How can I download files from a web app?

Technical Source
2 min readJun 25, 2024

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I am running MATLAB Web App Server on a server machine, with several web apps. I would like users to be able to download files to their local machines from my web apps. However, when I use functions like save and exportgraphics, the output files are written to the server machine instead of the client (user) machine.

How can I save files to the user’s local machine from a web app?

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ANSWER:

To save files to a client machine from a web app, use uiputfile to get the path to the download location. This path can then be used as the destination in write functions such as save, exportgraphics, etc. to download files for the user.

For example, to save the graph currently displayed on your app’s app.UIAxes component as a .PNG file:

% Get the path to the download location 
[f, p] = uiputfile('*.png');
% Save the plot to the specified path
exportgraphics(app.UIAxes,fullfile(p,f));

To download multiple files at once, use zip to compress the files into a single .ZIP file and save this to the client machine:

% Get the path to the download location
[f, p] = uiputfile('*.zip');
% Zip 3 files and save them to the specified path
zip(fullfile(p,f),{'file1.mat','file2.mat','file3.mat'});

Some additional things to note:

  • Files downloaded from a web app will always be placed in the download location specified by the client browser. The user can specify a file name in the uiputfile dialogue box, but the destination folder can only be changed from their browser settings.
  • If your web app references files on the server machine that are not along the app’s search path (i.e. outside of the app/session caches), ensure that the apps service has access to these files.
  • While uiputfile and uigetfile are supported for passing files to/from web apps, the uigetdir function is not supported for use with web apps.

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Technical Source
Technical Source

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