Activating a UIControl element programmatically

I've been playing around with the GUIDE tutorial app simple_gui, described here. Specifically, I am controlling the app programmatically and want to make sure I don't miss anything.

First, where I'm at so far:

I initialize the app with

h_sg = simple_gui;

Then, I can get handles to each control element with

h_mesh = h_sg.Children(4);
h_popup = h_sg.Children(1);

Finally, I can control the dataset menu and plot buttons like this:

h_popup.Value = 2;
notify(h_popup, 'Action');
notify(h_mesh, 'Action');

My main question is, am I missing anything? Is there anything else MATLAB does when you interact with a UIControl besides set the value and notify listeners (a.k.a. call notify())?

Answer 1

[Sean de Wolski]

You should really consider using appdesigner. Not only is there better support for listeners, there's also a ui testing framework that allows you to do whatever interactions you want programmatically:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/app-testing-framework.html

It's also where all of MathWorks development is focused and has already far surpassed the capabilities of GUIDE.

[Lawrence]

That is out of my hands. The decision to use GUIDE was made when app development started, 7 years ago.

[Sean de Wolski]

Still may not be an option but potentially worth knowing about at least:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/66087-guide-to-app-designer-migration-tool-for-matlab

[Lawrence]

Thank you. It is useful to know that conversion tools exist. We wouldn't be able to make the switch, however, until toolbars and context menus are supported.