Editboxes in a Script

I have a script to run a GUI menu in order to tie together a list of different scripts/functions so that they can run overnight without manual input. I already have a pushbutton and several checkboxes that are functional.

close all
if ~exist('utilcode'); utilcode='';end

positiona=[30 550 120 20];

utility=uicontrol('Style','edit','string','<utilcode>','position',positiona,'Callback',utilcode);

position2=[30,475,120,20];
BuildHr8=uicontrol('Style','checkbox','string','Build Hr8 Files','position',position2);
set(BuildHr8,'Callback','Build1=1;')

I am able to get a good return on the checkboxes, but the editboxes return a blank matrix.

I tried doing this with functions, but the variables would be replaced with random numbers (not to mention moving variables became a headache.

[Arthur]

How to you read the the String from the textbox?

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

Did you try the get() function to retrieve the current contents of the edit box?

contentsOfEditbox = get(utility, 'String');

Answer 2

[James Tammen]

I tried using functions such as

utility=uicontrol('Style','edit','string','<utilcode>','position',positiona,'Callback',@h_utility);

Execute=uicontrol('Style','push','string','GO','position',position4,'Callback',@h_GO);

function h_utility(hObject,eventdata,Convert,Build,Update)
utilcode=get(hObject,'String')

function h_GO(utilcode,ReadFilesAfterDate,ReadSubdirs,Convert,Build,Update)
close all
utilcode=get(h_utility,'String')

The function h_utility recognizes the input (i.e. I type in abc, it returns abc), but in function h_GO it returns a number in the utilcode input as 5.0037 and the get() function returns an error of too many input arguments (which doesn't make sense to me).

[Arthur]

Why do you use close all? It seems that you close your GUI before you read the string of h_utility.

[Image Analyst]

And why aren't you using GUIDE? Don't you find it tedious to do all of the nitty gritty low level details yourself instead of just working at a higher level with a dialog box editor like GUIDE? View this video and see if you still want to handle all of the gory details yourself or if you'd like GUIDE to handle them automatically for you: http://blogs.mathworks.com/videos/category/gui-or-guide/

[James Tammen]

GUIDE creates a reference figure and our network does not pass on figure files to individual work stations.

[Jan]

Figures are simple files in the MAT format, which contain a struct. I cannot believe that a network would refuse to transport them.

I do not use GUIDE. Over the years I've created a neat set of functions which allow a finer control and more details than the automatically created GUIDE code.

[Image Analyst]

Yeah, that seems weird to me that your intranet won't let you load a .fig file. If not, then you're stuck "rolling your own" via a boatload of tedious m-file statements.

Answer 3

[Walter Roberson]

get(h_utility,'String')

is going to run the function h_utility and take its return value as the list of handles whose String property is to be fetched. But the function h_utility not defined to return any value. That would lead to an error.

Note that when you execute h_utility, the variable you write to, utilcode, is a local variable, so the value of that variable is discarded after the get()

Perhaps the above is not your actual code?

[James Tammen]

This is my actual code (there are two more edit boxes, but they are structured the same way).

I don't fully understand, how do I set up a return for h_utility and/or editbox utility?

[Walter Roberson]

Please look in the file exchange for the 41 Complete Sample GUIs contribution.

Answer 4

[Arthur]

You need to pass on the handle of your textbox to the function that has to read out the textbox. The common way to do this is by creating a handles struct, containing all the handles of your GUI.

Easy methods to do this is by using the function guidata, or by using getappdata/setappdata.

[James Tammen]

I tried rewriting my code and simplyfing what I need to do. This is all I have now:

function Test1

close all

WxHrProcessor = figure('Toolbar','none');
myhandles = guihandles(WxHrProcessor); 

positiona=[5 300 120 20];
myhandles.utility=uicontrol('Style','edit','string','<utilcode>','position',positiona,'Callback',@h_utility);
guidata(WxHrProcessor,myhandles);
uicontrol('style','push','callback',@My_Callback);

function h_utility(hObject,eventdata)
myhandles = guidata(gcbo);
myhandles.utility=get(hObject,'String')

function My_Callback(hObject,eventdata)
myhandles = guidata(gcbo);
Utilcode=myhandles.utility
guidata(gcbo,myhandles)
myhandles

Yet on the first function the guidata is able to save my input and the secound function somehow converts it to 155.0142. This is my first GUI without Guide, so you are going to need to spell it out for me.

[Image Analyst]

See how hard it is if you're going to do all the gory details yourself? Anyway, please be specific about what function is "the first function", what function is "the secound function", and exactly what gets converted to 155.0142 (which looks just like the value of a handle.)