External Interfaces/API Reference

actxcontrol

Create a COM control in a figure window

Syntax

• h = actxcontrol (progid [, position [, fig_handle ...
  [, callback | {event1 eventhandler1; event2 eventhandler2; ...}
  [, filename]]]])
  

Arguments

progid
   String that is the name of the control to create. The control vendor provides this string.

position
   Position vector containing the x and y location and the xsize and ysize of the control, expressed in pixel units as [x y xsize ysize]. Defaults to [20 20 60 60].

fig_handle
   Handle Graphics handle of the figure window in which the control is to be created. If the control should be invisible, use the handle of an invisible figure window. Defaults to gcf.

callback
   Name of an M-function that accepts a variable number of arguments. This function will be called whenever the control triggers an event. Each argument is converted to a MATLAB string. See the section, Writing Event Handlers in the External Interfaces documentation for more information on handling control events.

event
   Triggered event specified by either number or name.

eventhandler
   Name of an M-function that accepts a variable number of arguments. This function will be called whenever the control triggers the event associated with it. See Writing Event Handlers in the External Interfaces documentation for more information on handling control events.

filename
   The name of a file to which a previously created control has been saved. When you specify filename, MATLAB creates a new control using the position, handle, and event/eventhandler arguments, and then initializes the control from the specified file. The progid argument in actxcontrol must match the progid of the saved control.

Description

Create a COM control at a particular location within a figure window. If the parent figure window is invisible, the control will be invisible. The returned COM object represents the default interface for the control. This interface must be released through a call to release when it is no longer needed to free the memory and resources used by the interface. Note that releasing the interface does not delete the control itself (use the delete command to delete the control.)

The strings specified in the callback, event, and eventhandler arguments are not case sensitive.

Note    There are two ways to handle events. You can create a single handler (callback) for all events, or you can specify a cell array that contains pairs of events and event handlers. In the cell array format, specify events by name in a quoted string. There is no limit to the number of pairs that can be specified in the cell array. Although using the single callback method may be easier in some cases, using the cell array technique creates more efficient code that results in better performance.

For an example callback event handler, see the file sampev.m in the toolbox\matlab\winfun\comcli directory.

Examples

Basic Control Methods

Create a control that runs Microsoft's Calendar application:

• f = figure('pos',[300 300 500 500]);
  cal = actxcontrol('mscal.calendar', [0 0 500 500], f)
  cal =
      COM.mscal.calendar
  

Call the get method on cal to list all properties of the Calendar:

• get(cal)
               BackColor: 2.1475e+009
                     Day: 23
                 DayFont: [1x1 Interface.mscal.calendar.DayFont]
                   Value: '8/20/2001'
                     .
                     .
  

Read just one property to record today's date:

• date = get(cal, 'Value')
  date =
     8/23/2001
  

Set the Day property to a new value:

• set(cal, 'Day', 5);
  date = get(cal, 'Value')
  date =
     8/5/2001
  

Calling invoke with no arguments lists all available methods:

• meth = invoke(cal)
  meth = 
            NextDay: 'HRESULT NextDay(handle)'
          NextMonth: 'HRESULT NextMonth(handle)'
           NextWeek: 'HRESULT NextWeek(handle)'
           NextYear: 'HRESULT NextYear(handle)'
              .
              .
  

Invoke the NextWeek method to advance the current date by one week:

• NextWeek(cal);
  date = get(cal, 'Value')
  date =
     8/12/2001
  

Call events to list all Calendar events that can be triggered:

• events(cal)
  ans = 
     Click = void Click()
     DblClick = void DblClick()
     KeyDown = void KeyDown(int16 KeyCode, int16 Shift)
     KeyPress = void KeyPress(int16 KeyAscii)
     KeyUp = void KeyUp(int16 KeyCode, int16 Shift)
     BeforeUpdate = void BeforeUpdate(int16 Cancel)
     AfterUpdate = void AfterUpdate()
     NewMonth = void NewMonth()
     NewYear = void NewYear()
  

Set Up Event Handling

See the section, Sample Event Handlers in the External Interfaces documentation for examples of event handler functions and how to register them with MATLAB.

See Also

actxserver, release, delete, save, load

COM Functions

actxserver