Toolboxes invisible in the file exchange list

Hi,

Over the last few years I developped some toolboxes, like the mesh processing toolbox, but I recently realized they were not appearing in the community tollbox list on the file exhange (you can check it by sorting this list in descending order of downloads for instance beforre looking for them / mines)

I don't understand the reason why they are not listed. When I submitted them I did tick the box 'package as a toolbox'.

Any clue ?

Thank you for help.

Nicolas

[Nicolas Douillet]

@Vanessa Wang

Answer 1

[dpb]

A set of MATLAB functions despite being a comprehensive tool for a specific area is not formally a toolbox unless it is packaged as such and distributed as an add-on with a single installation file (.mltbx suffix) that is used to install the toolbox.

See <Create and Share Toolboxes> for the process by which you can do so.

ASIDE/ADDENDUM

I'm not familiar with the FEX submittal interface, but if it has a checkbox about a new submittal being a toolbox and that submittal is not the .mltbx file, then it should warn the user that if continue,the files will just be listed as functions, not a toolbox. That would be worthy of feedback to Mathworks site issues at <FEX Feedback> link.

[Nicolas Douillet]

Thank you for this answer dpb. I didn't know all this, especially the .mltbx suffix

[Stephen23]

@Nicolas Douillet: toolboxes are explained here:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_prog/create-and-share-custom-matlab-toolboxes.html

They are something similar to a Python wheel or a Rust crate: all code, documentation, etc in one file.

[Jamie Mullin]

Hi @Nicolas Douillet , looking at the Version History tab on your Mesh Processing Toolbox page, I can see it was a toolbox until you switched to using GitHub. If you want to use mltbx along with the GitHub Releases that you are already doing, we have instructions here:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/content/fx/about.html?s_tid=gn_mlc_fx_help#Why_GitHub

The gist is you make it a mltbx yourself in MATLAB, and attach it to the GitHub Release when making the GitHub Release:

[dpb]

@Jamie Mullin, is my supposition about FEX toolboxes only being identified as addons correct?

[Jamie Mullin]

.mltbx files allow for easier install when downloading from File Exchange because you can double-click them to install them. However, you can use Add-On Explorer or the Add-Ons Panel (new in R2025a) to install anything from File Exchange as an add-on (whether it is in File Exchange as mltbx or not).

Add-On Explorer: https://www.mathworks.com/products/matlab/add-on-explorer.html

Add-Ons Panel: https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_env/get-add-ons.html

[dpb]

Yes, but that wasn't the actual Q? I asked about whether being .mtlbx files is how they are identified as toolboxes on FEX (which would be/was why @Nicolas Douillet's collection of .m files wasn't identified as such)?

Answer 2

[Nicolas Douillet]

@Jamie Mullin Thank you too.