Automatically Run Script at End of Toolbox Installation

I'm writing a toolbox and packaging it as described in Create and Share Toolboxes. At the end of the installation process, I want to automatically run a script. Is this possible? We are trying to support MATLAB R2016a onward.

Answer 1

[Jan]

I include a function, which runs once the first time the toolbox is called instead. This is "after the installation", but not directly after the installation, but before the first run. I use ispref and setpref to set a flag, which is persistent between Matlab sessions. But it matters as which user you run the toolbox.

[Paul Wintz]

How do you handle this when there are many functions and classes in the toolbox? Do you just run the setup code at the beginning of every function?

[Jan]

If there are no "main functions", e.g. a GUI, this is not trivial. Adding a:

checkInstalled;

and

function checkInstalled
persistent runOnce
if isempty(runOnce)
    runOnce = true;
    callYourSetupRoutine;
end
end

takes about 0.5 seconds for 1e6 calls. But is this installation really required in all subfunctions?

Answer 2

[Lars Lindner]

Hello everybody, we have the same issue.

We build a custom library, which we want to distribute as a toolbox (.mltbx file). I want to simple run a custom Matlab script (.m file), when installing this toolbox with right-click -> Install.

What is the correct approach to this?

Thank you everybody and with best wishes,

Lars