How to create Favorites by code / Command Window?

I was used to create the shortcuts in R2017b and older via code:

    jUtils = com.mathworks.mlwidgets.shortcuts.ShortcutUtils;
    jUtils.addShortcutToBottom(sName,sCcallback,sIcon,sCategory, 'true');

Of course it does not work to create the new "favorites", but I would like to do so.

I have found the com.mathworks.mlwidgets.favoritecommands.FavoriteCommandProperties class with get/set methods, but if I got it right, I would Need some stuff from com.mathworks.mlwidgets.favoritecommands.FavoriteCommandActions, which has not constructor.

Any ideas out there, how to create favorites and their categories by code?

Answer 1

[Martin Lechner]

For managing the favorites use the FavoriteCommands class. The available methods can be seen by using methodsview:

fc = com.mathworks.mlwidgets.favoritecommands.FavoriteCommands.getInstance()
methodsview(fc)     % to show all available methods with their parameters

Before you add a new favorite command with the FavoriteCommands class you must create your FavoriteCommandProperties object, for example like:

newFavoriteCommand = com.mathworks.mlwidgets.favoritecommands.FavoriteCommandProperties()
newFavoriteCommand.setLabel("Programatically added Favorite")
newFavoriteCommand.setCategoryLabel("MY CREATED CATEGORY")    % use always upper case letters, otherwise I got problems to add furterh favorits 
newFavoriteCommand.setCode("disp('Hallo World! This greate command was added programatically, by com.mathworks.mlwidgets.favoritecommands.FavoriteCommands.getInstance()')")
newFavoriteCommand.setIsOnQuickToolBar(true)
% add the command to the favorite commands (the category is automatically created if it doesn't exist)
fc.addCommand(newFavoriteCommand)

[sfreeman]

Thank you Martin for digging up, it worked for me in 2018a.

The new favorites seem to be upgraded a lot in code technology, however. The classes seem to steer an object factory:

com.mathworks.mlwidgets.favoritecommands.FavoriteCommands

com.mathworks.mlwidgets.favoritecommands.FavoriteCommandProperties

com.mathworks.mlwidgets.favoritecommands.FavoriteCategoryProperties

If anbody knows how to list the generated objects I would be still interested. I have used the script to update changes to shortcuts throughout various MATLAB versions, which means I need to query existing Favorites and their categories. Creating new Favorites on existing Categories ends up in Java null pointer exceptions, even though category names have been all upper case.

[Julien Prodigue]

Thanks a lot Martin.

I used to update my shorcuts by deleting the whole category and then build it from scratch.

The class

com.mathworks.mlwidgets.favoritecommands.FavoriteCommands

has a removeCategory method but it doesn't remove anything.

If you guys manage to delete a category please let me know :)

EDIT

I managed to delete a category : you have to refer to the Name property of the category, not the Label... whereas in the hasCategory method, you have to refer to the Label.

fcUtils.hasCategory('MY CREATED CATEGORY') % Refers to the Label property
fcUtils.removeCategory('dacdd8ce-63a1-4bbf-9ec2-fb885a59fdd4') % Refers to the Name property

I don't know how to get an existing category Name, it seems to be a random hash, even if you add the Category manually :

newCat = com.mathworks.mlwidgets.favoritecommands.FavoriteCategoryProperties;
newCat.setLabel('MY CREATED CATEGORY');
newCat.setName('my-created-category-name');
newCat.setIconName('favorite_command_C');
newCat.setIsOnQuickToolBar(true);
newCat.setIsShowingLabelOnToolBar(true);
fcUtils.addCategory(newCat);

It return a random id :

>> newCat.getName
ans = 
    dacdd8ce-63a1-4bbf-9ec2-fb885a59fdd4

[Martin Lechner]

Thanks Julien for your additional informations according the the difference between label and name of categories or favorite commands.

The FavoriteCommands class provides a protected method called getCategories where you can get the categories. The code below shows how to call this method by using java reflections. To remove the categorie you need the name and not the label of the category (shown in the last command).

%% Getting all available categories
fc = com.mathworks.mlwidgets.favoritecommands.FavoriteCommands.getInstance()
%method = fc.getClass().getMethod("getCategories", [])       % only works for public methods
method = fc.getClass().getDeclaredMethod("getCategories", [])   % works also for private or protected methods
method.setAccessible(true)
categories = method.invoke(fc,[])       % returns a Java List with all categories
cat = categories.get(0)     % returns the first category
cat.getLabel()
cat.getName()
cat.getDescription()
icon = cat.getIcon()
icon.getIcon()
% The following command returns the childrens (favorite commands of the group)
childs = cat.getChildren()
child = childs.get(0)
child.getLabel()    % the name of the command (shown in the GUI)
child.getName()     % looks like an UIID number
child.getCode()     % the program code of this favorite command

% To remove a complete category group calling removeCategory with the name of the category worked for me.
fc.removeCategory(cat.getName())

To create and remove categories the following code snippets gives some advice:

