Is it possible to have a uiconfirm choose an option after a timeout period?

I am trying to modify my uiconfirm popup to select the 'DefaultOption' after some time to avoid having the popup open for a long period of time and holding up code execution.

I have already tried using a timer to select one of the options which didn't seem to work but maybe I did it wrong.

I can explain what I am trying to do and why in further detail if needed.

Here is a barebones example of what I am trying to modify:

closeHdlg = uiconfirm(MainFigure, "Title",'Program','Options',{'Retry','Disconnect','Continue'},'DefaultOption','Retry');
        switch closeHdlg
            case 'Retry'
                % Hidden for confidentiality
            case 'Disconnect'
                % Hidden for confidentiality
            case 'Continue'
                % Hidden for confidentiality
            case ''
                % close box and do nothing
        end % end switch

[Stephen23]

If you need a dialog that can be programmatically controlled (e.g. with a timer), you could use DIALOG.

Or you could just roll-your-own using a modal UIFIGURE.

[Ryan]

I'll give that a try and I'll report back, thanks.

Answer 1

[Madheswaran]

Hi @Ryan

You can achieve a timeout by using 'dialog' function. Consider the below code:

function showTimeoutDialogMini()
    fig = uifigure('Position', [300 300 200 100]);
    uibutton(fig, 'Text', 'Show Dialog', ...
        'Position', [50 35 100 30], ...
        'ButtonPushedFcn', @showDialog);
    
    function showDialog(~,~)
        d = dialog('Position', [350 350 250 150], ...
                  'Name', 'Confirmation');
        
        uicontrol(d, 'Style', 'text', ...
            'String', 'Dialog will timeout in 5 seconds', ...
            'Position', [20 80 210 40]);
        
        uicontrol(d, 'Style', 'pushbutton', ...
            'String', 'Proceed', ...
            'Position', [30 20 80 30], ...
            'Callback', @(~,~)closeDialog('Retry'));
        
        uicontrol(d, 'Style', 'pushbutton', ...
            'String', 'Cancel', ...
            'Position', [140 20 80 30], ...
            'Callback', @(~,~)closeDialog('Cancel'));
        
        t = timer('ExecutionMode', 'singleShot', ...
                 'StartDelay', 5, ...
                 'TimerFcn', @(~,~)timeoutClose());
        start(t);
        
        function closeDialog(action)
            if isvalid(t), stop(t); delete(t); end
            disp([action ' selected']);
            delete(d);
        end
        
        function timeoutClose()
            if isvalid(d)
                disp('Timeout - Cancel selected');
                delete(d);
            end
        end
    end
end

This code creates a simple dialog box with two options ("Proceed" and "Cancel") and an automatic timeout feature. When you click the "Show Dialog" button, it opens a confirmation dialog that will automatically close and select "Cancel" after 5 seconds if no option is selected. The code uses MATLAB's timer object to handle the timeout functionality.

For more information refer to the following documentation: https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/dialog.html

Hope this helps!

[Ryan]

It took a bit of finagling to get this to work with my use case but it seems to be accomplishing the intended behavior, thanks!

Answer 2

[Jeff Mandel]

Simpler approach:

d = dialog('Position', [350 350 250 150], ...
    'Name', 'Confirmation','UserData','Proceed');

uicontrol(d, 'Style', 'text', ...
    'String', 'Dialog will timeout in 5 seconds', ...
    'Position', [20 80 210 40]);

uicontrol(d, 'Style', 'pushbutton', ...
    'String', 'Proceed', ...
    'Position', [30 20 80 30], ...
    'Callback', @buttonCallback);

uicontrol(d, 'Style', 'pushbutton', ...
    'String', 'Cancel', ...
    'Position', [140 20 80 30], ...
    'Callback', @buttonCallback);

% Block execution for 5 seconds or until uiresume is called
uiwait(d,5);
fprintf("%s\n",d.UserData);
close(d);

function buttonCallback(object,~)
    object.Parent.UserData = object.String;
    uiresume(object.Parent);
end