Interactive Applications in Teaching with the MATLAB Web Server
The MATLAB Web Server is a new toolbox for the well-known software-product … To use the MATLAB Web Server MATLAB, the toolboxes needed for the …
Keywords: Tele-learning, MATLAB, Matlabserver, Web-based simulation
The MATLAB Web Server is a special toolbox to access MATLAB-Simulations from the web. We installed this server in the environment of a HyperWave Information Server and got good results using this tool for teaching electrical engineering and mathematical modeling. The main advantages are: on-line simulations, working only through a browser-interface with MATLAB, simulation with the user’s own data via the Internet. The main disadvantages are: slow Internet access time for movie simulations, not possibility to use GUI’s and no flexibility for the models. The only user-chosen inputs are the data. We described some possibilities to solve these problems.
The MATLAB Web Server is a new toolbox for the well-known software-product MATLAB? of the MathWorks, Inc. (http://www.mathworks.com). This tool is a web-front-end for MATLAB and it is possible to design MATLAB-simulations running on a special server started from a client. The output of the simulations is shown on a user-designed html-document of a web browser.
Connection between client application and MATLAB is shown in Figure 1. Client application, usually a web browser, loads an “Initial“ Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) [1] document from Hypertext Transfer Protocol [2] Daemon (HTTPD). After editing the parameters is completed, the client sends data to the HTTPD, which loads matweb through Common Gateway Interface (CGI) [3]. Matweb connects to the matlabserver by means internal protocol. Matlabserver loads the requested M-file into a separated copy of MATLAB. After executing has been completed the matlabserver gives an output to the matweb, usually as text/html based on a template file. The matweb returns it to the client through HTTPD. During execution of an M-file, image-files, extra html-files or any other data files can be created and linked to the main output html. In this case the browser will download them from HTTPD. MATLAB also supports Java classes [4]. By using Java classes on the server as well as on the client side it is possible to extend the default connection schema.
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