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Contents 1 Overview 2 Download Library and Project 2.1 How-To 2.2 File Descriptions 2.2.1 StartMatlabServer.m 2.2.2 exitform.fig and exitform.m 2.2.3 RemoteMatlab.jar 2.2.4 lib directory 2.3 Source Descriptions 2.3.1 MatlabControlImpl.java 2.3.2 MatlabControl.java 2.3.3 MatlabServer.java 2.3.4 MatlabClient.java

[edit] Overview

One of the consistent issues with prototyping algorithms in MatLab is trying to tie them into your software framework.

MatlabControl object from http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~whitehouse/matlab/JavaMatlab.html allows a user to create calls into MatLab from Java. However, this object must be used and run from within the same JVM that MatLab is running.

There's a link from there to this site, http://www.cs.utoronto.ca/~bowen/code/code.html which sets up a MatlabServer. The MatlabServer allows remote calls, but everything must be string based, and it's using a basic socket server with no well defined protocol.

Building on this idea I decided to write my own based on XMLRPC. This would allow for a Client to remotely call into MatLab, have MatlabControl do any operation that's needed and still get back full Objects.

I built my server using the XMLRPC libraries from Apache. This is the most well used XMLRPC library for Java out there. The mini WebServer built into these libraries was a perfect server to use for this application since I didn't want the overhead of a full Tomcat implementation with full XMLRPC servlets.

The cool thing with using XMLRPC is that now this same server can be used from any XMLRPC client, including from C++ and .NET.

[edit] Download Library and Project

RemoteMatlab.zip - An Eclipse Java project containing the Server and Client code to remotely call MATLAB from Java using XMLRPC.

[edit] How-To

1. Copy the exitform.fig, exitform.m, RemoteMatlab.jar and StartMatlabServer.m to your working directory.
2. Copy the lib directory (and all it's contents) to your working directory.
3. Run server

>> StartMatlabServer

[edit] File Descriptions

[edit] StartMatlabServer.m

A simple m file that sets up the java paths and starts the server. It will also show a form to allow for clean shutdown of the server and show a twiddler when running.

[edit] exitform.fig and exitform.m

A simple gui form that shows one button. Click the button to shutdown the server.

[edit] RemoteMatlab.jar

The compiled project files.

[edit] lib directory

xmlrpc libraries from apache and some commons libraries. The jmi.jar from MATLAB itself is there for compilation purposes.

[edit] Source Descriptions

[edit] MatlabControlImpl.java

A slight modification of the above named MatlabControl object from http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~whitehouse/matlab/JavaMatlab.html.

[edit] MatlabControl.java

An interface that defines the functions in the MatlabControl implementation. This then is used on the client side as well.

[edit] MatlabServer.java

A slight modification of the code from Apache XMLRPC Server Page.

[edit] MatlabClient.java

A class that can be used from any Java application to call MATLAB remotely. Use the example in the main() method as a starting point.