XFCE Panel: MacOS-like Launchpad Behavior

April 16, 2023

Overview

Clicking an app in the XCFE panel often opens new instance of an app, even the app is already running. For me, that's a bug. In macOS for instance, clicking a running app in launchpad shifts focus to that app. Here's how to make XFCE panel behave more intuitively.

Gallery

Script: Activate Don't Duplicate

Create a script like the one below for each app in your XFCE panel:

#!/bin/bash

# Check if "Firefox" is in any window title
if wmctrl -l | grep -q "Firefox"; then
    # Get window ID from wmctrl -l
    running_app=$(wmctrl -l | grep "Firefox" | head -n1 | awk '{print $1}')
    # Activate the already running app
    wmctrl -i -a "$running_app"
else
    # Original XFCE Launcher command from Properties > Edit Launcher
    exo-open --launch WebBrowser
fi

The script requires wmctrl which may not be installed:

sudo apt install wmctrl

Save the script wherever you want. Make sure it's executable:

chmod +x /wherever/you/want/script.sh

In the example script, change "Firefox" in all grep commands to match the relevant window title of the target app. You can hover over a running app in the toolbar to see its window title. The title will be long and specific to a browser tab title, filename, etc, but all that matters is the app name. grep "<window-title>" only matches the part of the title you specify. Alternatively, the command wmctrl -l will list all open windows.

Open the panel launcher item's config to grab the default command that's run with each clic. Add it after the else statement of the script. Then, change launcher command to to use your script. In other words:

  • Right click on the app icon
  • Click "Properties"
  • Click icon "Edit the currently selected item"
  • "Edit Launcher" window will open
  • Command: Add the existing command to the script
  • Command: /wherever/you/want/script.sh

License: CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed - You may copy, adapt, and use this work for any purpose, even commercial, but only if derivative works are distributed under the same license.

Category: Notes, Software