Giving 'Static Text' a callback

I would like to give a 'static text' in a gui a callback. i.e i would like to be able to click on the static text box, and have that complete a command. Ideally, if there is a way i would like to make a callback for a right click only. Not sure if this is possible but any feedback helps.

[Walter Roberson]

Please read the guide to tags and retag this question. See http://www.mathworks.co.uk/matlabcentral/answers/43073-a-guide-to-tags

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

In some ways similar to Andrew's suggestion:

You can set HitTest off for the static text box, and then you can define a ButtonDownFcn for the figure (or uipanel as relevant) that detects whether it is over the text and if so does what you want.

Alternately, perhaps defining a uicontext menu for the uicontrol would be suitable for your situation.

[Sean de Wolski]

This all seems like overkill (and dangerous, what if the text is invisible right now?>, just use the buttondownfcn

[Walter Roberson]

Note that for uicontrol style text, the buttondownfcn callback will only be invoked for right click (I think it is... control-click on a Mac trackpad.)

Answer 2

[Andrew Reibold]

Ok, so what you need to do is make a button instead of a static text box! You can still keep a string of text in it and it can look exactly like a static text box too except maybe it will have a slightly different outline!

There are two properties which can be used in conjunction to accomplish a right click response.

One is the button's 'ButtonDownFcn' callback function. This callback function executes when pressing a mouse button on or near a UICONTROL object -- including when pressing the right mouse button.

The other property is the figure's 'SelectionType' property. This property indicates which kind of click was registered in the figure window -- including clicks on controls within the figure.

Putting these two together, you can define a 'ButtonDownFcn' callback for a push button which checks the figure's 'SelectionType' property to detect a right-click. An example is shown below. (In that example, the ANCESTOR function is used to get the figure's handle. If this is being done in a GUIDE-created GUI, this is unnecessary as the 'handles' structure already provides access to the figure's handle.)

function test

uicontrol('Style', 'pushbutton', ...
'ButtonDownFcn', @myCallback);

end

function myCallback(src, evt)

figHandle = ancestor(src, 'figure');
clickType = get(figHandle, 'SelectionType');

if strcmp(clickType, 'alt')
disp('right click action goes here!');
end

end

[Sean de Wolski]

This should work with the uicontrol being a textbox too!

etc.
uicontrol('Style', 'text', ...
etc

[Walter Roberson]

To get rid of the button look itself, you can define its CData property -- possibly even to a rendered version of the text you want to show.

Answer 3

[ryan]

@Walter How would you go about changing the CData property?

the only thing with the uicontrol: where do i define the object name (i.e. handles.example)

I have tried this:

set(gca, 'buttondownfcn', @Example_ButtonDownFcn);

and it works. But I am just having trouble with switching out gca with a specified object.