chain together GUIs in MATLAB

I am trying to create a program in matlab that chains together several tested, functioning GUIs but I am having some trouble.

In one function I have:

global Status;
global value1;
Status = 'setup';


switch Status
    case 'setup'
        ADone = ASetup; %Calls setup function which should return a value when done
        if strcmp(ADone, 'yes')==1
            Status = 'Pos1';
        end
    case 'Pos1'
        value1 = OHMgui1;
        Status = 'Pos2';
    case 'Pos2'
       %Still work in progress 
end        

And in my Asetup function I have:

function done = ASetup



AStatus = GUI1; 
BStatus = GUI2();
CStatus = GUI3();
DStatus = GUI4();

%Up until here everything goes as intended
Refstatus = RefGUI();




done = 'yes'; %Returns value when finished

disp (done) %Check statement, does not execute, error happens somewhere before here

end

GUIs 1-4 basically just display reference images with an OK button to close them, and I control them by using uiwait() and having them set a return value when the OK button is pushed (to make sure one doesn't trigger until the previous one is closed). This functions exactly as I would like.

However for RefGUI, I created it with a continue and a close button. I want the user to be able to click continue and have the program continue while RefGUI stays open. Ideally this would result in a call OHMGUI1, but it doesn't even seem to display the check statement.

I suspect the error is in RefGUI, which opens at the correct time, but I cannot get anything to happen after the continue or close buttons are pressed (with the exception of closing the GUI without the program continuing). Its code is:

function varargout = RefGUI(varargin)

gui_Singleton = 1;
gui_State = struct('gui_Name',       mfilename, ...
                   'gui_Singleton',  gui_Singleton, ...
                   'gui_OpeningFcn', @ClampRef_OpeningFcn, ...
                   'gui_OutputFcn',  @ClampRef_OutputFcn, ...
                   'gui_LayoutFcn',  [] , ...
                   'gui_Callback',   []);
if nargin && ischar(varargin{1})
    gui_State.gui_Callback = str2func(varargin{1});
end

if nargout
    [varargout{1:nargout}] = gui_mainfcn(gui_State, varargin{:});
else
    gui_mainfcn(gui_State, varargin{:});
end



function RefGUI_OpeningFcn(hObject, eventdata, handles, varargin)
matlabImage = imread('C:...reference.jpg');
image(matlabImage)
axis off
axis image
handles.output = hObject;

% Update handles structure
guidata(hObject, handles);
set(handles.pushbutton2,'enable','off') %Disable close button until continue is pressed



function varargout = RefGUI_OutputFcn(hObject, eventdata, handles) 

uiwait();
global valueout;
varargout{1} = valueout;
%I have also tried disabling the above 3 lines with no difference.

function pushbutton1_Callback(hObject, eventdata, handles)
global valueout;
valueout = 'Finished';
set(handles.pushbutton2,'enable','on') %enable close button
set(handles.pushbutton1,'enable','off') %disable continue button
return



function pushbutton2_Callback(hObject, eventdata, handles)
closereq(); %close button closes GUI window

What can I do to make the program continue as intended?

Answer 1

[Andrew McReynolds]

I got rid of the switch case, moved the display statement before setting the return value, and used UIresume(); Now it works

[Rik]

I hope you also got rid of the global variables. Using them makes your code fragile. (and if you use them you should use names that are as long as possible (try to include the function names in your variable name))

[Andrew McReynolds]

I did for some functions, but for the GUI programs i don't know of any other way to make the variables visible to and editable by several functions unless I start playing with inputs and outputs (since this is my first time experimenting with GUIs in matlab and in general, I'd like to leave most of the GUIDE-generated code as-is). For something like the variable that I want to display on the screen and update when the user pushes buttons on a calculator-like GUI, using a global variable seems to work exactly as intended.

[Rik]

You can use the handles to the different GUIs to retrieve their guidata just before they close. I would suggest moveing away from GUIDE. It is probably holding you back in understanding how it works (although I can see from your edited down code in your question you seem to at least get the basics). If you want some helpful advice I would encourage you to check out this thread.

You could even consider a class-based GUI like my example in that thread if you want to preserve the input after the GUI has been closed.