Can I create workspace-dependent command triggers?

I'm wondering if there's a way to make one action have two different effects depending on the workspace it's on.

For example: if on workspace 1, then the command to focus Empathy's chat list is used, but if on workspace 2, then the command to open Chrome is used.

It would be linked to mousing over to the right edge of the screen in Compiz.

Is this possible?

Solution 1:

Have a look at xdotool. get_desktop will output the current desktop in view.

For Ubuntu with Unity , workspaces are called viewports and are presented in coordinate form , x and y position of the top left corner.

For instance,

$ xdotool get_desktop_viewport     
4780 0

You can use that information to figure out what workspace you're on, and execute command per each workspace.

Solution 2:

Note: The answer has been rewritten in python for better performance, but without GUI elements. See the section Python Version

Shell Script Version

Introduction

The script bellow allows running a specific command depending on the currently active workspace. It is intended to be bound to a keyboard shortcut. Demo of the script in action can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxim3JbeiVM

Getting the Script

Copy the script source from this post or install via the following steps:

1. sudo apt-get install git
2. cd /opt ; sudo git clone https://github.com/SergKolo/sergrep.git
3. sudo chmod -R +x sergrep

The file is /opt/sergrep/unity_viewport_commands.sh

Overview of usage and options

The script has the following flags:

• -r run a command for current viewport
• -g generate new list of commands
• -h print the help text
• -v view current settings
• -s change setting for a single viewport

The script is meant to be bound to a keyboard shortcut with particular flag . For instance, Ctrl+Alt+I would be bound to unity_viewport_commands.sh -r for invoking a command.

To bind the script to a shortcut , refer to How do I bind .sh files to keyboard combination?

Script Source

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
###########################################################
# Author: Serg Kolo , contact: [email protected] 
# Date: April 18th, 2016
# Purpose: Script that runs a command depending
#          on the current viewport
# Written for: https://askubuntu.com/q/56367/295286
# Tested on: Ubuntu 14.04 , Unity 7.2.6
###########################################################
# Copyright: Serg Kolo , 2016
#    
#     Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software is hereby granted
#     without fee, provided that  the copyright notice above and this permission statement
#     appear in all copies.
#
#     THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
#     IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
#     FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.  IN NO EVENT SHALL
#     THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
#     LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
#     FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER
#     DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

ARGV0="$0"
ARGC=$#
get_screen_geometry()
{
 xwininfo -root | awk '/-geometry/{gsub(/+|x/," ");print $2,$3}'  
}

gui_dialog()
{
  SCHEMA="org.compiz.core:/org/compiz/profiles/unity/plugins/core/"
  read swidth sdepth  <<< "$(get_screen_geometry)" 
  vwidth=$(gsettings get $SCHEMA hsize)
  vheight=$(gsettings get $SCHEMA vsize)
  
 width=0
 for horizontal in $(seq 1 $vwidth); do
    height=0 
    for vertical in $(seq 1 $vheight);  do

      # array+=( FALSE  )
      viewport+=( $(echo "$width"x"$height") )

    height=$(($height+$sdepth))
    done
 width=$(($width+$swidth))
 done

  local fmtstr=""
  for i in ${viewport[@]} ; do
    fmtstr=$fmtstr"$(printf "%s\"%s\" " "--add-entry=" $i)"
  done

  STR=$(zenity --forms --title="Set Viewport Commands" \
           --text='Please avoid using # character' --separator="#" \
           $fmtstr 2>/dev/null) 

