launcher + windows menu

[aster94]

hello

i used ubuntu for two years but now i moved to xubuntu since my hardware is getting old

in the panel i have some launchers, i would like that them had the "memory" if that application is opened
for example see the first 30 seconds of this video in gnome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYi3GKAQ5Pc
when he click on the launcher of an application the laucher change background and if he click again on it the old windows will be opened
in xubuntu if i click on a launcher i get a new windows but i can't open old windows
example of what happen now (two google chrome):
https://image.ibb.co/c1S1Mc/Untitled.png

is there a way to do it?

[kerry_s]

are you asking for a dock?

sudo apt install plank

plank --preferences && plank &

[vanadium]

You are looking for a "launch or switch to" approach where clicking an item switches to the application if it is already running, or opens the application if it is not already running. The xfce slingshot menu and shortcut launchers currently are "always launch". The actual effect of the launch, however, depends on the application. Gimp, for example, will switch to the already running instance when launched again. Inkscape not. Firefox will switch to a running instance and open a new tab there. Some applications provide command line options to control such aspects while launching the executable.

You can indeed install a dock which implements that. However, that is a different interface, and usually only mouse supported. You may prefer the native environment of xfce.

I recently ran into a tool "jumpapp": https://github.com/mkropat/jumpapp. It can be used to make any application you want "launch and switch to" aware. One way is to edit the .desktop files of the applications you want to acquire that behaviour, which is what launchers and slingshot or other menu systems in xfce are using.

The neatest way is to just copy these .desktop files you want to change to your private .local/share/applications folder. Open the file in a text editor, look for the "Exec=" line. Insert "jumpapp" before the current command. Your desktop environment will now use your private modified .desktop file instead of the system wide version.

[aster94]

You are looking for a "launch or switch to" approach where clicking an item switches to the application if it is already running, or opens the application if it is not already running. The xfce slingshot menu and shortcut launchers currently are "always launch". The actual effect of the launch, however, depends on the application. Gimp, for example, will switch to the already running instance when launched again. Inkscape not. Firefox will switch to a running instance and open a new tab there. Some applications provide command line options to control such aspects while launching the executable.

You can indeed install a dock which implements that. However, that is a different interface, and usually only mouse supported. You may prefer the native environment of xfce.

I recently ran into a tool "jumpapp": https://github.com/mkropat/jumpapp. It can be used to make any application you want "launch and switch to" aware. One way is to edit the .desktop files of the applications you want to acquire that behaviour, which is what launchers and slingshot or other menu systems in xfce are using.

The neatest way is to just copy these .desktop files you want to change to your private .local/share/applications folder. Open the file in a text editor, look for the "Exec=" line. Insert "jumpapp" before the current command. Your desktop environment will now use your private modified .desktop file instead of the system wide version.

yeeeesss that is exactly what i was looking for, i wasn't unable to explain, i just moved from gnome to xfce and i already changed the windows manager, i wouldn't like to change also the docker or i would have staid with another desktop environment

did you managed to have it working for every lauchers? i am not able to make it working for the file manager and a few others like chrome

[vanadium]

For chrome it should work with "jumpapp -i chrome -p /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable %U" in the desktop file. google-chrome-stable is a bash script that in the end launches the chrome executable. The -i option indicates to jumpapp to look for the proces chrome, not google-chrome-stable. The -p option is there to have the browser itself take over its window management when we pass an argument. With this option, jumpapp will immediately call the executable if an argument, i.e., an URL, is passed, and not look for an existing proces first. If no argument is passed, jumpapp will first look if there is a window to switch to, and only launch the command if that is not the case.

Some tweaking may also be needed with your file manager. "man jumpapp" gives you the options jumpapp knows. With xprop, you can identify properties of a running window, and process names are visible in the output of "top" or "ps aux".

[again?]

jumpapp looks interesting. Seems to implement wmctrl commands to bring into focus if it finds a window or launch if not found.
eg

wmctrl -xa Google-chrome || /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable

I found plank to be the simplest solution in Xfce, with the benefit of being able to access unity quicklist menus with right mouse click.
You can also use dockbarx with xfce4-panel as outined in this youtube video.

[aster94]

yes plank seems to be a good solution, especially for the quicklist
the only feature i am unable to find in any dock is the ability to show all the opened application in the dock like in windows machines or gnome. do you know any?

[again?]

yes plank seems to be a good solution, especially for the quicklist
the only feature i am unable to find in any dock is the ability to show all the opened application in the dock like in windows machines or gnome. do you know any?

If you mean to show unpinned windows on the dock, you can change in Plank preferences.
ctrl+rightmouse on plank dock.

[kerry_s]

yes plank seems to be a good solution, especially for the quicklist
the only feature i am unable to find in any dock is the ability to show all the opened application in the dock like in windows machines or gnome. do you know any?

are you talking about the expose feature? super key in gnome.

in xfce most people use skippy-xd

sudo apt install skippy-xd

then just bind it to a keyboard shortcut or create a launcher. the command is: skippy-xd

also if your trying to get xfce to be like gnome, you can go with xfdashboard to get that gnome look.
http://goodies.xfce.org/projects/app...ashboard/start

sudo apt install xfdashboard


i only use skippy on my solus budgie install, had to build from source. haven't tried building xfdashboard maybe 1 day when i'm bored.

[again?]

Skippy-xd isn't available in the repos.
I compiled from https://github.com/richardgv/skippy-xd.
I used checkinstall to create a deb file that should install in Xubuntu 17.10.