Here's a functional demo you can apply to your GUI (whether it's built from Guide, uicontrol, or App Designer). Save it to an m file and run it.
It creates a timer that iteratively turns on/off the visibility of a graphics object. You could change the background color or any other property instead. When the timer is stopped, the stopFcn ensures that the botton is returned to its original state.
See in-line comments for more detail.
% Create a figure that contains a button.
% In this demo, the button does nothing.
figure()
bh = uicontrol('style','PushButton','String','press me');
% Create timer class
% This can be created in the startup function where you have access
% to the button's object handle.
t = timer();
t.TimerFcn = {@flashButtonTimer, bh}; % This function responds to start(t)
t.StopFcn = {@stopButtonFlash, bh}; % This function responds to stop(t)
t.Period = 0.25; % delay between flashes (seconds)
t.ExecutionMode = 'fixedSpacing';
TasksToExecute = 3;
% Define function that controlls the button flashes after start(t) is executed
% This can go anywhere in your GUI code.
function flashButtonTimer(~, ~, objHand)
% objHand is the handle to the button that should flash
% Toggle the visibility of the object. Note, you coud do lots of other things
% instead such as changing the background color of the object.
if strcmpi(objHand.Visible,'on')
objHand.Visible = 'off';
else
objHand.Visible = 'on';
end
end
% Define the stop function that ensures the button visibility is on at the end.
% This can also go anywhere in your GUI code.
function stopButtonFlash(~,~,objHand)
objHand.Visible = 'on';
end
To start flashing the button, use start(t) and to stop, stop(t). These should be called from within your GUI and the callback function must have access to 't', the timer.
When you close the gui, you should delete the timer using delete(t).
