Re: Setting window properties (always on top, ...) in gnome shell extension

["Jasper St. Pierre" <jstpierre mecheye net>]

On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 6:55 AM, Amy Chan <mathematical coffee gmail com> wrote:
> Thank you. I looked into libwnck which does all this stuff from python (now
> there's an example of what I wish clutter
> had):http://developer.gnome.org/libwnck/stable/WnckWindow.html
>
> After a bit of experimenting, it turns out in python I can simply do:
>
> import wnck
> wnck.screen_get_default().get_active_window().make_above()
>
> and that's done!
>
> So while I wait for the meta_window_set_xxxx stuff to eventually be exposed
> to the JS interface, I may experiment with somehow calling a python script
> from within JS to do that bit of functionality (I recall seeing this done in
> another extension - will have to look it up).
>
> Or even better, since wnck seems to use the whole gobject introspection
> thing, maybe it has JS bindings I can somehow get?

const Wnck = imports.gi.Wnck;
Wnck.Screen.get_default().get_active_window().make_above();

I wonder if we should use more wnck. mutter already depends upon it.

> cheers,
> Amy
>
>
> On 24/04/12 13:23, Jasper St. Pierre wrote:
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 11:11 PM, Amy C<mathematical coffee gmail com>
>>  wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> As part of teaching myself how to make gnome shell extensions, I
>>> decided to just add an item to the menu of the panel's title bar that
>>> allows the user to select options like always on top/always on this
>>> workspace.
>>>
>>> I notice in the mutter API there is a meta_window_set_above in
>>> window.c but this doesn't seem to be exposed to the JS interface.
>>> Through a bit of trial and error I also seem to be able to call
>>> window.set_property('above',true) but this function appears to do
>>> nothing (there is a 'title' property I tested on and using
>>> set_property on this also seems to do nothing).
>>
>>
>> Ugh. All the MetaWindow properties are all read-only. It seems they
>> were only added for the notifies.
>>
>> Yeah. metacity was originally designed as a process, not a library, so
>> it doesn't really do things the way it should. I'm working on making
>> metacity/mutter less of a program with an API and more like a library,
>> because that's what it should be.
>>
>>> I could simulate (e.g.) always in this workspace by listening to a
>>> workspace changed event and moving the relevant window, but this would
>>> not be a "true" implementation in that the window manager still thinks
>>> that window.is_on_all_workspaces is false (as I don't seem to be able
>>> to set it).
>>>
>>> So, does anyone know:
>>> - an alternate way to set these window properties (properly, as in the
>>> window manager knows about it) in a gnome shell extension?
>>
>>
>> There might be some X window properties you can set (but I doubt it,
>> and you probably can't do it from JS)
>>
>>> - how to tell whether a likely function in a c file (e.g.
>>> meta_window_set_above) has been exported to the JS interface?
>>
>>
>> Check out /usr/share/gir-1.0/Meta-1.0.gir
>>
>>> - how to expose a method from the C interface to the JS interface?
>>
>>
>> You have to submit a patch to the C code, and wait a release cycle.
>> Unfortunate, I know.
>>
>>> cheers!
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> gnome-shell-list mailing list
>>> gnome-shell-list gnome org
>>> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-shell-list
>>
>>
>>
>>
>



-- 
  Jasper