mlAppKit

build better GUIs more efficiently

---

Getting Started

Project Summary

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.

Installing Development Version

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()

Installing the User Version

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()

Adding Your Own Apps

Currently, migrating to mlAppKit boils down to:

1. preparing your apps (i.e. make them recognizable)
2. adding your app to the startup function
3. creating a menu entry within host_app

i. prepare your apps

1. create a new folder for each group of apps within the project root directory and place your .mlapp files inside it
2. open each of your apps in MatLab App Designer and create a new uipanel.
3. Rename the new uipanel to main_Panel and copy paste your app content into this uipanel

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

1. 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));

1. 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).

Support, Feature Requests, Suggestions

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.

Contributions

MatLab doesn't have a PEP8. That doesn't mean that PEP8 guide can't be applied to MatLab code with some adjustments.

Final Notes

The project is licensed under terms of the MIT :ref:`License`.

Author:	Erkan Demiralay
Email:	erkan.dem@pm.me
Web:	erkandem.github.io/
GitHub:	erkandem/mlAppKit
Issues:	Issues (public)
Requirement:	MatLab R2016b or later