build better GUIs more efficiently
Creating GUIs with MatLab
has become very easy with App Designer
.
However, these GUIs usually stay either quite simple or
get too big to maintain. Leverage your work with App Designer
by using mlAppKit
which joins multiple standalone apps to one production app. Keep
your standalone apps small and easy to maintain. Create more complex apps
more professionaly without loosing the benefits of the drag and drop experience
of App Designer
once you go offroad by editing the underlying classdef
code.
Use the git clone
or download the zipped repository and run the :ref:`make` script.
You're ready to modify files as you like (boilerplate included)
$ git clone https://github.com/erkandem/mlAppKit.git
>> make()
The user version assumes that you want to package your applications instead of working on the tool itself. Download the latest build
$ wget 'https://github.com/erkandem/mlAppKit/releases/latest/download/mlappkit_static_bundle.zip'
$ unzip mlappkit_static_bundle.zip && cd mlappkit_static_bundle
The unzipped folder includes a setup script which will place
frequently used functions into a directory within your userpath
and
add the the directory to your MATLAB path permanently.
You can modify the installation path during setup.
>> mlappkit_setup()
After running mlappkit_setup
you can access a boilerplate generator.
The :ref:`mlappkit_quickstart` command is inspired by sphinx_quickstart.
It will launch a dialog and unzip a boilerplate project.
>> target_dir = pwd();
>> project_name = 'hello_world';
>> mlappkit_quickstart(target_dir, project_name);
cd
into the directory and run the make
command.
>> cd hello_world
>> make()
The next step is to develop your app of apps or reshape existing code into what you want. This will be discussed in the next paragraph.
You can easily package a your final app using the :ref:`package_app` function. This command will extract all m-files and static files into a single folder which you can redistribute.
>> package_app()
- Currently, migrating to mlAppKit boils down to:
- preparing your apps (i.e. make them recognizable)
- adding your app to the startup function
- creating a menu entry within
host_app
i. prepare your apps
- create a new folder for each group of apps within the project root directory and
place your
.mlapp
files inside it - open each of your apps in MatLab App Designer
and create a new
uipanel
. - Rename the new
uipanel
tomain_Panel
and copy paste your app content into thisuipanel
ii Connecting Your App to host_app
The app will later be started with either :ref:`app_lauch` Open up the :ref:`ext_start_up` function and edit two sections.
.
└── functions
└── start_up
└── ext_start_up.m
Change
<yourApp>
with the name of your.mlapp
file.<yourGroup>
is used to keep it the namespace tidy.I'd recommend to match the name of the of folder previously selected.
app.plugins.<yourGroup>.<yourApp> = <yourApp>(app.(f));
- assign a Tag to each individual app. I'd recommend to simply use the name of the app. Afterwards, save and exit.
app.plugins.<yourGroup>.<yourApp>.main_Panel.Tag = '<yourApp>';
iii. Creating a Menu Entry for you App
Open the host_app.mlapp
from App Designer
.
Add a menu entry and add create a new Menu Selected Callback
.
Now change from the design view to the code view in App Designer
and find the new menuSelected callback. App Designer should take you there
after adding the callback.
Add a call to the :ref:`panel_visibility_switch` with the handle of the host_app and a the tag name which you assigned in the previous step into the callback.
.
└── host
└── host_app.mlapp
function yourAppMenuSelected(app, event)
target_tag = 'yourApp';
panel_visibility_switch(app, target_tag)
end
Your Done! Call the :ref:`make` function in the project root directory. This will start a cascade of code extraction, modification and creation.
>> make()
The expected outcome is that the class definition code of all your .mlapp
files will be extracted and slightly modified to play nice with each other.
Since MatLab
has one global namespace the :ref:`make` command will create functions
to add and remove project specific functions to the MatLab path
defined in pathdef.m
.
They will be removed from the MatLab path
if you close the IDE (recommended).
If you need more info check out the documentation. Generally, take a look at the Issues Section
Write me an email. I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible. Especially during the first months after publication.
MatLab doesn't have a PEP8. That doesn't mean that PEP8 guide can't be applied to MatLab code with some adjustments.
The project is licensed under terms of the MIT :ref:`License`.
Author: | Erkan Demiralay |
---|---|
Email: | [email protected] |
Web: | erkandem.github.io/ |
GitHub: | erkandem/mlAppKit |
Issues: | Issues (public) |
Requirement: | MatLab R2016b or later |