How to save and load MATLAB app?

Hello,

I have a MATLAB App that has been devolped in the MATLAB App Designer. I have saved all of the apps properties when the user selects the save config menu option and saved it into a .mat file.

Now I want to be able to load this file and update the app to the properties saved in this file. Currently, the program will store the variables in the app structure, but will not update the app's UIFigure. If I save the the UIFigure itself the program will create a new UIFigure and the code in App Designer will no longer work. Hence, why I've added not to save the UIFigure.

if strcmp(propName, 'SuperMarioUIFigure')
        continue;
end

Does anyone know how I can get the app structure to update the current UIFigure that App Designer is running?

Here is my current code.

% Menu selected function: SaveConfigMenu
        function SaveConfigMenuSelected(app, event)
            % Create a structure to hold all the properties of the app
            config = struct();

            % List all properties of the app
            metaProps = properties(app);

            % Loop through properties and store their values in structure
            for i = 1:length(metaProps)
                propName = metaProps{i};
                if strcmp(propName, 'SuperMarioUIFigure')
                    continue;
                end
                try
                    config.(propName) = app.(propName);
                catch
                    % Handle any properties that can't be saved
                    fprintf('Could not save property: %s\n', propName);
                end
            end

            % Prompt user to specify a file to save the configuration
            [file, path] = uiputfile('*.mat', 'Save Configuration As');
            if isequal(file, 0) || isequal(path, 0)
                return; % User cancelled
            end

            % Save the configuration structure to a file
            save(fullfile(path, file), '-struct', 'config');
            uialert(app.SuperMarioUIFigure, 'Configuration saved successfully!', 'Save Configuration');
            
        end

        % Menu selected function: LoadConfigMenu
        function LoadConfigMenuSelected(app, event)
            % Prompt user to select a configuration file
            [file, path] = uigetfile('*.mat', 'Load Configuration');
            if isequal(file, 0) || isequal(path, 0)
                return; % User cancelled
            end

            % Load the configuration structure from the file
            config = load(fullfile(path, file));

            % List all properties of the app
            metaProps = properties(app);

            % Update app properties with values from the configuration file
            for i = 1:length(metaProps)
                propName = metaProps{i};
                if isfield(config, propName)
                    try
                        app.(propName) = config.(propName);
                    catch ME
                        % Handle any properties that can't be updated
                        fprintf('Could not load property: %s. Error: %s\n', propName, ME.message);
                    end
                end
            end
      
            % Display a success message
            uialert(app.SuperMarioUIFigure, 'Configuration loaded successfully!', 'Load Configuration');

        end

Thanks

Answer 1

[Matt J]

The app object contains handles to all the app's uicontrols, but your LoadConfigMenuSelected callback doesn't reference any of them. Surely you need to set their properties in some way as well if the load operation is supposed to have some graphical effect.

[Image Analyst]

I think he is when he does this:

app.(propName) = config.(propName);

The assumption being that config has fields that match the properties of the app.

However I don't know that doing that (saving config) will save all the settings of the various widgets on the screen, like scrollbar values, radio button states, edit field contents, etc. I'd have to check on that. Personally I avoid dynamic field names so I'd just use the known field names. Use them by their known name. There is probably not more than 20 settings to save so it shouldn't be too onerous to save and recall them by name.