Application launcher script

goosesensor · 01-24-2019, 11:15 PM

Hello,

I use XFCE and for a long time I have been employing a "launcher" script in a panel I use as a "Dock." Basically when you click a given panel item (an xfce4-panel "Launcher" item) it runs a script launch.sh that launches the specified program (using Devilspie to specify a default workspace for the program) and then switches to that workspace. So if I want to launch Firefox, the script launches it, devilspie sees this and puts it on workspace #4, and the script switches to workspace 4 showing my fresh Firefox instance. This works pretty well, but I'd like to modify its behavior a bit.

I'd like it so that if an instance of the program is already running, instead of launching a new instance, the script will just switch the current workspace to the running instance and activate the window.

Something like this:

Code:

Click dock icon -> runs launch.sh with <appname/path> <preferred workspace> <filename/args>
    if (app instance already running)
        find latest instance (window?)
        switch to that workspace and activate that window
    else
        launch the program in its default workspace and switch to that workspace
        $ (how it currently functions)

I've experimented which various programs like xdotool and wmctl to piece together the needed pieces but have come up empty.

Something like:
- Get a list of instances of windows for program X
- Find the window ID of the latest window instance from that program
- Switch to the workspace
- Activate that window

Any ideas?

goosesensor · 01-25-2019, 10:08 PM

Here is what I have come up with. Hopefully it will help somebody else out.
Note I am no longer using devilspie for this.

Comments or suggestions welcome.

Code:

#!/bin/bash


# Usage:
# launch.sh [-e <exec path>] [-c <instance search class>] -w [<workspace>] [-m <MODE>] [<program args>]

# WORKSPACE is 1-indexed
# MODE is "auto" or "raw". defaults to "raw"
# 	'auto' will try to switch to an existing open instance of EXEC by searching for CLASS before \
#		launching a new instance
#	'raw' just launches it as if you clicked on it.
# CLASS defaults to EXEC is none is specified.


# known issues:
#	spotify does not like to activate
#	gnome-calculator also does not like to activate


# this was very helpful: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/192249/how-do-i-parse-command-line-arguments-in-bash


ARGS=() # arguments without switches -- pass to new instance of the program

function parseArgs() {
	POSITIONAL=()
	while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]
	do
		key="$1"

		case $key in
   	 	-e|--executable)
    			EXEC="$2"; shift; shift;;
   	 	-c|--class)
    			CLASS="$2"; shift; shift;;
    		-w|--workspace)
    			WORKSPACE="$2"; shift; shift;;
           	-m|--mode)
                        MODE="$2"; shift; shift;;
#		-a|--args)
#			ARGS="$2"; shift; shift;;
    		*) # unknown option
    			POSITIONAL+=("$1") # save it in an array for later
			#ARGS+=("$1")
			ARGS=("${ARGS}${1} ")
			printf "ARG: %s\n" "$1"
			shift;;
                --default)
                        shift;;
		esac
	done

	set -- "${POSITIONAL[@]}" # restore positional parameters
}

parseArgs "$@"

if [ "$CLASS" == "" ]; then
	CLASS="$EXEC"
fi

if [ "$MODE" == "" ]; then
      	MODE="raw"
fi


#printf "EXEC='%s', 'CLASS=%s', 'WORKSPACE=%d', 'MODE=%s', 'ARGS=%s'\n" "$EXEC" "$CLASS" "$WORKSPACE" "$MODE" "$ARGS"


CLASS_COUNT=$(xdotool search --class "$CLASS" | wc -l)

# if there are args, just open a new instance.  or hope that the app handles its own instancing.
# (Example: launch firefox with some URL argument)
if [ $MODE == "raw" ] || [ $CLASS_COUNT == 0 ] || [ "$ARGS" != "" ]; then
        #echo "LAUNCHING NEW"

      	if [ "$ARGS" == "" ]; then
       		$EXEC &
      	else
              	$EXEC "$ARGS" &
      	fi

	WORKSPACE_ZERO=$(($WORKSPACE - 1))
        if [ $WORKSPACE_ZERO -ne "-1" ]; then
                wmctrl -s $WORKSPACE_ZERO
        fi
else
	#echo "SWITCHING TO INSTANCE"

        wmctrl -a $CLASS
fi

exit 0