Graphs in reports in a matlab WebApp

I have a Matlab webApp launched in a Matlab webApp Server that performs a calculation and show a graph to the user (a patch in an uiAxes object). Now I want to offer a button to the user to print a report including some information and a uiAxes capture. Considering that:

• axes or figures are not supported in webApps then you need to use uiaxes and uifigures
• saveas() is not supported with uiaxes or uifigures
• getframe() is not supported with uifigures or uiaxes
• uiaxes or uifigures are not supported by mlreportgen.report.*

¿Is it possible to include graphs in a report from a web application?.

Thanks and regards

Roberto

Answer 1

[Mary Abbott]

Unfortunately, there is currently no completely programmatic way to include snapshots of uiaxes in a report from a web application, for the reasons you already listed.

With version R2019a and later, you can use the figure toolbar to download a snapshot of the axes. The toolbar appears in the top right corner of the axes when you hover your mouse over the axes. To save the figure, mouse over the left-most toolbar icon and select the save icon that appears.

From there, you can use the uigetfile function to prompt the user to specify the saved snapshot image file and then insert the image into the report.

% (In callback to create report)
imgPath = uigetfile("*.png", "Select the axes snapshot image file");
if ~isempty(imgPath)
    % Create DOM Image
    imgRptr = mlreportgen.dom.Image(imgPath);
    % Add Image object to report (or chapter, section, etc)
    add(rpt, img);
end

[Anas El Fathi]

Hello Mary,

I am facing a similar problem to Roberto.

I can see that figure is not supported for Web apps (here). However, why calling figure with the visible flag set to off is not permitted?

I managed to get around this problem by writing a script that generate the reports, compile the script as a standalone application, then excute the script as a standalone app from within the web App! So technically, it is possible to generate a report in invisible figure from a Matlab web app.

Are there any plans of supporting this directly inside Web apps, instead of me doing the workaround?

PS: This works perfectly for normal Matlab Apps, my question is only about web apps.

figure('Visible', 'off')

[Markus]

If you are using MATLAB 2020a and newer take a look to MATLAB "exportgraphics" and "exportapp" function. I have the same problem in my WebApp server. It is a workaround, not a perfect solution because it's a bit slow.

Solution:

1. Plot your graph into a ax=uiaxes, directly in the WebApp server

2. Use the function exportgraphics(ax,myPlot.jpg) to store the plot on disk

3. Use img=mlreportgen.dom.image(myPlot.jpg)

4. Add the Image to your Report with add(rpt, img);

Note:

The Report Generator works only if you have use the function „makeDOMCompilable() before your import statements.