%% Create Categories
fc = com.mathworks.mlwidgets.favoritecommands.FavoriteCommands.getInstance()

newCategory = com.mathworks.mlwidgets.favoritecommands.FavoriteCategoryProperties()
newCategory.setLabel("MyCreatedCategory")
newCategory.getName()   % returns []
retCat = fc.addCategory(newCategory)     % create the new category
newCategory.getName()   % returns the create UIID after adding the category to the favorites GUI
retCat.getName()        % has an additional prefix user_favorite_commands_toolset:
fc.removeCategory(retCat.getName())         % doesn't remove the category

retCat2 = fc.addCategory(newCategory)     % create the new category with the same lable and a different name
retCat2.getName()        % has an additional prefix user_favorite_commands_toolset:
newCategory.getName()    % returns now the new name
fc.removeCategory(newCategory.getName())   % removes the second category

% to remove also the firstly created category we have to extract the UUID from the returned category
str = retCat.getName()
uiid = str.split(':')
fc.removeCategory(uiid(2))
% new your favorite command doesn't show the programmatically created categories

[Julien Prodigue]

It works pretty well, thanks a lot !

[Michel Bertrand]

Having recently moved from Matlab2017b to 2018b, I now need to re-write some parts of my « time machine for shortcuts” I have been using for nearly ten years with shortcuts. I am implementing this for the now called Favorites, using your suggestions.

I can remove all categories but the Favorite Commands category. This is consistent with the trash icon not showing on the Favorite Commands line of the Favorite drop-down menu, but showing on all the other categories that were added as new category.

Still I want to clean up the Favorites Commands category I need to remove all the favorites (children) it contains. And there is no removeCommand, which would have made this easy; and I have tried all sort of things. I may find the way to do this the more I look at it, but perhaps you have a suggestion?

[Linzu]

Hello Martin Lechner. Thank you for solution. Besides I have anothor question for help.

I set icon with command like

newFavoriteCommand.setIconPath('C:\xxxx\xxx.png')

but does not show. Can you help me? Thank you.

Best wishes.

[Martin Lechner]

You have to set the folder of the icon and the icon name seperatly.

newFavoriteCommand.setIconPath('C:\xxxx')      % only the icon's folder!
newFavoriteCommand.setIconName('xxx.png')      % the icon's file name with the extension

[Linzu]

It works fine!

Thank you very much

[Robert]

Hi Martin,

Since com.mathworks will be removed in a future release, is there an alternative to use in more recent MATLAB releases?

[Andrew Janke]

Hear, hear! I'd like to retain this functionality: at my work, we load our internal Matlab libraries and applications into interactive Matlab sessions using Favorites, and I'd like to retain the ability for our codebase to set these all up for our users. (A full set of Favorites for our app suite is like 7 or 8 Favorites, and their definitions can change over time.)

[Andrew Janke]

Here's a little tool for inspecting Java class definitions in a deeper manner than methodsview(), to find out which protected and private things are available for you to expose via Reflection as in the techniques above:

function inspectJavaClassDefinition(jThing)
% Dump a debugging view of the method definitions for a Java class
%
% inspectJavaClassDefinition(jThing)
%
% JThing may be:
%  * a java.lang.Class object which refers to the class you want to
%     inspect methods for,
%  * any other Java object, in which case its class is inspected
%  * a Matlab string naming a Java class
 
%#ok<*AGROW>
 
if ischar(jThing) || isstring(jThing)
    klass = java.lang.Class.forName(jThing);
elseif isa(jThing, 'java.lang.Class')
    klass = jThing;
elseif isjava(jThing)
    klass = jThing.getClass;
else
    error('Invalid input type: %s', class(jThing));
end
 
    function modsOutStr = decodeModifiers(modCode)
        modsOut = string([]);
        
        if java.lang.reflect.Modifier.isPublic(modCode)
            modsOut(end+1) = "public";
        end
        if java.lang.reflect.Modifier.isPrivate(modCode)
            modsOut(end+1) = "private";
        end
        if java.lang.reflect.Modifier.isProtected(modCode)
            modsOut(end+1) = "protected";
        end
        if java.lang.reflect.Modifier.isStatic(modCode)
            modsOut(end+1) = "static";
        end
        if java.lang.reflect.Modifier.isFinal(modCode)
            modsOut(end+1) = "final";
        end
        if java.lang.reflect.Modifier.isAbstract(modCode)
            modsOut(end+1) = "abstract";
        end
        if java.lang.reflect.Modifier.isStrict(modCode)
            modsOut(end+1) = "strict";
        end
        if java.lang.reflect.Modifier.isSynchronized(modCode)
            modsOut(end+1) = "synchronized";
        end
        if java.lang.reflect.Modifier.isTransient(modCode)
            modsOut(end+1) = "transient";
        end
        if java.lang.reflect.Modifier.isVolatile(modCode)
            modsOut(end+1) = "volatile";
        end
        if java.lang.reflect.Modifier.isNative(modCode)
            modsOut(end+1) = "native";
        end
        if java.lang.reflect.Modifier.isInterface(modCode)
            modsOut(end+1) = "interface";
        end
        if isempty(modsOut)
            modsOutStr = "";
        else
            modsOutStr = strjoin(modsOut, " ");
        end
    end
 
