How to steal focus?

qforce · 09-29-2008, 09:37 AM

First, I'm well aware that focus stealing (i.e. program moves itself to the top) is generally frowned upon. In my case however, focus stealing is perfectly legitimate: I want my program to get to the top when the user hits a special key. I just couldn't figure out how to do that or what to search for, so can somebody please help me? I'm working on X11/GTK+ (noob skill level though).

Peterius · 10-04-2008, 03:06 PM

Sounds like you're making a toolbar or a desktop applet or something of the kind. That's probably something that would best be registered with the window manager you're using.

qforce · 10-07-2008, 09:43 AM

The program I'm working on is a Java desktop search application (Link). By default, it hides in the system tray, and I want it to show up when the user hits a special key. Now the problem is that in Java there seems to be no way to steal focus from other applications. Therefore I'm wondering if this can be done in C/C++.

theYinYeti · 10-07-2008, 10:54 AM

Couldn't wmctrl do that?

Yves.

qforce · 10-07-2008, 11:42 AM

Thanks for the hint, I'll look into it!