Common patterns

Various patterns that may not immediately be obvious to users reading the wiki.

Note

Examples may contain features exclusive to specific implementations or desktop environments.

Performing actions on inactive windows

Retrieve the window id from one of the variables, activate the window using a ActivateWindow, perform the action(s) and optionally restore the previously active window, whose ID is saved to the previous_window_id variable. Certain actions, such as InputAction may not function properly without a short delay after window activation.

actions: # actions of a trigger
  - activate_window: $window_under_pointer_id
  - sleep: 1
  - input:
      - keyboard: [ home ]
  - activate_window: $previous_window_id # Restore the previous window

actions: # actions of a trigger
  - activate_window: $window_under_pointer_id
  - input:
      - keyboard: [ leftmeta+pagedown ] # Minimize window shortcut, this one is handled by the compositor, so a delay is not required

actions: # actions of a trigger
  - activate_window: $window_under_pointer_id
  - plasma_shortcut: kwin,Window Close # Also handled by the compositor

Performing actions on a window the pointer is over at the beginning of a stroke gesture, but not at the end of it

The window_id, window_under_fingers_id and window_under_pointer_id may change during a gesture, making it impossible to access the original values at the end of the gesture. To solve this problem, the values of the aforementioned variables are copied to the initial_window_id, initial_window_under_fingers_id and initial_window_under_pointer_id variables after triggers are activated.

mouse:
  gestures:
    - type: stroke
      strokes: [ 'MQAAMTJkZAA=' ] # down
      mouse_buttons: [ right ]

      actions:
        - activate_window: $initial_window_under_pointer_id
        - plasma_shortcut: kwin,Window Close

See the Performing actions on inactive windows section for more information.