How can I access variables within an App Designer app after I close the app?

I would like to create a script that opens an app I created in App Designer, waits until this app is closed, then processes the data from the app. However, I can't seem to find a way to pass data from the app to the script/Base Workspace. Is it possible to do this? If so, how?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

There may be many ways to accomplish this, depending on your specific workflow. Here is one way of achieving this:

1. Create a public property named 'Output' in the app. This will be a structure to hold all desired values:

properties (Access = public)
     Output % This will store the app's output
end

2. In the callback function for each value you would like to keep track of set/update the corresponding value in the app's output struct:

function SpinnerValueChanged(app, event)
      value = app.Spinner.Value;
      app.Output.Value1 = value;
end

3. In the 'UIFigureCloseRequest' function (invoked when the app is closed), save the app's output structure. This can be done in two ways:

(a) Save directly to Base Workspace via 'assignin':

function UIFigureCloseRequest(app, event)
     assignin('base', "app_output", app.Output);
     delete(app)
end

(b) Save to a MAT file:

function UIFigureCloseRequest(app, event)
     app_output = app.Output;
     save("app_output.mat", "app_output");     
     delete(app)
end

Please refer to the documentation page on sharing data in App Designer apps for further information.