| Creating Graphical User Interfaces | |
Saving the GUI
The FIG-file that you create with the Layout Editor enables MATLAB to reconstruct your GUI when it is deployed. Generally, a functional GUI consists of two components:
FIG-files (filename.fig) are binary files created as a result of saving a figure with the hgsave command or using Save from the Layout Editor's File menu. FIG-files replace the MAT-file/M-file combination that was previously used to save figures.
What Is In a FIG-File
A FIG-file contains a serialized figure object. That is, a complete description of the figure object and all of its children is saved in the file. This enables MATLAB to reconstruct the figure and all of its children when you open the file. All of the objects property values are set to the values they were saved with when the figure is recreated.
By default, FIG-files do not save the default figure toolbars and menus, although you can save these elements using the hgsave and hgload commands.
Handle Remapping
One of the most useful aspects of FIG-files is the fact that object handles saved, for example, in a UserData property are remapped to the newly created, equivalent object.
For example, suppose you have created a GUI that uses three radio buttons. Whenever a user selects one of the radio buttons, its callback routine must check the state of the other radio buttons and set them to off (as this is the standard behavior of radio buttons). To avoid having to search for the handles of the other radio buttons (with findobj), you could save these handles in a structure in the UserData property of each object.
When MATLAB reconstructs the figure and children (that is, deploys your GUI), the handles of the equivalent new objects are assigned to a structure with the same name and fields as in the original objects.
Opening FIG-Files
You can use the open, openfig, and hgload commands to open a file having a .fig extension. The application M-file uses openfig to display the GUI.
| | Figure | Programming GUIs | |