Creating Graphical User Interfaces

Creating GUIs with GUIDE

MATLAB implements GUIs as figure windows containing various styles of uicontrol objects. You must program each object to perform the intended action when activated by the user of the GUI. In addition, you must be able to save and launch your GUI. All of these tasks are simplified by GUIDE, MATLAB's Graphical User Interface Development Environment.

GUI Development Environment

The process of implementing a GUI involves two basic tasks:

• Laying out the GUI components
• Programming the GUI components

GUIDE is primarily a set of layout tools. However, GUIDE also generates an M-file that contains code to handle the initialization and launching of the GUI. This M-file also provides a framework for the implementation of the callbacks - the functions that execute when users activate a component in the GUI.

The Implementation of a GUI

While it is possible to write an M-file that contains all the commands to lay out a GUI, it is easier to use GUIDE to lay out the components interactively and to generate two files that save and launch the GUI:

• A FIG-file - contains a complete description of the GUI figure and all of its children (uicontrols and axes), as well as the values of all object properties.
• An M-file - contains the functions that launch and control the GUI and the callbacks, which are defined as subfunctions. This M-file is referred to as the application M-file in this documentation.

Note that the application M-file does not contain the code that lays out the uicontrols; this information is saved in the FIG-file.

The following diagram illustrates the parts of a GUI implementation.

Features of the GUIDE-Generated Application M-File

GUIDE simplifies the creation of GUI applications by automatically generating an M-file framework directly from your layout. You can then use this framework to code your application M-file. This approach provides a number of advantages:

• The M-file contains code to implement a number of useful features (see Configuring Application Options for information on these features).
• The M-file adopts an effective approach to managing object handles and executing callback routines (see Creating and Storing the Object Handle Structure for more information).
• The M-files provides a way to manage global data. (see Managing GUI Data for more information).
• The automatically inserted subfunction prototypes for callback routines ensure compatibility with future releases. For more information, see Generating Callback Function Prototypes for information on syntax and arguments.

You can elect to have GUIDE generate only the FIG-file and write the application M-file yourself. There are no uicontrol creation commands in the application M-file; the layout information is contained in the FIG-file generated by the Layout Editor.

Beginning the Implementation Process

To begin implementing your GUI, proceed to the following sections:

• Selecting GUIDE Application Options - to set both FIG-file and M-file options.
• Using the Layout Editor - to begin laying out the GUI.
• Understanding the Application M-File - to understand programming techniques used in the application M-file.
• Application Techniques - to see a collection of examples that illustrate techniques that are useful for implementing GUIs.

Creating GUIs with MATLAB

Editing Version 5 GUIs with Version 6 GUIDE