How to add configuration files to standalone matlab application?

I am stuck at developping my standalone application.

I have a user data file that is called "preferences.toml" it is a typical config file, that is being modified by the user. It cannot be stored on C:\Program Files applications for obvious reasons that it will be modified by the user.

The file will be stored in the APDATA/Roaming/Author Name/App Name, the folder is automatically detected or created. But now I want to copy/paste a default config file.

I attached the file/folder linck to the user_data

But at compilation, the folder is not created

[Harald]

Hi,

are you getting any error messages? To ensure that you observe any error messages, start the executable from a system console rather than by double-clicking it.

Another problem may be that APPDATA/Roaming/Author Name/App Name may not exist on the end user's machines. You can use getenv("USERNAME") to obtain the login name.

If the file is temporary, it might also be an alternative to store it in the folder returned by tempdir.

If the above does not help, it would be great if you can provide a minimal reproduction example.

Best wishes,

Harald

[Sylvain]

Please see my solution, All the files are compiled and put into an archive that is accessible using ctfroot (instead of pwd). You have to twick what is coming after, to select the correct path.

Answer 1

[Sylvain]

I finally got around my question.

In summary:

1. add the files in the compiling option (this is what I did)
2. Compile
3. Install
4. The files are present in the matlab runtime folder: ctfroot
5. Below a code snippet to copy paste

function userDataDir= get_userAppDir(app_author,app_name)

    if isdeployed
        % return the path to the "APPDATA/Roaming" 
        if ispc
            baseDataDir = getenv("APPDATA");   % e.g. C:\Users\...\AppData\Roaming
            userDataDir = fullfile(baseDataDir, app_author, app_name);
        elseif ismac
            baseDataDir = fullfile(getenv("HOME"), "Library", "Application Support");
            userDataDir = fullfile(baseDataDir, app_name);
        else
            % Linux and UNIX-like
            baseDataDir = fullfile(getenv("HOME"), ".local", "share");
            userDataDir = fullfile(baseDataDir, app_name);
        end
    
    else

        userDataDir = fullfile(pwd,"user_data/");
    end

end

function set_userAppDir(app_author,app_name)
    % prepare the user data environement
    if ~isdeployed
        return
    else
        try     
            % step 1: retrieve path
            userDataDir= get_userAppDir(app_author,app_name);
            % Ensure directory exists
            if ~exist(userDataDir, 'dir')
                uimsgbox(title,msg);
                mkdir(userDataDir);
            end
      
            % step 2: retrieve the archive:
            defaultPrefsFile = fullfile(ctfroot,app_name, "user_data",'preferences.toml');
    
            % step 3: copy the default file
            if ~exist(defaultPrefsFile,"file")  
                %error handling
            else %copy files
                prefsFile = fullfile(userDataDir, 'preferences.toml');    
                copyfile(defaultPrefsFile, prefsFile); 
            end
        catch ME
            %error handling
            uimsgbox("error",ME.message)
        end
    end
end

This was relatively laborious to debug in compiled mode. for error handling I am using the following helper (which is not perfect, maybe Mathworks has a more efficient way to display the exceptions in compiled environment.

function uimsgbox(title,msg)
% custom uialert with close function
fig = uifigure('Name', 'Warning','WindowStyle', 'modal');
% Display alert
uialert(fig, msg, title, 'Icon', 'warning','CloseFcn', @(~, ~)close(fig));
uiwait(fig);
end