How to store data from DialogApp in CallingApp while closing the DialogApp in App Designer?

Hi,

I have a Push Button function in an App, that opens a DialogApp with two spinners and runs a seperate Matlab function thereafter.

What I want from the DialogApp is to store these two values in the main App/insert them into the function and then close the Dialog Window before/while the function runs and populates the axes in the main App.

I managed to create a Push Button in the main App, that opens both the dialog window and runs the function, but it does not populate the function with the two desired values from the DialogApp.

function PushButtonPushed(app, event)

% Disable Plot Options button while dialog is open

app.PushButton.Enable = 'off';

% Call dialog box with input values

dby=1;compass=0;

app.DialogApp = DialogApp(app,dby,compass);

[app.x,app.y,app.z,app.N,app.E,app.Up,app.P,app.Q,app.Upak,app.Lpak,app.t2,app.t4]=my_function(dby,compass);

plot(app.pq_axes, app.t4,app.P)

plot(app.packer_axes, app.t4,app.Upak,app.t4,app.Lpak)

app.PushButton.Enable = 'on';

end

Can someone tell me how to store the values from the DialogApp in the main App so that the function can use them?

Thank you!

[F S]

Below I also posted the code from the DialogApp to better understand. Of course the way it's working right now is that both the DialogApp and my function take the default values I defined as 1 and 0 and run with that, without any influnence from the spinner of the DialogApp. I'm aware, there might be more than one problem with it. But what I really don't manage to fix is how to get the values from the DialogApp into my function.

classdef DialogApp < matlab.apps.AppBase

% Properties that correspond to app components

properties (Access = public)

UIFigure matlab.ui.Figure

OKButton matlab.ui.control.Button

toolorientationSpinner matlab.ui.control.Spinner

toolorientationSpinnerLabel matlab.ui.control.Label

speedupdownsampledatabySpinner matlab.ui.control.Spinner

speedupdownsampledatabySpinnerLabel matlab.ui.control.Label

end

properties (Access = private)

CallingApp % Description

end

% Callbacks that handle component events

methods (Access = private)

% Code that executes after component creation

function startupFcn(app, mainapp, dby, compass)

app.CallingApp=mainapp;

end

% Button pushed function: OKButton

function OKButtonPushed(app, event)

delete(app)

end

% Value changed function: speedupdownsampledatabySpinner

function speedupdownsampledatabySpinnerValueChanged(app, event)

dby = app.speedupdownsampledatabySpinner.Value;

end

% Value changed function: toolorientationSpinner

function toolorientationSpinnerValueChanged(app, event)

compass = app.toolorientationSpinner.Value;

end

end

% Component initialization

methods (Access = private)

% Create UIFigure and components

function createComponents(app)

% Create UIFigure and hide until all components are created

app.UIFigure = uifigure('Visible', 'off');

app.UIFigure.Position = [100 100 254 226];

app.UIFigure.Name = 'MATLAB App';

% Create speedupdownsampledatabySpinnerLabel

app.speedupdownsampledatabySpinnerLabel = uilabel(app.UIFigure);

app.speedupdownsampledatabySpinnerLabel.HorizontalAlignment = 'center';

app.speedupdownsampledatabySpinnerLabel.Position = [40 173 176 45];

app.speedupdownsampledatabySpinnerLabel.Text = {'speed up '; '(downsample data by:)'};

% Create speedupdownsampledatabySpinner

app.speedupdownsampledatabySpinner = uispinner(app.UIFigure);

app.speedupdownsampledatabySpinner.Limits = [1 10000];

app.speedupdownsampledatabySpinner.RoundFractionalValues = 'on';

app.speedupdownsampledatabySpinner.ValueChangedFcn = createCallbackFcn(app, @speedupdownsampledatabySpinnerValueChanged, true);

app.speedupdownsampledatabySpinner.HorizontalAlignment = 'center';

app.speedupdownsampledatabySpinner.Position = [84 155 103 22];

app.speedupdownsampledatabySpinner.Value = 1;

% Create toolorientationSpinnerLabel

app.toolorientationSpinnerLabel = uilabel(app.UIFigure);

app.toolorientationSpinnerLabel.HorizontalAlignment = 'right';

app.toolorientationSpinnerLabel.Position = [86 80 84 22];

app.toolorientationSpinnerLabel.Text = 'tool orientation';

% Create toolorientationSpinner

app.toolorientationSpinner = uispinner(app.UIFigure);

app.toolorientationSpinner.Limits = [0 360];

app.toolorientationSpinner.ValueChangedFcn = createCallbackFcn(app, @toolorientationSpinnerValueChanged, true);

app.toolorientationSpinner.Position = [86 105 84 22];

% Create OKButton

app.OKButton = uibutton(app.UIFigure, 'push');

app.OKButton.ButtonPushedFcn = createCallbackFcn(app, @OKButtonPushed, true);

app.OKButton.FontWeight = 'bold';

app.OKButton.Position = [52 18 151 39];

app.OKButton.Text = 'OK';

% Show the figure after all components are created

app.UIFigure.Visible = 'on';

end

end

% App creation and deletion

methods (Access = public)

% Construct app

function app = DialogApp(varargin)

% Create UIFigure and components

createComponents(app)

% Register the app with App Designer

registerApp(app, app.UIFigure)

% Execute the startup function

runStartupFcn(app, @(app)startupFcn(app, varargin{:}))

if nargout == 0

clear app

end

end

% Code that executes before app deletion

function delete(app)

% Delete UIFigure when app is deleted

delete(app.UIFigure)

end

end

end

Answer 1

[Adam Danz]

Follow this demo (attached). If you have any trouble, let us know where you're at and we can help you get unstuck.

• App1 generates a random number when opened and contains a button to open App2.
• The starting function for App2 includes a 2nd input for the App1 handle.
• When App2 is opened, it uses the App1 handle to extract the random number from App1 and copies it to App2.

Here are the steps taken for App2 to get data from App1

1. In App2: Add a startup function and add a 2nd input to the startup function. The first condition below closes App2 if it's not opened with a second input. This condition could be even more strict and require the 2nd input to be the handle specifically to App1. Next, the random number of App1 is extracted and copied to App2.

% Code that executes after component creation

function app2StartupFcn(app, app1Handle)

% Requires 2nd input; throw error if missing or empty

if nargin < 2 || isempty(app2Handle)

close(app.UIFigure)

error('App2 must be opened by App1.')

end

% Get app1 random variable value

app1RandVar = app1Handle.RandomnumberEditField.Value;

% Set app2

app.Randomnumberfromapp1EditField.Value = app1RandVar;

end

2. In App1: The push button is assigned a callback function to open App2 and includes the handle to App1 in the 2nd input.

function Openapp2ButtonPushed(app, event)

app2(app)

end

[F S]

Hi Adam, thank you for your answer! This is not exactly doing what I'm looking for however. To describe it with your two example apps, I would like them to do the following:

1. initially, app1 contains NO data value, but only the push button function
2. when pushing the button in app1, it opens app2, where I can insert 1 (or in my case 2) value(s), which get(s) saved and displayed by app1
3. app2 closes, the values remains in app1

in all my trys i was loosing the value from app2 when closing it, so really what I need is it to be stored in app1 permanently beforehand. is this possible?

[Adam Danz]

You can still use the logic in my answer with some minor additions.

Step 2 of my answer opens app2 and passes the handle from app1 to app2.

When you insert a value into app2, the callback function that responds to the the changed value can store the data in app1 using the app handle.