  OLDIFS=$IFS
  IFS="#"
  commands=( $STR   )
  IFS=$OLDIFS
 
# for loop done with while loop
  counter=0
  while [ $counter -lt ${#viewport[@]}   ] ;
  do 
    echo "${viewport[$counter]}":"${commands[$counter]}"
    counter=$(($counter+1))
  done
}

get_current_viewport()
{
  xprop -root -notype _NET_DESKTOP_VIEWPORT  | \
      awk -F'=' '{gsub(/\,/,"x");gsub(/\ /,"");print $2}'
}

run_viewport_command()
{
  [ -r "$HOME"/"$DATAFILE"  ] || \
      { printf ">>> ERR: commands file doesn't exit. \
        \nCreate new one using -g flag" > /dev/stderr ; exit 1 ;}
  local VP=$(get_current_viewport)
  cmd=$(awk -v regex="^$VP" -F ':' '$0~regex{ $1="";print }' "$HOME"/"$DATAFILE")
  eval $cmd " &> /dev/null  &"
}


view_current_settings()
{
  if [ -r "$HOME"/"$DATAFILE"   ]; then
     cat "$HOME"/"$DATAFILE"  | \
     zenity --list --height=250 --width=250  \
     --title="current settings"  --column=""  2> /dev/null
  else
      printf ">>> ERR: commands file doesn't exist
      \\nCreate new one using -g flag" > /dev/stderr
      exit 1
  fi

}
 
change_single()
{
  if [ -r "$HOME"/"$DATAFILE"  ] ;then
    NEWLINE="$(zenity --forms --separator='#' \
         --add-entry="viewport to change(XPOSxYPOS):"\
         --add-entry="new command")"
    remove_this=$(awk -F '#' '{ print $1  }' <<< "$NEWLINE")
    sed -i '/^'$remove_this'/d' "$HOME"/"$DATAFILE"
    new_cmd=$(awk -F '#' '{$1="";printf "%s",$0}' <<< "$NEWLINE")
    echo "$remove_this":"$new_cmd" >> "$HOME"/"$DATAFILE"
  fi
}

print_usage()
{
cat << EOF

Usage: viewport_commands.sh [option] 
Copyright Serg Kolo , 2016

-r run a command for current viewport
-g generate new list of commands
-h print this text
-v view current settings
-s change setting for a single viewport

EOF
}



parse_args()
{
  [ $# -eq 0  ] && print_usage && exit 0
  local option OPTIND
  while getopts "grvhs" option ;
  do
     case ${option} in
        g) gui_dialog > "$HOME"/"$DATAFILE"
        ;;
        r) run_viewport_command 
        ;;
        v) view_current_settings
        ;;
        s) change_single
        ;;
        h) print_usage && exit 0
        ;;
        \?) echo "Invalid option: -$OPTARG" >&2
        ;;
     esac
  done
  shift $((OPTIND-1))

}

main()
{
  local DATAFILE=".viewport_commands"
  parse_args "$@"
  exit 0
}

main "$@"

Simple shell script version (original answer)

Ubuntu uses viewports instead of workspaces. That's a coordinate system which counts in positive numbers down and right , where 0,0 would be your top left workspace.

By knowing that, we can have a simple script that gets current coordinates, tests them, and executes appropriate command. The script bellow does that.

#!/bin/bash
  
get_viewport()
{
  xprop -root -notype _NET_DESKTOP_VIEWPORT  | \
      awk -F '=' '{ gsub(/\ /,"");print $2 }'
}

get_viewport

case "$(get_viewport)" in 

   "0,0") notify-send 'You are in the top left viewport'
            ;;
   "2732,768") notify-send 'You are in the bottom right viewport'
            ;;

esac

Replace notify-send commands with whichever action you want. Use nohup COMMAND 2>/dev/null & to avoid commands hanging the script (notify-send is an exception, hence did not add it there).

Use the xprop -root -notype _NET_DESKTOP_VIEWPORT to determine coordinates of each of your viewports.

Finally, there should be no spaces in the case statement options, e.g. "0,0" works but "0, 0" will not.

