GUI pwd behavior after deployment

It looks for me GUI remembers current work folder of development machine at compile time.

Is there a way to disable or walkaround this?

On the target deployed machine (only MCR installed), uigetfile() always starts from the pwd folder of the compiling machine (as long as it exists) otherwise then start from .\

And write file commands if path not specified always goes to the folder.

Printing pwd results give pwd of compiling machine (if exists), otherwise local.

Is it a designed behavior?

Please comment,

[legendbb]

to add to the original:

uigetpath(''); and '.' all refer back to pwd of compiling machine.

The questions can be rephrased to "how to find current work folder" at runtime?

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

I do not believe what you said is true. I compile lots of apps all the time and don't observe that. The current folder of the deployed app is neither the current folder of your compiling machine, nor the folder where your deployed app is installed. Your deployed app is actually not the real executable but a self unarchiving file that unpacks the real executable to some strange folder in some bizarre location that you wouldn't expect. Perhaps Kaustubha will explain in more detail - I get tired of explaining this all the time.

What's probably happening in your case is that you have a call to cd() either in your app, or in your startup.m file. Your startup.m file on your development machine gets run when you run the deployed app on the target machine. If you want, you can check the isdeployed flag in your app and set the current folder to the place you want it to be depending on whether it's on the deployed or development machine.

[legendbb]

Thanks for answering, I totally agree with your reasoning. Just had no known about startup.m gets called with the standalone GUI .exe starts. (not very intuitive, also the actual .exe sits somewhere bizarre is interesting.).

Just to confirm, are you saying startup.m got compiled into the .exe and got called at the beginning of the run?

You absolutely right, I do have cd() in my startup.m on my development machine. But nothing other than MCR is in the target machine. If I try not to change my startup.m.

How to get the folder (where I have the standalone .exe) in the deployed machine?

Thanks,

[Image Analyst]

Yes, the startup gets built into the exe and run by your target user. That's why you nee

Read through the discussion by Frederich here: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/75311#answer_85018 Particularly look at the link to Loren's blog.

Here's a modified version of my startup.m. Feel free to modify with your folders as needed.

% Compiling applications will build in your startup.m file into the executable.
% Do you have a startup.m file that calls addpath?  If so, this will cause run-time errors. 
% As a workaround, use isdeployed to have the addpath command execute
% only if running from the MATLAB development environment.
try
fprintf(1, 'Beginning to run startup.m . . .\n');
startupMFileWasRun = true;
% userFolder = ctfroot % Initialize
format compact;
userpath('reset');
if(~isdeployed)
  % Running in the MATLAB development environment.

  %   fprintf('Assigning default path...\n');
%   restoredefaultpath;
  
  % Add the Utilities folder and all subfolders to the search path.
  fprintf('Adding D:/Matlab/work/Utilities to path...\n');
  addpath(genpath('D:/Matlab/work/Utilities'));
  
  % Add the Lumenera folder and all subfolders to the search path.
  fprintf('Adding C:/Program Files/MATLAB/Lumenera Camera to path...\n');
  addpath(genpath('C:\Program Files\MATLAB\Lumenera Camera')); 
  
  % Add just the folders that I need.
  addpath(genpath('D:/Matlab/Work/3DImageIO'));
  addpath(genpath('D:/Matlab/Work/Utilities'));
  addpath(genpath('D:/Matlab/Work/Thresholding'));

  cd 'D:/Matlab/work'
  
  fprintf('Saving path...\n');
%   savepath;
  filebrowser;  % Won't work with compiled programs.
  fprintf('Rehashing toolbox cache...\n');
  rehash toolboxcache;

else
  userFolder =  pwd;
  % If you're deploying a compiled executable to a target computer, 
  % put the folder where you expect that executable will live.
  % IMPORTANT NOTE: In order to compile, you will also need to have this folder on YOUR computer,
  % so make it before you run the compile command!
  
  userFolder =  'C:/Program Files (x86)/myApp/MATLAB';

% echo on;
  fprintf(1, 'Startup.m is attempting to change the current folder to %s . . .\n', userFolder);
  if exist(userFolder, 'dir') == 7
    cd(userFolder)
    fprintf(1, '    SUCCESS!  Changed the current folder to %s\n', userFolder);
  else
    fprintf(1, '    FAILED!  Warning: Failed when it tried to change the current folder to the non-existent folder\n%s\n', userFolder);
  end
  fprintf(1, '    The current folder is now %s\n', pwd);
end
fprintf(1, 'Done running startup.m.\n');

catch ME
  % If there's no catch, then a compiled program will just quit completely
  % if it encounters an error.  Let's use a try/catch to see if we can get
  % it to try to continue running the program instead of just aborting.
  errorMessage = sprintf('Error running startup.m:\n%s', ME.message);
  fprintf(1, '\n%s\n', errorMessage);
end

[Arif ul Maula]

And what about if I want to read images from different directories on a different computer (without MATLAB)? How should I add directory to read images from there?