    function out = categoricalizeTable(tbl)
        vars = tbl.Properties.VariableNames;
        for i = 1:width(tbl)
            if isstring(tbl.(vars{i})) && ~isequal(vars{i}, 'Modifiers')
                tbl.(vars{i}) = categorical(tbl.(vars{i}));
            end
        end
        out = tbl;
    end
 
    function out = parms2str(parms)
        parmsStrs = string([]);
        for iParm = 1:numel(parms)
            parm = parms(iParm);
            parmStr = sprintf("%s %s", regexprep(string(parm.getType.getName), 'java.lang\.', ''), ...
                string(parm.getName));
            parmsStrs(iParm) = parmStr;
        end
        out = "(" + strjoin(parmsStrs, ", ") + ")";
    end
 
    function prettyprintFields(flds)
        c = cell(0, 3);
        for iFld = 1:numel(flds)
            fld = flds(iFld);
            mods = decodeModifiers(fld.getModifiers);
            typeName = regexprep(string(fld.getType.getName), 'java.lang\.', '');
            c = [c; {mods, typeName, string(fld.getName)}];
        end
        t = cell2table(c, 'VariableNames',{'Modifiers','Type','Name'});
        t = sortrows(t, {'Name'});
        disp(categoricalizeTable(t));
    end
 
    function prettyprintCtors(ctors)
        c = cell(0, 3);
        for iCtor = 1:numel(ctors)
            ctor = ctors(iCtor);
            mods = decodeModifiers(ctor.getModifiers);
            name = regexprep(string(ctor.getName), '.*\.', '');
            c = [c; {mods, name, parms2str(ctor.getParameters)}];
        end
        t = cell2table(c, 'VariableNames',{'Modifiers','Name','Parameters'});
        t = sortrows(t, {'Name', 'Parameters'});
        disp(categoricalizeTable(t));
    end
 
    function prettyprintMethods(meths)
        c = cell(0, 3);
        for iMeth = 1:numel(meths)
            meth = meths(iMeth);
            mods = decodeModifiers(meth.getModifiers);
            name = regexprep(string(meth.getName), '.*\.', '');
            c = [c; {mods, name, parms2str(meth.getParameters)}];
        end
        t = cell2table(c, 'VariableNames',{'Modifiers','Name','Parameters'});
        t = sortrows(t, {'Name', 'Parameters'});
        disp(categoricalizeTable(t));
    end
 
fprintf('\nFields:\n');
prettyprintFields(klass.getFields);
 
fprintf('\nDeclared Fields:\n');
prettyprintFields(klass.getDeclaredFields);
 
fprintf('\nConstructors:\n');
prettyprintCtors(klass.getConstructors);
 
fprintf('\nDeclared Constructors:\n');
prettyprintCtors(klass.getDeclaredConstructors);
 
fprintf('\nMethods:\n');
prettyprintMethods(klass.getMethods);
 
fprintf('\nDeclared Methods:\n');
prettyprintMethods(klass.getDeclaredMethods);
 
sup = klass.getSuperclass;
while string(sup.getName) ~= "java.lang.Object"
    fprintf('\nDeclared Methods (%s):\n', string(sup.getName));
    prettyprintMethods(sup.getDeclaredMethods);
    fprintf('\nDeclared Fields (%s):\n', string(sup.getName));
    prettyprintFields(sup.getDeclaredFields);
    sup = sup.getSuperclass;
end
 
end

[Nandan]

How do I add a Simulink favorite to the quick access toolbar programmatically? com.mathworks.mlwidgets.favoritecommands.FavoriteCommands.getInstance() only give me the MATLAB favorites but not Simulink ones. Thank you.

Answer 2

[Thomas]

The solution was working fine for several releases, but with R2025b the last command:

fc.addCommand(newFavoriteCommand)

throws an error:

>> fc.addCommand(newFavoriteCommand)

ans =

[]

Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.NullPointerException

at com.mathworks.mlwidgets.favoritecommands.FavoriteCommands.addCategoryIfNecessary(FavoriteCommands.java:575)

at com.mathworks.mlwidgets.favoritecommands.FavoriteCommands.addCommand(FavoriteCommands.java:259)

at com.mathworks.mlwidgets.favoritecommands.FavoriteCommands$3.run(FavoriteCommands.java:249)

at java.awt.event.InvocationEvent.dispatch(InvocationEvent.java:311)

at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:758)

at java.awt.EventQueue.access$500(EventQueue.java:97)

at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:709)

at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:703)

at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)

at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:74)

at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:728)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:205)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:116)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:105)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:101)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:93)

at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:82)

Any idea how to do this in R2025b?

[Stefanie Schwarz]

Unfortunately, the command line API discussed in this thread was never officially supported, and no longer works from R2025a.

If the goal is just to non-interactively add a few shortcuts to the Quick Access Toolbar, and not necessarily add them to the Favorites menu, there's the new mw.desktop.quickAccess Extension Point in 25a:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/mw.desktop.quickaccessextensionpoint.html

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/2181081-how-do-i-add-a-set-of-commands-as-a-shortcut-to-the-quick-access-toolbar-in-matlab