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mathematical.coffee
Asked: 2012-04-21 16:34:12 +0800 CST

set window properties (above, on all workspaces) in js/gnome-shell-extension?

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As part of teaching myself how to make gnome-shell-extensions, I'd like to be able to tell a window to be on all workspaces on on top of all other windows.

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 seems to do nothing).

So, does anyone know of an alternate way to set a window's properties in a gnome shell extension? (and how to tell whether a function in the API gets exposed through javascript? I (naively) thought it'd be as easy as "oh, there's a meta_window_set_above in window.c, so I must be able to call window.set_above(true), but I guess not.

mutter gnome-shell-extension javascript

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I asked this question of the gnome mailing list - turns out that the meta window properties are all read-only, so I can't (currently) set the above/on all workspaces options using mutter.

    However, I can use a library wnck to achieve this. Whilst mutter is still preferred, this may be the only way for now.

    Luckily wnck has gobject introspection, so this was sufficient:

    const Wnck = imports.gi.Wnck;
let window = Wnck.Screen.get_default().get_active_window();
if ( window ) {
    window.make_above();
}

    There are functions make_above, unmake_above, pin, unpin, stick, and unstick (although I don't know what the difference is between pin and stick), all listed here.

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