[Feature]: Allow `toTable()` on extension subtypes of `DynamicTable`

[rly]

What would you like to see added to MatNWB?

I have an NWB extension that includes a type that extends DynamicTable. I want to be able to visualize this table in MatNWB.

For example, in the ndx-events extension, AnnotatedEventsTable extends DynamicTable. However the following code does not work:

>> annotated_events = types.ndx_events.AnnotatedEventsTable()

annotated_events = 

  AnnotatedEventsTable with properties:

    event_description: []
          event_times: []
    event_times_index: []
                label: []
             colnames: []
          description: []
                   id: []
           vectordata: [0×1 types.untyped.Set]

>> annotated_events.toTable()
Unrecognized method, property, or field 'toTable' for class 'types.ndx_events.AnnotatedEventsTable'.

Is your feature request related to a problem?

No response

What solution would you like?

Add support for toTable() to extension types that extend DynamicTable.

Do you have any interest in helping implement the feature?

No.

Code of Conduct

• [X] I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct
• [X] Have you ensured this change was not already requested?

[rly]

Actually, does the toTable() method referenced in the DynamicTable tutorial still work for DynamicTable objects?

>> my_table = types.hdmf_common.DynamicTable

my_table = 

  DynamicTable with properties:

       colnames: []
    description: []
             id: []
     vectordata: [0×1 types.untyped.Set]

>> my_table.toTable()
Unrecognized method, property, or field 'toTable' for class 'types.hdmf_common.DynamicTable'.

[lawrence-mbf]

That's interesting, the file generation does have a toTable method in version 2.4.0 and in master. Which MatNWB version is this?

[lawrence-mbf]

Testing out your code with ndx-events: the toTable method is included in the AnnotatedEventsTable but I do see an error when the table is empty:

Dot indexing is not supported for variables of this type.

Error in types.util.dynamictable.nwbToTable (line 35)
if isa(DynamicTable.id.data, 'types.untyped.DataStub')...

Error in types.hdmf_common.DynamicTable/toTable (line 123)
        table = types.util.dynamictable.nwbToTable(obj, varargin{:});

I'll open a PR fix for that. Can you try this on your machine using the tip of master?

[lawrence-mbf]

Can confirm that the provided code works in the newest release. If there are further issues, make a new ticket.