Option #1: MatlabControl JMI Wrapper

[Feb 8, 2010] Joshua Kaplan from Brown University "essentially.. wrote a Java RMI.. wrapper
around [the MatlabControl code described below] so that a Java program running in a different
JVM than MATLAB can launch and then control a MATLAB session without any user
intervention. (While not applicable to [their] situation, the code is actually capable of controlling
any number of MATLAB sessions simultaneously.)

The source code, documentation, support jar, and a demo jar are all available
at http://matlabcontrol.googlecode.com/ "

Option #2: The MatlabJava Server

[Sept 15, 2005] Bowen Hui has written a MatlabJava Server which you start from within
matlab. It then starts a server that allows other other apps to connect to and control the Matlab
session. These other apps can be started outside of matlab (ie. in their own virtual machine).

Option #3: MatlabControl

[Circa 2002] The two solutions above are based on the MatlabControl.java class, which allows
you to call Matlab commands from Java: MatlabControl.java.  This class has three main
functions:

1. MatlabControl.eval(String command) is used to evaluate strings as if

you were executing them at the Matlab command prompt.  These can be matlab
scripts, commands, or functions that take no arguments.
2. MatlabControl.feval(String command, Object[] args) is used to
evaluate functions as if you were executing them at the Matlab command
prompt, where  args is the list of arguments.  If the function
takes n arguments, args should be an array of size n
3. Object[] MatlabControl.blockingFeval(String command,
Object[] args) is used to evaluate functions using feval just like
MatlabControl.feval, but blockingFeval waits for the return values and passes
them back to the caller as an Object[].

(If you are using Matlab R14, the JMI interface has changed and MatlabControl.java
won't compile. You need to apply this patch. Many people are still using this code as
of 2010, but if you are using Matlab versions later than R14 and the
MatlabControl.java class does not work for you, you might consider using Options #1
or #2 above, which are much more recent. )

The following example is Java code that uses all three functions.  First, instantiate a
MatlabControl object
 ...

MatlabControl mc = new MatlabControl();

Then, evaluate a string or two using the "eval()" function

mc.eval(new String("help"));
mc.eval(new String("help(plot)"));
mc.eval(new String("x=5"));
mc.eval(new String("x=5;"));
mc.eval(new String("sqrt(x)"));
mc.eval(new String("myScript"));

Now, evaluate a few functions that takes arguments using the "feval()" function. 
To pass no arguments, use null.
mc.feval(new String("help"),null);
Object[] args = new Object[2];
args[0]=new String("plot");
args[1]=new String("axis");
mc.feval(new String("help"), args);

Finally, evaluate a function that gives return arguments using the

"blockingFeval()" function. 
args = new Object[1];
args[0]=new Double(5);
Double returnVals = (Double)mc.blockingFeval(new String("sqrt"), args);
System.out.println(returnVals.toString());

How to Make it Work

To compile MatlabControl, make sure that "MATLAB_ROOT\java\jar\jmi.jar" is in

your classpath, where MATLAB_ROOT is the root installation directory of Matlab.
To use the class, make sure it is in your matlab classpath. Change your matlab
classpath by typing "edit classpath.txt" at the matlab prompt.  

There are three things snags that people usually hit when trying to run this:

Snag 1: MatlabControl objects must be instantiated from within your Matlab

session! (or by other java objects that were instantiated by your matlab session). This
is because Matlab runs its own JVM, and you need to run MatlabControl in the same
JVM that matlab is using. (this is why you need to make sure that MatlabControl is in
your matlab classpath.) More specifically, if your program is defined in
"mypackage/MyClass.java", you need to type
mypackage.MyClass.main({'param1','param2',...})
at the Matlab command prompt. If the object does not have a "main" function, you can
just instantiate it but you must call the constructor manually, as follows:
obj = mypackage.MyClass
obj.MyClass(param1, param2,...)

Snag 2: Matlab is single-threaded. This means that if you try to eval or feval from
within a Java function that was called directly from a Matlab function, it will hang
waiting for the first matlab function to terminate. To solve this problem, you must call
MatlabControl functions from a new thread! This can be any thread, as long as it is
not the Matlab thread of execution. As an example, I have created a test function that
properly spawns a new thread and calls the eval, feval, and blockingFeval functions so
that the test functions can be called directly from Matlab. Type the following into
your matlab prompt to make sure you get similar behavior:

>> mc=MatlabControl;
>> mc.testEval('x = 5')
x =

     5

>> mc.testFeval('help',{'sqrt'})
  SQRT    Square root.
     SQRT(X) is the square root of the elements of X. Complex 
     results are produced if X is not positive.

     See also SQRTM.

  Overloaded methods
     help sym/sqrt.m

>> mc.testBlockingFeval('sqrt',{x})
     2.2361

In summary of the first two snags, this should always be the standard order of
execution:

1. instantiate Java object from within Matlab

2. spawn new thread in Java
3. call Matlab functions from new Java thread

Snag 3: There is a little documentation in the MatlabControl source code that you
might want to look at. Also, there are some more advanced features, including more
advanced objects like MatlabEvalCommand and MatlabFevalCommand within
MatlabControl. These support the use of a callback function called matlabControlcb.m
that you must create, and will become useful when you realize that matlab cell arrays
and such are not really converted into java objects but only their handles are converted
into java objects, so you need to do all manipulation of them in matlab. When you get
to that point, try looking at the souce code and experimenting.

Matlab Timer Objects

Matlab R13 (6.5) has a timer object supported.  However, I have found it really useful
to use this version, which has a GUI that allows you to change the period and start,
stop the timer.  This is especially useful if you are using an older version of Matlab.
You can also replace the timer.jar file that came with matlab with this one, which is
the same as the normal matlab timer but adds a gui interface to each one that you
instantiate.

The main advantage to using timer objects is that you can wait by using a timer
instead of using the matlab "wait" command. The "wait" command basically does a
spinning wait, so matlab cannot run any other commands. This is a problem if you
have a java object that is trying to run a matlab command. It is useful in general for
event-based programming in matlab, which you might be doing if you are using
matlab to interact with anything, like Java apps or the real world via the serial port. 

If you still need more info

There is a lot more info on my help page pertaining to the TinyOS project at UC

Berkeley that you will probably find useful after you filter out some of the tinyos help
stuff. Look especially at the end of the page and follow some of those links for
good clues..

A lot of people (including myself) have been trying to figure out how to call Matlab
commands from Java but Mathworks has not wanted to support it or even give out
much information, as people on the newsgroups (also) know.   The most information
they release is in the following URL and email.

If you want to know more about using Matlab from Java, however, look at the files in
the .jar files in the matlab\java\jar directory.  You can use introspection to
find out what methods the classes have, etc.  For example, you can
type methodsview com.mathworks.jmi.Matlab at your Matlab command
prompt to see the Matlab class (which is the one I used for MatlabCommand.java). 
This class also has functions such as mtGet() andmtSet() that I believe allow
you to read and write to the Matlab workspace from Java.  It also has versions
of eval and feval that return the return values of your matlab commands back to
your Java object.  
Of course, sometimes the function signatures aren't enough to figure out how to use
them.  You might consider using Gnu JODE to decompile the .class files back into
.java files (but this might go against some license agreement). 

If you want to know more about using Java from Matlab (a feature

which IS supported by mathworks) read the matlab documentation on "Java/Matlab
Interface".

Copyright © 2002 Kamin Whitehouse

http://www.mathworks.com/help/techdoc/matlab_external/f4863.html

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/authors/27420