MATLAB: Tab Key Disabled in Embedded Browser

browserembeddedexploreriejavaMATLABshell.explorerundocumentedunsupported

I've implemented a simple test version of the documentation example showing how to use Internet Explorer in a Matlab figure ( found here ). However, it appears that the tab key (e.g., used for movement between form fields) is disabled. Anyone know how to allow for movement across the loaded web page components via the tab key?
 function hExp = testActiveX()
    hFig = figure('Pos', [0 0 1280 1024], 'Menu', 'none', 'Name', 'ActiveX Testing', 'ResizeFcn', @reSize, 'Renderer', 'Opengl');
    conSize = calcSize;
    hExp = actxcontrol('Shell.Explorer.2', conSize, hFig);
    Navigate(hExp, 'https://www.mathworks.com/login');
    movegui(hFig, 'center');
    % Determine size of control container
    function conSize = calcSize()
       fp = get(hFig, 'Pos');
       conSize = [0 0 1 1] .* fp([3 4 3 4]);
    end % calcSize()
    % Figure resize callback
    function reSize(~, ~)
       if ~exist('hExp', 'var')
          return;
       end
       conSize = calcSize;
       move(hExp, conSize);
    end % reSize()
 end % testActiveX()

Best Answer

So, after consulting with MathWorks (thank you!) it appears that this is a known problem in working with ActiveX webBrowser components (and not just in Matlab). Currently, there is no native Matlab solution. However, Yair Altman's ever-helpful Undocumented Matlab site provides a workaround using Java.
While this overcomes the tab key limitations, my hang-up in using this solution has been my own ignorance in accessing web components (e.g., a text box, etc.) via code. But, as long as one is using R2015a or later, it turns out that this is relatively straight-forward:
% Create figure
fig = figure('Pos', [0 0 1280 1024], 'Name', 'Browser Test', 'Units', 'norm', 'Menu', 'none');
movegui(fig, 'center');
% Add Browser object
jObject = com.mathworks.mlwidgets.html.HTMLBrowserPanel;
[browserPanel, container] = javacomponent(jObject, [], fig);
set(container, 'Units', 'norm', 'Pos', [0,0,1,1]);
% Navigate to a URL
browserPanel.setCurrentLocation('https://www.mathworks.com/login');
% Get JxBrowser BrowserView and Browser objects
if verLessThan('matlab', '8.6')
    error('JxBrowser BrowserView is not available in MATLAB R2015a or earlier');
elseif verLessThan('matlab', '9.1')
    browserView = browserPanel.getComponent(0).getComponent(0).getComponent(0).getComponent(0);
else
    browserView = browserPanel.getComponent(0).getComponent(0).getComponent(0);
end
browser = browserView.getBrowser();
% Wait until browser finishes loading
while browser.isLoading
    pause(0.1);
end
% The login form is in a frame on this page. The frame id with the login form is 4
frameDocument = browser.getDocument(4);
% Example: Get the "userId" field and fill it with the text "testId"
userId = [];
while isempty(userId)
    % It is possible that the content of the embedded frame has not 
    % finished loading yet. This loop will ensure that we wait until it 
    % finishes loading the userId field.
    userId = frameDocument.findElement(com.teamdev.jxbrowser.chromium.dom.By.id('userId'));
    pause(0.1);
end
userId.setValue('testId');
% Example: Get submit button and click it
submit = frameDocument.findElement(com.teamdev.jxbrowser.chromium.dom.By.id('submit'));
%submit.click();    % commented out because this is not a valid login
(This isn't my genius; I credit the MathWorks support team for helping to point me on the right path...)
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