How to execute a print command for the MATLAB Web Broser from the command line

As neither gcf, gcob, gca or the findall function can return a handle for the MATLAB web browser window, I cannot print from the command line. Can you help?

[Mario Malic]

Hi,

What exactly is the issue?

[Claus Andersson]

I have the built-in matlab browser filled with the data I want, but I cannot save it as 'websave' for some reason only returns a part of the url in the saved file. But since the web browser has all the data, I want to save the contents to a file via a 'print' command for later processing. But printing the contents of the matlab web browser window is not possible as 'print' only works with graphics. Any ideas/solutions are welcome... Could java.lang hold a solution?

[Mario Malic]

Are you trying to save the figure as an image?

exportgraphics(gcf, 'Image.png')

If not, please explain what kind of data are you trying to get.

I never used print, but try only calling the function in command window without input arguments, like this

print

you'll get your figure in new window in .pdf format.

[Claus Andersson]

Thanks for taking time answer my question. I really appreciate it.

The point is that the matlab browser window (try ">>web("https://www.amazon.com") is not 'printable' from the matlab command line, becuase the 'gcf' handle does not apply to the matlab web browser window. This windows really is different in a way; it has no matlab axes or matlab graphics. Any suggestions will help, and perhaps even utitlizing the java.lang library could fix it.I found out that >>com.mathworks.mlservices.MatlabDesktopServices.getDesktop.closeGroup('Web Browser')

will make the web window close, but I really dont know how to move on from here as regards a 'saveas' or 'save' command..

Answer 1

[Mario Malic]

Hello,

I found two ways of doing so, the first one is not great because it is not documented, and this may not be working in new releases (will not work once Java components are removed from MATLAB).

They both share the same con, and that is, once the code is ran, you have to manually finish the operation by entering filename and/or printer.

First option is through MATLAB's browser client:

desktop = com.mathworks.mde.desk.MLDesktop.getInstance;
web("https://www.google.com")
desktop.getClientTitles % In my case, Google was shown as a name for Browser Client
webBrowserClient = desktop.getClient('Google');
webBrowserPanel = webBrowserClient.getComponent(0); % Client has a Panel component
webBrowserWidgets = webBrowserPanel.getComponent(0) % Panel has Widgets and jPanel components
printButton = webBrowserWidgets.getComponent(5); % 5th component is print button
printButton.doClick; % This will make a programmatic click of the button and prompt you to choose printer and name

Second is through Internet Explorer:

ieHandle = actxserver('internetexplorer.application');
ieHandle.Visible = 1;
Navigate(ieHandle, 'https://www.google.com');
pause(1); % to load the webpage
ieHandle.ExecWB(6,2);

For arguments in ExecWB, see the method on https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/internet-explorer/ie-developer/platform-apis/aa752087(v=vs.85)

There's also a possibility using websave combined with MATLAB Report Generator to convert html to other file formats.

[Claus Andersson]

Thanks Mario. Thanks for helping out. I will try tomorrow how far it will take me.

Again - your time is highly appreciated!