matlab.ui.componentcontainer.ComponentContainer Class

Background color, specified as an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, or one of the color options listed in the table.

RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes are useful for specifying custom colors.

Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and hexadecimal color codes.

This table lists the default color palettes for plots in the light and dark themes.

You can get the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for these palettes using the orderedcolors and rgb2hex functions. For example, get the RGB triplets for the "gem" palette and convert them to hexadecimal color codes.

RGB = orderedcolors("gem");
H = rgb2hex(RGB);

Before R2023b: Get the RGB triplets using RGB = get(groot,"FactoryAxesColorOrder").

Before R2024a: Get the hexadecimal color codes using H = compose("#%02X%02X%02X",round(RGB*255)).

Attributes:

State of visibility, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

To make your app start faster, set the Visible property to 'off' for all components that do not need to appear at startup.

Changing the size of an invisible container triggers the SizeChangedFcn callback when it becomes visible.

Changing the Visible property of a container does not change the values of the Visible properties of child components. This is true even though hiding the container causes the child components to be hidden.

Attributes:

Context menu, specified as a ContextMenu object created using the uicontextmenu function. Use this property to display a context menu when you right-click on an area of the component that does not contain any underlying UI components or graphics objects.

To display a context menu when you right-click on any portion of the custom UI component, write code to set the ContextMenu property of all underlying UI components and graphics objects whenever the ContextMenu property of your custom component is set.

Example: Component With Context Menu

This code creates a simple custom UI component with a label and a button in a grid layout manager. Whenever a user creates an instance of the SimpleComponent class and assigns a context menu to the component, the code in the update method then assigns that same context menu to the underlying GridLayout, Button, and Label objects.

classdef SimpleComponent < matlab.ui.componentcontainer.ComponentContainer

    properties (Access = private, Transient, NonCopyable)
        GridLayout matlab.ui.container.GridLayout
        Button matlab.ui.control.Button
        Label matlab.ui.control.Label
    end
    
    methods (Access=protected)
        function setup(obj)
            % Set component size
            obj.Position = [100 100 220 50];
            % Create grid
            obj.GridLayout = uigridlayout(obj,[1 2]);
            % Create components
            obj.Label = uilabel(obj.GridLayout,...
                "Text","My component");
            obj.Button = uibutton(obj.GridLayout);
        end
        
        function update(obj)
            obj.GridLayout.ContextMenu = obj.ContextMenu;
            obj.Label.ContextMenu = obj.ContextMenu;
            obj.Button.ContextMenu = obj.ContextMenu;
        end
    end
end

Create a SimpleComponent object and specify a context menu. Right-click on the empty space in the component and on the label. The context menu appears.

fig = uifigure;
cm = uicontextmenu(fig);
m1 = uimenu(cm);
SimpleComponent(fig,"ContextMenu",cm);

Attributes:

UI component size and location, excluding the margins for decorations such as axis labels and tick marks. Specify this property as a vector of form [left bottom width height].

Attributes:

Units of measurement, specified as 'pixels'.

Attributes:

Layout options, specified as a GridLayoutOptions object. This property specifies options for components that are children of grid layout containers. If the component is not a child of a grid layout container (for example, it is a child of a figure or panel), then this property is empty and has no effect. However, if the component is a child of a grid layout container, you can place the component in the intended row and column of the grid by setting the Row and Column properties of the GridLayoutOptions object.

For example, this code places an image component in the third row and second column of its parent grid.

g = uigridlayout([4 3]);
im = uiimage(g);
im.ImageSource = 'peppers.png';
im.ScaleMethod = 'fill';
im.Layout.Row = 3;
im.Layout.Column = 2;

To make the image span multiple rows or columns, specify the Row or Column property as a two-element vector. For example, this image spans columns 2 through 3.

im.Layout.Column = [2 3];

Attributes:

Size change callback, specified as one of these values:

The SizeChangedFcn callback executes when:

Attributes:

Object creation function, specified as one of these values:

For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, or character vector, see Callbacks in App Designer.

This property specifies a callback function to execute when MATLAB creates the object. MATLAB initializes all property values before executing the CreateFcn callback. If you do not specify the CreateFcn property, then MATLAB executes a default creation function.

Setting the CreateFcn property on an existing component has no effect.

If you specify this property as a function handle or cell array, you can access the object that is being created using the first argument of the callback function. Otherwise, use the gcbo function to access the object.

Attributes:

Object deletion function, specified as one of these values:

For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, or character vector, see Callbacks in App Designer.

This property specifies a callback function to execute when MATLAB deletes the object. MATLAB executes the DeleteFcn callback before destroying the properties of the object. If you do not specify the DeleteFcn property, then MATLAB executes a default deletion function.

If you specify this property as a function handle or cell array, you can access the object that is being deleted using the first argument of the callback function. Otherwise, use the gcbo function to access the object.

Attributes:

Callback interruption, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

This property determines if a running callback can be interrupted. There are two callback states to consider:

Whenever MATLAB invokes a callback, that callback attempts to interrupt the running callback (if one exists). The Interruptible property of the object owning the running callback determines if interruption is allowed.

Attributes:

Callback queuing, specified as 'queue' or 'cancel'. The BusyAction property determines how MATLAB handles the execution of interrupting callbacks. There are two callback states to consider:

Whenever MATLAB invokes a callback, that callback attempts to interrupt a running callback. The Interruptible property of the object owning the running callback determines if interruption is permitted. If interruption is not permitted, then the BusyAction property of the object owning the interrupting callback determines if it is discarded or put in the queue. These are possible values of the BusyAction property:

Attributes:

Deletion status, returned as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

MATLAB sets the BeingDeleted property to 'on' when the DeleteFcn callback begins execution. The BeingDeleted property remains set to 'on' until the component object no longer exists.

Check the value of the BeingDeleted property to verify that the object is not about to be deleted before querying or modifying it.

Attributes:

Parent container of the component, specified as a Figure, Panel, Tab, or GridLayout object.

Attributes:

UI component children, returned as an empty GraphicsPlaceholder array. Custom UI components have no children. Setting this property has no effect.

Attributes:

Visibility of the object handle, specified as 'on', 'callback', or 'off'.

This property controls the visibility of the object in its parent's list of children. When an object is not visible in its parent's list of children, it is not returned by functions that obtain objects by searching the object hierarchy or querying properties. These functions include get, findobj, clf, and close. Objects are valid even if they are not visible. If you can access an object, you can set and get its properties, and pass it to any function that operates on objects.

Attributes:

Type of UI component object, returned as character vector containing the component name.

Attributes:

Object identifier, specified as a character vector or string scalar. You can specify a unique Tag value to serve as an identifier for an object. When you need access to the object elsewhere in your code, you can use the findobj function to search for the object based on the Tag value.

Attributes:

User data, specified as any MATLAB array. For example, you can specify a scalar, vector, matrix, cell array, character array, table, or structure. Use this property to store arbitrary data on an object.

If you are working in App Designer, create public or private properties in the app to share data instead of using the UserData property. For more information, see Share Data Within App Designer Apps.

Attributes: