How do I use a .exe compiled with an app in app designer?

I have designed an app in app designer, this runs with no problems.

One of the functions of the app is to run a small .exe that processes some data (let's call it analysis.exe). When designing the app I call analysis.exe via the system command using its filepath.

I have finished my app now, when I compile it I would like to add analysis.exe as a required file, so it is compiled with the rest of the program, but then how do I call it within the app? Is this the correct way to go about it?

Should I instead leave analysis.exe as a standalone, but then how can I know what its filepath will be when I give the program to a new user?

Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

[Matt J]

If you are using the deploytool app to compile, you can include analysis.exe via the section "Files required for your application to run". This will cause analysis.exe to be bundled into the deployed package, and for it to be unpacked into the CTF archive when your deployed standalone is run. Within your MATLAB code, you can build the filepath needed to reference it using ctfroot, e.g.,

if isdeployed
    exePath=fullfile(ctfroot,'analysis.exe')
else
    exePath=____
end

[Walter Roberson]

Note that when you do this, analysis.exe will not be automatically compiled from source to be included. It will just look for an existing analysis.exe to bundle into the file.

[Neuroesc]

This is perfect, thank you both

[Neuroesc]

So I got around to trying this out (finally).

I include analysis.exe as a file "required for your application to run" when using deploytool.

I use the isdeployed and ctfroot approach as described here to get the filepath of the .exe after compiling. However, when I try to run analysis.exe at the location specified by ctfroot matlab returns an error message:

'"C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Temp\username\mcrCache24.1\app_4\analysis.exe"' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file

When I go to check this location analysis.exe is not there... so it seems like analysis.exe was not included properly during compiling?

Any idea what the issue is here?

[Matt J]

Is everything missing from ctfroot, or just analysis.exe? Did you check if it was quarantined by anti-virus software?

[Neuroesc]

I did some more digging and analysis.exe is actually there, but it is stored in a chain of directories that recreate its original filepath.

i.e. if analysis.exe was found at C:\Users\data\stuff\GitHub\analysis.exe when I used deploytool, it is found at ctfroot\Users\data\stuff\GitHub\analysis.exe after compiling, not ctfroot

Is that normal?

[Matt J]

If you told deploytool to include Users\data\stuff\GitHub\analysis.exe, then yes, it is normal.

[Neuroesc]

@Matt J answered this issue here