Python Version

Introduction

This version of the script performs the same function, but doesn't contain command line arguments or GUI elements for the sake of simplicity and usability. The script is available as Github Gist as well as below:

Usage:

Usage is very simple:

python3 /path/to/workspace_command.py

The script determines current workspace and runs appropriate command defined in ~/.workspace_commands.json . Make sure you create this file first , otherwise the script wont work. Note also that you must use double quotes to define each workspace , and command + argument

Sample ~/workspace_commands.json:

{
  "1":["nautilus"],
  "2":["firefox","google.com"],
  "3":["virtualbox"]
}

Script source code

#!/usr/bin/env python3
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
"""
Author: Serg Kolo , contact: [email protected] 
Date: August 9th, 2016
Purpose: Spawns a command depending on current
         viewport, as defined in ~/.workspace_commands.json
Written for: https://askubuntu.com/q/56367/295286
Tested on: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS , Unity desktop


The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright © 2016 Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy <[email protected]>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE
"""


# Just in case the user runs 
# the script with python 2, import
# print function
from __future__ import print_function
import gi
gi.require_version('Gdk', '3.0')
from gi.repository import Gio,Gdk
import json
import subprocess
import os

def gsettings_get(schema,path,key):
    """Get value of gsettings schema"""
    if path is None:
        gsettings = Gio.Settings.new(schema)
    else:
        gsettings = Gio.Settings.new_with_path(schema,path)
    return gsettings.get_value(key)

def run_cmd(cmdlist):
    """ Reusable function for running shell commands"""
    try:
        stdout = subprocess.check_output(cmdlist)
    except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
        print(">>> subprocess:",cmdlist)
        sys.exit(1)
    else:
        if stdout:
            return stdout

def enumerate_viewports():
    """ generates enumerated dictionary of viewports and their
        indexes, counting left to right """
    schema="org.compiz.core"
    path="/org/compiz/profiles/unity/plugins/core/"
    keys=['hsize','vsize']
    screen = Gdk.Screen.get_default()
    screen_size=[ screen.get_width(),screen.get_height()]
    grid=[ int(str(gsettings_get(schema,path,key))) for key in keys]
    x_vals=[ screen_size[0]*x for x in range(0,grid[0]) ]
    y_vals=[screen_size[1]*x for x in range(0,grid[1]) ]
    
    viewports=[(x,y)  for y in y_vals for x in x_vals ]
    
    return {vp:ix for ix,vp in enumerate(viewports,1)}

def get_current_viewport():
    """returns tuple representing current viewport, 
       in format (width,height)"""
    vp_string = run_cmd(['xprop', '-root', 
                         '-notype', '_NET_DESKTOP_VIEWPORT'])
    vp_list=vp_string.decode().strip().split('=')[1].split(',')
    return tuple( int(i)  for i in vp_list )

def read_config_file():
    """ reads ~/.workspace_commands file """
    rcfile = os.path.join( os.path.expanduser('~'), 
                           '.workspace_commands.json')
    try:
        with open(rcfile) as config_file:
            config_data = json.load(config_file)
    except IOError as error:
        print(error.__repr__())
    else:
        if config_data:
            return config_data


def main():
   # get all the info we need first
   viewports_dict=enumerate_viewports()
   current_viewport = get_current_viewport()
   current_vp_number = viewports_dict[current_viewport]
   viewport_config = read_config_file()

   for vp,command in viewport_config.items():
       if int(vp) == current_vp_number:
          # spawn the command and let us exit
          pid = subprocess.Popen(command).pid
          break
   
if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Mouse-over action:

Original question asks about making it work with mouseover action on the right side of the screen. While I suggest using the above scripts as linked to keyboard shortcuts , mouse over action is possible. Below is a simple script that launches the python version above if mouse is in the top right corner of the screen. Feel free to adjust the script to suit your needs

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import gi
gi.require_version('Gdk', '3.0')
from gi.repository import Gio,Gdk
import subprocess
from time import  sleep
def main():
    screen = Gdk.Screen.get_default()
    root_window = screen.get_root_window()

    while True:
        if root_window.get_pointer()[2] == 0 and \
           root_window.get_pointer()[1] >= root_window.get_width()-2:
               proc = subprocess.Popen(['python3','/home/user/bin/python/workspace_command.py']).pid
        sleep(0.75)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Notes:

Similar mouse event script can be done with a shell script that uses xdotool getmouselocation command and parses its output, which would be something like this:

$ xdotool getmouselocation
x:1140 y:420 screen:0 window:14680095