Description: This command line tool allows user scripting of the running window manager (any EWMH-compatible window manager, including KDE's KWin, GNOME's Metacity, Compiz and others).
It can be also used as a replacement for the wmctrl tool, which no longer seem to be maintained. It also provides more features than just directly mapping to the window manager specifications and as such it should be more easy and convenient to use.
The only dependency of this tool is the Qt4 QtCore library and the X11 libraries.
Users of the old KDE3 version, please see the (very simple) porting instructions in the README file.
IMPORTANT #1: It is meant ONLY for user scripting. Applications should use classes from libkdeui (NET*, KWindowSystem, KWindowInfo). This CLI interface assumes it is used by a user and using it from applications may lead to various problems.
IMPORTANT #2: There are often better ways of doing things than scripting using this interface, especially if they are simple. For example if you just want to affect geometry of a specific window, it is usually simpler to use KWin's window-specific settings for that window (Alt+F3/Advanced). On the other hand, this CLI interface is specially designed for user window management and as such it's sometimes better than using D-Bus for talking to application. E.g. something like "qdbus org.kde.konqueror-4770 /konqueror/MainWindow_1 raise" will make the application try to raise itself, which may be blocked by the window manager (KWin blocks inactive windows that try to steal the focus or get attention in other ways), however "wmiface raiseWindow 60817415" will raise the window, because now the window manager is told directly.
See the README file for more details.
Three examples:
Launch Konqueror showing http://kde.org, close it after 10 seconds
while true; do sleep 10 desktop=$(wmiface currentDesktop) total=$(wmiface numberOfDesktops) if test $desktop = $total; then wmiface setCurrentDesktop 1 else wmiface setCurrentDesktop $(( desktop + 1 )) fi done
Minimize all KWrite windows
wmiface findNormalWindows "" " Kwrite" "" "" 0 false | while read ln; do wmiface minimize $ln doneLast changelog:
2.1: - support for Qt4 versions older than 4.4.0 2.0: - Qt4 version
wmiface does not seem to work on suse11.1
> dcop kded wmiface
object 'wmiface' in application 'kded' not accessible
> kwin --version
Qt: 3.3.8b
KDE: 3.5.10 "release 21.11"
KWin: 3.0
will there be any fix for current versions of kde3
thanks!
I made a quick ebuild for it, too :
# Copyright 1999-2006 Gentoo Foundation
# Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
# $Header:$
inherit kde
DESCRIPTION="Window Manager DCOP interface for Kwin or any EWMH-compatible window manager that's running in kde"
HOMEPAGE="http://ktown.kde.org/~seli/wmiface/"
LICENSE="GPL-2"
SLOT="0"
IUSE=""
SRC_URI="http://ktown.kde.org/~seli/wmiface/wmiface-0.1.tar.bz2"
KEYWORDS="~x86"
need-kde 3.5
Is there any further and comprehensive documentation about WMIface?
What do the 6 parameters of the findNormalWindows method stand for?
Are there any other functions than those mentioned in the few specific examples?
Why does kdcop not show these methods? Is there a good source about dcop scripting in general?
dcop scripting(bash) & further links (Konsole DCOP Scheme Automation Tool):
for KDE apps only; activate & maximize(fullscreen) application main window; konqueror-openURL
http://de.kde-apps.org/content/show.php/DCOP+Script?content=52463&PHPSESSID=4f2416ea14cc1a505e1dae7856f80e27
wmiface dcop scripting with bash (wapp):
application preloading; summon appwin to current working area; uses kwin/wmiface only - for all apps (Firefox, Ding, ...)
http://de.kde-apps.org/content/show.php/wapp?content=64961&PHPSESSID=4f2416ea14cc1a505e1dae7856f80e27
This is just a great achievement/improvement if you ask me. I once tried xfwm4 (Xfce's Window Manager) and I loved the decorations/themes for it so much better than those of KWin.
'Though KDE gave me the opportunity to change the window manager (using the KDEWM variable in the ~/.bashrc); KPager didn't allow me to switch my desktops any more, the WindowList applet didn't function anymore etc.
Now it is just a question of writing a few bash scripts to do those things.
Using xfwm4 again (^-^)
Thank you very much/Hartelijk bedankt,
twosouls82
It was, basically. Yeah, I know I said in the bugreport it'd mean just adding DCOP calls to KWin :-/ , but this way it works even if one runs other WM[1] with KDE (e.g. Metacity), and in fact, as long as kdeinit is running, it can work even outside of KDE (it's be rather funny to see some GNOME people scripting Metacity this way to get around some lacking Metacity features ;) ).
[1] http://ktown.kde.org/~seli/kdewm/
Ratings & Comments
10 Comments
What about wmiface on KDE4?
wmiface does not seem to work on suse11.1 > dcop kded wmiface object 'wmiface' in application 'kded' not accessible > kwin --version Qt: 3.3.8b KDE: 3.5.10 "release 21.11" KWin: 3.0 will there be any fix for current versions of kde3
thanks! I made a quick ebuild for it, too : # Copyright 1999-2006 Gentoo Foundation # Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2 # $Header:$ inherit kde DESCRIPTION="Window Manager DCOP interface for Kwin or any EWMH-compatible window manager that's running in kde" HOMEPAGE="http://ktown.kde.org/~seli/wmiface/" LICENSE="GPL-2" SLOT="0" IUSE="" SRC_URI="http://ktown.kde.org/~seli/wmiface/wmiface-0.1.tar.bz2" KEYWORDS="~x86" need-kde 3.5
Is there any further and comprehensive documentation about WMIface? What do the 6 parameters of the findNormalWindows method stand for? Are there any other functions than those mentioned in the few specific examples? Why does kdcop not show these methods? Is there a good source about dcop scripting in general?
There is a complete documentation in the README shipped with the tarball.
dcop scripting(bash) & further links (Konsole DCOP Scheme Automation Tool): for KDE apps only; activate & maximize(fullscreen) application main window; konqueror-openURL http://de.kde-apps.org/content/show.php/DCOP+Script?content=52463&PHPSESSID=4f2416ea14cc1a505e1dae7856f80e27 wmiface dcop scripting with bash (wapp): application preloading; summon appwin to current working area; uses kwin/wmiface only - for all apps (Firefox, Ding, ...) http://de.kde-apps.org/content/show.php/wapp?content=64961&PHPSESSID=4f2416ea14cc1a505e1dae7856f80e27
This is just a great achievement/improvement if you ask me. I once tried xfwm4 (Xfce's Window Manager) and I loved the decorations/themes for it so much better than those of KWin. 'Though KDE gave me the opportunity to change the window manager (using the KDEWM variable in the ~/.bashrc); KPager didn't allow me to switch my desktops any more, the WindowList applet didn't function anymore etc. Now it is just a question of writing a few bash scripts to do those things. Using xfwm4 again (^-^) Thank you very much/Hartelijk bedankt, twosouls82
:s before I got to write the scripts KPager worked already. How could this be?
Why not include this interface in kwin (See #34882)? (I don't think "it work with any EWMH-compatible window manager" was the only argument, no?)
It was, basically. Yeah, I know I said in the bugreport it'd mean just adding DCOP calls to KWin :-/ , but this way it works even if one runs other WM[1] with KDE (e.g. Metacity), and in fact, as long as kdeinit is running, it can work even outside of KDE (it's be rather funny to see some GNOME people scripting Metacity this way to get around some lacking Metacity features ;) ). [1] http://ktown.kde.org/~seli/kdewm/