MATLAB Web Server

Creating Input Documents

Input Template

The file input_template.html provides the code needed to create a MATLAB Web Server input document. An abbreviated version looks like

• <!-- STEP 1
  Choose either the NT version or the Unix version of the form tag 
  (depending on which platform the matweb client program will be 
  run):
  -->
  <!-- NT version: -->
  <form action="/cgi-bin/matweb.exe" method="POST">
  <!-- Unix version: -->
  <form action="/cgi-bin/matweb" method="POST">
  <!-- STEP 2
  Create a hidden field naming your M-file. Replace MY_M_FILE with 
  the name of main MATLAB function of your application.(An HTML 
  input field of type "hidden" is commonly used to pass variables 
  to a web server. It is not displayed by the browser.)
  -->
  <input type="hidden" name="mlmfile" value="my_m_file">
  <!-- STEP 3
  Add all your other HTML form tags here. Replace 
  MY_INPUT_VARIABLE_1 with the name of an input variable in your 
  application.
  -->
  <p>My input variable 1: <input type="text" 
  name="my_input_variable_1">
  <!--
  Create additional input variables here.
  -->
  <!-- STEP 4
  Create a "submit" input tag for the user to click to send the input 
  to your program.
  -->
  <p><input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit"></p>
  <!-- STEP 5
  Add the name of your main application function to the file 
  matweb.conf. See the matweb.conf file in the wsdemos directory and 
  the documentation.)
  -->
  

webmagic Input

Examine the significant part of the source for webmagic1.html.

• <form action="/cgi-bin/matweb.exe" method="POST">
      <input type="hidden" name="mlmfile" value="webmagic">
      <p>Magic square size (minimum is 3, maximum is 20): 
      <input type="text" size="2" maxlength="2" name="msize"></p>
      <p><input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit"></p>
  </form>
  

The line

• <form action="/cgi-bin/matweb.exe" method="POST">
  

calls matweb, the entry point to the MATLAB Web Server. matweb.exe is the Microsoft Windows NT name of the program used by the MATLAB Web Server to extract data from HTML forms. On Solaris/Linux this program is called just matweb. We refer to the program as matweb throughout this document except when the platform distinction is important. matweb is described more thoroughly in the next chapter.

The next line

• <input type="hidden" name="mlmfile" value="webmagic">
  

provides the name of the MATLAB M-file (mlmfile) to run. In this application the M-file is named webmagic.

Lastly, the input

• <input type="text" size="2" maxlength="2" name="msize"></p>
  

passes to webmagic.m a two-character field named msize, which contains the size of the magic square to compute.

To display the input document and run the magic squares demonstration locally on your computer, start your Web browser and set the URL to
http://<your_domain>/webmagic1.html.

The magic squares input document, webmagic1.html, is displayed in your browser.

.

Enter the size of the magic square matrix you want to compute and press Submit.

Templates

Creating MATLAB Web Server M-Files