Triggering functions in Event Actions @ SimEvents

Consider functions that take/give Tables as input/output like e.g:

function [ScaledTable] = ScaleMyTable(Table, Multiplier)
    ScaledTable = Table.*Multiplier;
end
%
function [Table] = ClearTableColumn(ScaledTable, Column)
Table = RefTable(:,Column) = [];
end

I have a server in a SimEvents model. I would like to use Event Actions to call custom functions that operate on tables by using entities attributes, and operate on enties attributes by using values from tables. For example:

%% Entry Action:
ScaledTable = ScaleMyTable(Table, entity.Attribute1);
entity.Attribute3 = max(ScaledTable(:, entity.Attribute2));
Table = ClearTableColumn(ScaledTable, entity.Attribute4)

The simulation won't run because apparently some MATLAB workspace-defined classes like tables, structs etc. are not supported in Event Actions, and I don't understand how to circumvent the problem. I have tried using a MATLAB function block connected to "From Workspace/To Workspace" blocks and trigger that function from Event Actions, but the error message is the same.

"Error in [...] block. See Entry action line [...].
Caused by: Data type of parameter [...] is not supported in event actions [...]."

Further down the line there are gates controlled by signals; these signals are obtained by "From Workspace" blocks which reference columns of these tables, converted to timeseries. So, my goal(s) are something like:

• Use an Event Action to trigger a function that receives a Table as an input and give a Table as an output
• Do something with a Table (like assign a certain table entry to an entity's attribute)
• Making sure that the Table is updated at runtime so that the timeseries that control the entity gates further down the line are updated as well

What am I missing here? Is this just a flawed design, and do I have to tackle the problem another way? Thanks.

Answer 1

[Divyanshu]

Hi PersistentNoob,

I have created a sample model using SimEvents Blocks. I have created a sample MATLAB function 'scaled_value' which is triggered from Event Actions of an Entity Server Block used in the Model. The model simulates without any error.

Here is the code for function 'scaled_value':

function [result] = scaled_value(val,tb)
    for i=1:5
        tb{i,1} = tb{i,1}*val;
    end
    res = max(tb{:,1});
    result = res;
end

Below is the piece of code written for Event Actions in 'Entity Server' Block:

d = [1;2;3;4;5];
Vnames = {'data'};
t = table(d,'VariableNames',Vnames);
entity.CurrentGasLevel = scaled_value(entity.CurrentGasLevel,t);

I followed the following example to create sample model and made customizations as per the description provided:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2023a/simevents/gs/entity-management-with-event-actions.html

Hope it helps!