AppDesigner issues: reordering and undeleting callbacks, turning off Code Analyzer markup

In the AppDesigner code view editor, the callbacks appear in a certain order. I was wondering if there was a way to shuffle them into a different order, other than the obviously inconvenient way of deleting and rewriting them from scratch. Cut & paste doesn't appear to be an option.

Also, I seem to find (this is in R2017a) that when I delete a callback using the context menu in the callbacks tab, there is no going back. In other words, the Undo toolbar button doesn't become active to let me restore it. Is it supposed to be that way?

Finally, is there really no way of suppressing Code Analyzer markup? If I upgrade to R2017b would I have this capability? There is an "Enable app coding alerts" checkbox, but all that does is get rid of warning icons along the right hand edge of the editor. The squiggly red underlining doesn't go away.

[Michael Amonson]

I'm running R2017b and need some method to reorder the callbacks. I can't believe this is so difficult! This is a huge oversight. There should be an easy way of allowing the user to reorder the callbacks. Any insight or guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Matt J, concerning your question about R2017b and suppressing Code Analyzer markup, unchecking the "Enable app coding alerts" box in the View section under the Editor tab is supposed to suppress the alerts, but it has no effects whatsoever.

[Jon]

I submitted the following as a Service Request in August 2017: When building a user interface with App Designer I find that the callbacks get entered into the code in the order that they are created. This is not necessarily the most logical way to organize the code. I would like to reorder the callbacks into a more logical order (e.g. grouping callbacks that all relate to the same underlying controller). I can not find any way to reorder them. Is there a way to do it? Please let me know.

I received the reply: As of R2017a, it is not possible to reorder callbacks in App Designer code. I have notified our development team of this enhancement, and they will consider it for future releases of MATLAB.

I have since updated to 2017B but still have the same problem. I really would prefer to move ahead using App Designer rather than going back to using Guide, but this inability to reorder the callbacks is a real obstacle. I hope that this gets some elevated priority from the developers soon.

Answer 1

[Melissa Williams]

Regarding the undoing of deleting a callback, it is undoable. You can either use keyboard shortcut ctrl+z (Be sure to click on the component browser to give the window focus, there was a bug using the context menu that focus got lost). Or you could switch to design view and use the buttons in the toolbar.

When you are in code view, those buttons control undo and redo actions in the editor. When you are in design view the buttons handle all actions outside the editor. The keyboard shortcuts work based on what has focus.

Regarding callback reordering, we are aware this is a painful limitation and are working on improving the experience.

Regarding the turning off the code analyzer, this is not currently possible in App Designer. The "enable app coding alerts" is a separate feature specific to addition alerts App Designer displays to help with Obeject Oriented coding and some graphics limitations. It does not control the code analyzer. I've added a request to add control for code analyzer.

Thanks for the feedback! Melissa

[Matt J]

Thanks, Melissa. Glad to hear these issues are being looked into.

[Lauren Gray]

Any update on when app designer will have functionality for reordering callbacks?

It would also be nice if you could minimise sections of code within app designer so you could open up the sections of code that interest you and minimise similar code. i.e. I have a lot of edit fields which only call back is to run a function yet this takes a lot of space up.

[Melissa Williams]

Hi Lauren, MATLAB R2018B is available today and includes the request to expand/collapse sections of code in the App Designer editor (code folding).

[Benjamin Buch]

Any update on when app designer will have functionality for reordering callbacks?

[Iddo Weiner]

Joining the request for updates on reordering callbacks.. Any news?

[Melissa Williams]

Hi, Please see the answer below, you can try out the 19a pre-release with this capability.

Answer 2

[Melissa Williams]

Hi everyone,

The R2019a pre-release is live as of today. If you have access to it, you can try out:

• reordering your callbacks in App Designer by dragging and dropping them in the Code Browser Callbacks tab (to the left of the Editor window in Code View).
• turning off Code Analyzer - in the MATLAB preferences panel, under Code Analyzer, turn off "Enable integrated warnings and error messages" This change will take effect in both the MATLAB and App Designer editors. (If you already had turned it off for the MATLAB editor, it should just be off in App Designer).

[Matt J]

Great news!

[Mallory Kosfeld]

Whenever I reorder the callbacks in the Code Browser Callbacks tab, they stay in that order until I close and reopen App Designer. When I reopen my .mlapp the callbacks revert to whatever order they were previously in, even if I run or save my mlapp. Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong?

[Melissa Williams]

Hi Mallory,

Unfortunately, yes this is bug and I have captured it and we will be working on a fix.

Thank you for sharing this with us.

-Melissa

[Mallory Kosfeld]

Darn, okay. Thanks for looking into it!

[Jon]

It looks like you've already added it to your bug reports, but I also have the same experience as Mallory - The reordering of the callbacks is not persistent. Too bad, I was so happy to finally have this functionality included.

[Melissa Williams]

Hi everyone,

This has been fixed in R2019a Update 1 which is available now. Reordering callbacks will now remained saved with your app.

-Melissa

[Mallory Kosfeld]

Melissa,

It works for me now! The update fixed it. Thank you!

Mallory

[Greg]

Per code analyzer messages, can't we selectively silence them with %#ok flags? I know that %#ok the literal works, but that suppresses ALL warnings on the line. I want the individual control, but I can't figure out what to put inside the < >. Can you tell me the manual flag for "Use app.<name> to reference a property of app." until suppression is integrated?

[Melissa Williams]

To manually supress the specific warning you mention, "Use app.<name> to reference a property of app." try %#ok<ADPROP>

[Greg]

Thanks for the reply, but that one doesn't work. I get a new message stating "A Code Analyzer message was once suppressed here, but the message is no longer generated." Is there anywhere - like buried in <matlabroot> or such - to look at a complete list of suppression tags? I understand it would likely be difficult to read, but I'm willing to try.

[Melissa Williams]

Which release are you using?

[Greg]

R2019a.

[Melissa Williams]

There are few suppression codes introduced specifically for the App Designer use cases.

User references a class property, but does not use the obj.PropertyName syntax

• %#ok<ADPROP>

• %#ok<ADPROPLC> (depending on the coding pattern it's one or the other, they both produce the same message)

User declares class method, but does not provide object reference in the method declaration

User declares class method, but does not provide 'app' as the first argument.

• %#ok<ADAPPREF>

User calls a function, with same name as a class method

• %#ok<ADMTHDINV>

[Greg]

%#ok<ADPROPLC> worked perfectly.

Thank you for the list, it will be nice to turn off the others if they arise.

[Jens Haldrup]

Will you consider making it possible to reorder elements in the component browser also?

[Matt J]

I agree - reordering the component browser is also important.

Answer 3

[CallumP]

Can't help with the code analyser markyup but I wrote this: https://uk.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/71838-hierarchyviewer which allows you to reorder components and callbacks.