Publishing Tutorials Examples

Publishing Tutorials and Examples

ISETCam provides iePublish and the s_publish*.m helper scripts for converting MATLAB tutorials and examples into HTML files that can be linked from wiki pages.

The publishing helpers are intended to create self-contained HTML files. Figures are embedded directly in the HTML as base64 images, so the result can be served as one file without copying a companion folder of PNG files.

Publish One File

From a MATLAB session with ISETCam on the path:

htmlFile = iePublish('tutorials/scene/t_sceneIntroduction.m');
web(htmlFile, '-browser');

For tutorials in a dependent repository, pass the full path to the source script after that repository is on the MATLAB path:

htmlFile = iePublish(fullfile(isetbioRootPath, ...
    'tutorials', 'cmosaic', 't_cMosaicBasic.m'));

iePublish writes the HTML file next to the source .m file, using the same base name and the .html extension.

Publish a Set of Files

ISETCam provides these batch scripts:

s_publishTutorials
s_publishExamples

Both scripts call iePublish with imageFormat set to 'inline'. This is the setting that embeds figures in the HTML and makes the output suitable for serving from a web page and linking from a wiki.

The default s_publishTutorials run publishes all known ISETCam tutorial directories. The default s_publishExamples run currently publishes the selected example directory listed in the script; edit sDir in that file to publish a different example subset.

Useful Options

The defaults are chosen for wiki-linkable tutorial output:

htmlFile = iePublish(sourceFile, ...
    'evalCode', true, ...
    'showCode', true, ...
    'imageFormat', 'inline', ...
    'maxHeight', 512, ...
    'maxWidth', 512);

Common adjustments are:

• evalCode: Set to false for a quick code-only preview. Figures and command output are only regenerated when this is true.
• showCode: Set to false when the HTML should show output without source code.
• maxHeight and maxWidth: Resize embedded figures for more manageable HTML pages.
• catchError: Leave as true for most publishing runs so one script error does not terminate a batch unexpectedly.
• stylesheet: Pass a CSS file when a project needs custom HTML styling.

For wiki-linked pages, keep imageFormat set to 'inline'. Other formats, such as 'png', require the external image files to be copied and linked along with the HTML file.

Embedded Movies

Small MP4 movies can be embedded in the generated HTML. Write the movie next to the source file while publishing, then add a prose marker comment with the relative movie file name:

movieFile = fullfile(fileparts(mfilename('fullpath')), 'exampleMovie.mp4');
ieMovie(movieData, 'vname', movieFile, 'show', false, 'FrameRate', 8);
%%
% iePublishVideo: exampleMovie.mp4

With the default inline publishing mode, iePublish replaces that marker with a self-contained HTML <video> element and deletes the temporary MP4.

Keep %% and % iePublishVideo: ... on separate lines as shown above. Combining them into one %% iePublishVideo: ... cell-title line renders as an HTML heading (<h2>) instead of a paragraph (<p>), and iePublish's marker regex only matches <p> text — the video then silently never gets embedded, with no error to flag it.

Build movie frames from plain numeric data and hand the whole stack to ieMovie directly, rather than rendering a plot and screen-capturing it (getframe, exportgraphics) inside the frame loop. Under publish-driven execution (which iePublish uses), a figure updated and captured mid-loop can come back solid black regardless of the figure's Visible setting — this is an interaction with how publish manages figures, not specific to one script or renderer. If a frame needs annotation (title, colorbar, axis labels) that raw intensity data can't show, render that as a separate static figure outside the movie loop instead of trying to bake it into every video frame. Keep embedded movies short and modest in size so the HTML file stays reasonable.