Can I set up my xfce workspaces differently?

If we limit the setup to have a different set of launchers per desktop it is not very complicated. What we need is a script, running in the background to keep track of the current workspace and automatically alter the set of launchers accordingly.

1. A set of launchers per workspace

Let’s say I have four workspaces, I want the following launchers to be available on the different workspaces:

workspace 1 > workspace 2 > workspace 3 > workspace 4 >

• Workspace 1: Firefox / Idle
• Workspace 2: Gcolor2 / Gimp Image Editor / Inkskape
• Workspace 3: Abiword / Gnumeric / Mail Reader
• Workspace 4: Mines / Sudoku

How to set up

1. The script uses wmctrl:

   sudo apt-get install wmctrl
   

2. In your home directory (not in a subdirectory, but on the “first” level), create a directory (exactly) named:

   desktop_data
   

   inside this directory, create for each of your desktops, a folder named (exactly):

   desktop_1
   desktop_2
   desktop_3
   desktop_4
   

   #!/usr/bin/env python3 import subprocess import os import time import shutil home = os.environ["HOME"] desktop_dir = home+"/"+"Desktop" data_dirstr = home+"/desktop_data/desktop_" get = lambda cmd: subprocess.check_output(["/bin/bash", "-c", cmd]).decode("utf-8") def get_desktop(): return [l for l in get("wmctrl -d").splitlines() if "*" in l][0].split()[-1] while True: curr_dt1 = get_desktop() time.sleep(1) curr_dt2 = get_desktop() # alter the set of launchers when workspace changes if not curr_dt1 == curr_dt2: datafolder = data_dirstr+curr_dt2 for f in [f for f in os.listdir(desktop_dir)if f.endswith(".desktop")]: subject = desktop_dir+"/"+f os.remove(subject) for f in os.listdir(datafolder): subject = datafolder+"/"+f; target = desktop_dir+"/"+f shutil.copyfile(subject, target) subprocess.call(["/bin/bash", "-c", "chmod +x "+target])

Note

In different localized versions of Ubuntu, the name of the “Desktop” folder may differ (In Dutch: “Bureaublad”). If in your Ubuntu version the name of the desktop folder is not “Desktop”, change it in the line:

desktop_dir = home+"/"+"Desktop"

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2. Extending possibilities, launchers and links

If we add a few lines to the script, the setting-per-workspace options can be extended with a altering set of links to directories:

On one workspace we have a e.g. a link to the Documents folder, combined with launchers of office applications:

On another workspace we have a link to the Pictures folder, combined with launchers of Image editors:

How to setup

The setup is pretty much the same as in option 1, but additionally, in the data folders (see option 1), create links to folders (using ln -s <source> <destination>) you’d like to be available on the corresponding workspace:

The script

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import subprocess
import os
import time
import shutil

home = os.environ["HOME"]
desktop_dir = home+"/"+"Desktop"
data_dirstr = home+"/desktop_data/desktop_"

get = lambda cmd: subprocess.check_output(["/bin/bash", "-c", cmd]).decode("utf-8")
def get_desktop():
    return [l for l in get("wmctrl -d").splitlines() if "*" in l][0].split()[-1]

while True:
    curr_dt1 = get_desktop()
    time.sleep(1)
    curr_dt2 = get_desktop()
    # alter the set of launchers & links when workspace changes
    if not curr_dt1 == curr_dt2:
        datafolder = data_dirstr+curr_dt2
        for f in os.listdir(desktop_dir):
            subject = desktop_dir+"/"+f
            if os.path.islink(subject) or subject.endswith(".desktop") :
                os.remove(subject) 
        for f in os.listdir(datafolder):
            subject = datafolder+"/"+f; target = desktop_dir+"/"+f
            if os.path.islink(subject):
                os.symlink(os.readlink(subject), target)
            else:
                shutil.copy(subject,target)