getRefData.m

function ref_data = getRefData(fid, ref)
% defaults to -1 (H5ML.id) which works for H5R.create when using
% Object References
refspace = repmat(H5ML.id, size(ref));
refpaths = {ref.path};
validPaths = find(~cellfun('isempty', refpaths));
if isa(ref, 'types.untyped.RegionView')
    for i=validPaths
        try
            did = H5D.open(fid, refpaths{i});
        catch ME
            error('NWB:getRefData:InvalidPath',...
                'Reference path `%s` was invalid', refpaths{i});
        end
        sid = H5D.get_space(did);
        %by default, we use block mode.
        regionShapes = ref(i).region;
        for j = 1:length(regionShapes)
            regionShapes{j} = io.space.findShapes(regionShapes{j});
        end
        refspace(i) = io.space.getReadSpace(regionShapes, sid);
        H5S.close(sid);
        H5D.close(did);
    end
end
typesize = H5T.get_size(ref(1).type);
ref_data = zeros([typesize size(ref)], 'uint8');
for i=validPaths
    try
        ref_data(:, i) = H5R.create(fid, ref(i).path, ref(i).reftype, refspace(i));
    catch ME
        error('NWB:getRefData:InvalidPath',...
            'Reference path `%s` was invalid', ref(i).path);
    end
    if H5I.is_valid(refspace(i))
        H5S.close(refspace(i));
    end
end
end