MATLAB: How to expose the methods of the MATLAB object-oriented class through a C++ shared library with the MATLAB Compiler

Question

I have defined an object-oriented class in MATLAB using the CLASSDEF keyword and all other necessary MATLAB language object-oriented programming (OOP) constructs. Using the MATLAB Compiler, I would like to create a C++ dynamic-link library that exports a C++ class generated from my MATLAB class, and exposes its methods.

Answer 1

The ability to directly generate a C++ class from a MATLAB class is currently not available as of MATLAB Compiler R2013a.

As a workaround, it is possible to write wrapper function MATLAB files around each of your MATLAB class methods and compile these into a C++ library. The wrapper functions should be written in such a way that:

1) If necessary, instances of your class are instantiated when the functions are invoked

2) The instances are made global such that methods may be invoked on the same class instance across calls to the MATLAB wrapper functions from C++.

Additionally, you may also write a C++ class whose methods wrap around the exported functions of the library in order to instantiate, invoke, and destroy your MATLAB class instances as necessary.