes that may seem trivial by themselves but together giver a much more stylish look to the table’s look and feel. I’ll skip these for now (interested readers can read all about them, and more, in my detailed uitable customization report).
One of the more important customizations is to add colors depending on the data. In my client’s case, there were three requirements:

• data that could be positive or negative should be colored in green or red foreground color respectively
• large payouts (abs > 2) should be colored in blue
• data rows that have statistical significance (%p-value < 5) should have a yellow background highlight

While we could easily use HTML or CSS formatting to do this, this would be bad for performance in a large data table, may cause some issues when editing table cells or sorting columns. I chose to use the alternative method of cell renderers.
ColoredFieldCellRenderer is a simple table cell renderer that enables setting cell-specific foreground/background colors and tooltip messages (it also has a few other goodies like smart text alignment etc.). This requires some Java knowledge to program, but in this case you can simply download the ColoredFieldCellRenderer.zip file and use it, even if you don’t know Java. The source code is included in the zip file, for anyone who is interested.
After using javaaddpath to add the zip file to the dynamic Java classpath (you can add it to the static classpath.txt file instead), the contained Java class file is available for use in Matlab. We configure it according to our data and then assign it to all our table’s columns.
Java savvy readers might complain that the data-processing should perhaps be done in the renderer class rather than in Matlab. I have kept it in Matlab because this would enable very easy modification of the highlighting algorithm, without any need to modify the generic Java renderer class.
Unfortunately, in the new uitable design (the version available since R2008a), JIDE and Matlab have apparently broken the standard MVC approach by using a table model that not only controls the data but also sets the table’s appearance (row-striping background colors, for example), and disregards column cell-renderers. In order for our custom cell renderer to have any effect, we must therefore replace Matlab’s standard DefaultUIStyleTableModel with a simple DefaultTableModel. This in itself is not enough – we also need to ensure that the uitable has an empty ColumnFormat property, because if it is non-empty then it overrides our cell-renderer.
In the following code, note that Java row and column indices start at 0, not at 1 like in Matlab. We need to be careful about indices when programming java in Matlab.
The rest of the code should be pretty much self explanatory (again – more details can be found in the above-mentioned report):

% Initialize our custom cell renderer class object
javaaddpath('ColoredFieldCellRenderer.zip');
cr = ColoredFieldCellRenderer(java.awt.Color.white);
cr.setDisabled(true);  % to bg-color the entire column
% Set specific cell colors (background and/or foreground)
for rowIdx = 1 : size(data,1)
  % Red/greed foreground color for the numeric data
  for colIdx = 2 : 8
    if data(rowIdx,colIdx) < 0
      cr.setCellFgColor(rowIdx-1,colIdx-1,java.awt.Color(1,0,0));    % red
    elseif data(rowIdx,colIdx) > 0
      cr.setCellFgColor(rowIdx-1,colIdx-1,java.awt.Color(0,0.5,0));  % green
    end
  end
  % Yellow background for significant rows based on p-value
  if data(rowIdx,12) < = 5 && data(rowIdx,11)~=0
    for colIdx = 1 : length(headers)
      cr.setCellBgColor(rowIdx-1,colIdx-1,java.awt.Color(1,1,0));    % yellow
    end
  end
  % Bold blue foreground for significant payouts
  if abs(data(rowIdx,11)) >= 2
    cr.setCellFgColor(rowIdx-1,10,java.awt.Color(0,0,1));    % blue
    % Note: the following could easily be done in the renderer, just like the colors
    boldPayoutStr = ['' num2str(data(rowIdx,11),'%.2f') ''];
    %jTable.setValueAt(boldPayoutStr,rowIdx-1,10);  % this is no good: overridden when table model is replaced below...
    dataCells{rowIdx,11} = boldPayoutStr;
  end
end
% Replace Matlab's table model with something more renderer-friendly...
jTable.setModel(javax.swing.table.DefaultTableModel(dataCells,headers));
set(hTable,'ColumnFormat',[]);
% Finally assign the renderer object to all the table columns
for colIdx = 1 : length(headers)
  jTable.getColumnModel.getColumn(colIdx-1).setCellRenderer(cr);
end

The post Uitable cell colors appeared first on Undocumented Matlab.

CheckBoxTree

Last year, I have already described a built-in Matlab tree control whose nodes have tri-state checkboxes:

Modifying the standard Matlab checkbox uicontrol

In order to modify the standard Matlab checkbox uicontrol, we need to first get its underlying Java component reference. This is done using the findjobj utility. We then update its UI wrapper to be the same as the CheckBoxTree‘s checkbox control.
To programmatically set a mixed state we update the ‘selectionState’ client property to SelectionState.MIXED (SelectionState also has the SELECTED and NOT_SELECTED values).
Here is an end-to-end example:

hCB = uicontrol('Style','checkbox', ...);
jCB = findjobj(hCB);
jCB.setUI(com.mathworks.mwswing.checkboxtree.TriStateButtonUI(jCB.getUI));
% Update the checkbox state to MIXED
newState = com.mathworks.mwswing.checkboxtree.SelectionState.MIXED;
jCB.putClientProperty('selectionState', newState);
jCB.repaint;

Displaying as an independent Java control

Instead of retrofitting a standard Matlab uicontrol as described above, we can directly use the standard javax.swing.JCheckBox which does not normally support tri-state (it only has two states), displaying it in our GUI with the built-in javacomponent function:

% Display the checkbox (UNSELECTED state at first)
jCB = javax.swing.JCheckBox('JCheckBox - mixed',0);
javacomponent(jCB, [10,70,150,20], gcf);
% Update the checkbox state to MIXED
import com.mathworks.mwswing.checkboxtree.*
jCB.setUI(TriStateButtonUI(jCB.getUI));
jCB.putClientProperty('selectionState', SelectionState.MIXED);
jCB.repaint;

Note that instead of using javax.swing.JCheckBox, we could use the internal Matlab class com.mathworks.mwswing.MJCheckBox, which directly extends JCheckBox and adds mnemonic (shortcut-key) support, but is otherwise fully compatible with JCheckBox. Actually, it is MJCheckBox which is the underlying Java component of the standard Matlab checkbox uicontrol.

Alternative controls

Now that we have seen that Matlab includes built-in support (well, at least support in the technical sense, not the official customer-support sense), would you be surprised to learn that it includes similar support in other internal components as well?
The internal Matlab class com.mathworks.mwt.MWCheckbox directly supports a tri-state (yes/no/maybe) checkbox, without any need to update its UI, as follows:

% Display the checkbox (UNSELECTED state at first)
jCB = com.mathworks.mwt.MWCheckbox('MWCheckbox - mixed',0);
javacomponent(jCB, [10,70,150,20], gcf);
% Update the checkbox state to MIXED
jCB.setMixedState(true);
% Retrieve the current state
isMixedFlag = jCB.isMixedState();  % true/false

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