Silverlight 4 Communicating with Matlab

I have taken it on myself to try and expand and inspire people’s view of what a web application can do.  In this installment I’m leveraging Silverlight 4 and Matlab to build a simple Matlab console.

Again I am using COM automation to communicate with Silverlight.  Why would anyone want to do this? Well, I’m slowly porting some Matlab code to c# so it is nice to check my code by communicating with Matlab.  Matlab also has an insane amount of its own functions so if you wanted to build a neural network but use Silverlight to display and distribute your code then Silverlight 4 is for you!

using System;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Input;
using System.Windows.Interop;

namespace SLMatlab
{
    public partial class MainPage : UserControl
    {
        dynamic matlab;
        public MainPage()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            input.IsEnabled = false;
            output.IsEnabled = false;
            Install.Visibility = Visibility.Collapsed;
            if (Application.Current.InstallState != InstallState.Installed)
            {
                MessageBox.Show("To run this, this application must be installed, Please click install.");
                Install.Visibility = Visibility.Visible;
                Connect.IsEnabled = false;
            }
            else if (!Application.Current.IsRunningOutOfBrowser)
            {
                MessageBox.Show("This application is installed but is running inside the browser. Please launch this from the desktop!");
                Connect.IsEnabled = false;
            }
        }

        private void Connect_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            try
            {
                matlab = ComAutomationFactory.CreateObject("Matlab.Application");
                matlab.Visible = 0;
                input.IsEnabled = true;
                output.IsEnabled = true;
            }
            catch { }
            
        }

        private void input_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
        {
            try
            {
                if (e.Key == Key.Enter)
                {
                    dynamic result = matlab.Execute(input.Text);
                    input.Text = "";
                    output.Text = result.ToString() + Environment.NewLine + output.Text;
                }
            }
            catch { }
        }

        private void Install_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            App.Current.Install();
        }
    }
}

<UserControl x:Class="SLMatlab.MainPage"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
    mc:Ignorable="d"
    d:DesignHeight="300" d:DesignWidth="400">

    <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"></RowDefinition>
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"></RowDefinition>
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"></RowDefinition>
            <RowDefinition Height="*"></RowDefinition>
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>
        <Button Name="Install" Content="Install" Grid.Row="0" Click="Install_Click"></Button>
        <Button Name="Connect" Content="Connect" Grid.Row="1" Click="Connect_Click"></Button>
        <TextBox Name="input" Grid.Row="2" KeyDown="input_KeyDown"></TextBox>
        <TextBox Name="output" Grid.Row="3"></TextBox>
    </Grid>
</UserControl>