expose windows switcher capability to create float menu

[YIHUI_LU]

I am impressed when I found this show window switcher action, it is amazing.
I heavily rely on opening multiple windows in same application, vs code, edge browser, terminals etc. I am very keen to explore implementing a "windows 10" type of task bar, that each opened application window will show as an icon and its document title, I still prefer windows 10 way to list opened same app documents in task bar rather than macbook docker.

I can achieve it if you expose the current windows switcher action as a function api call that can return icon, document title and an action for clicking, just like your current BTTActions.copyLaunchedApplicationsInFrontToBackOrder does, which fetches the latest apps. A similar style api function but to fetch your windows switcher content will be nice that I can combine it with float menu to create a windows 10 style task bar in macbook. Is it a valid request? Thanks.

[Andreas_Hegenberg]

yeah good idea, I just need to make the function that retrieves the windows and the function that activates a window available to Java Script. Will do that with the next alpha, maybe this evening!

[YIHUI_LU]

EXACTLY! That will be too perfect to me to think you can do it so fast. Really look forward to it

[Andreas_Hegenberg]

I just exposed it without modification in v 4.769 alpha (uploading now), might already do the trick but might be a bit hard to understand the output:

async function someJavaScriptFunction() {
		return JSON.stringify(await BTTActions.getAllStandardWindows());
}

It returns an array like this:

[

  {
    "kCGWindowOwnerPID": 1665,
    "kCGWindowOwnerName": "Spotify",
    "kCGWindowAlpha": 1,
    "kCGWindowSharingState": 1,
    "kCGWindowStoreType": 1,
    "Space": -1,
    "kCGWindowNumber": 181,
    "kCGWindowName": "Spotify Premium",
    "AppIconPath": "/Applications/Spotify.app/Contents/Resources/Icon.icns",
    "RelativeScreen": 0,
    "kCGWindowMemoryUsage": 2272,
    "kCGWindowBounds": { "X": 455, "Height": 848, "Y": 201, "Width": 1189 },
    "kCGWindowLayer": 0,
    "Minimized": 1,
    "Order": 100000
  },
  {
    "kCGWindowOwnerPID": 1538,
    "kCGWindowOwnerName": "Sublime Text",
    "Order": 26,
    "kCGWindowAlpha": 1,
    "kCGWindowSharingState": 1,
    "kCGWindowStoreType": 1,
    "Space": -1,
    "kCGWindowNumber": 119,
    "AppIconPath": "/Applications/Sublime Text.app/Contents/Resources/Sublime Text.icns",
    "kCGWindowName": "[",
    "RelativeScreen": 0,
    "kCGWindowMemoryUsage": 2272,
    "kCGWindowBounds": { "X": 297, "Height": 873, "Y": 195, "Width": 1212 },
    "kCGWindowLayer": 0,
    "kCGWindowIsOnscreen": true,
    "Minimized": 2
  }
]

To activate a window use this:

async function someJavaScriptFunction() {
// replace kCGWindowNumber and kCGWindowOwnerPID with what you got above
	return await BTTActions.activateWindowWithNumberRaiseAppID(kCGWindowNumber, true, kCGWindowOwnerPID)
}

[YIHUI_LU]

In the middle of implementation, it looks promising. I follow below logic:

• group same app together
• if it is the only window, show only app icon
• if there are more than 1 window, show title, and shorten its length if it is too long
• active window(based upon smallest order) is shown with lightgreenbackground (need enhancement)
  
  

before I proceed to tune it better, i have three questions:

1. right now I am relying on the script executing every 5 seconds to scan the current opening windows and refresh the taskbar. is there a better event triggering way based upon activating different window, opening new window and closing exist window?
2. is there a way to know which window is the current active window? I am right now based upon Order number, but it seems it is only working for the macbook builtin screen, i mean if i activate a window in my external monitor, its order is not change to smallest, why?
3. Is there a way to know the position of the window is in which screen? if it is possible, i can achieve that show different content taskbar in different monitor and only show the windows in that monitor

Anyway, I already get it working to my expectation. It is super like a windows 10 taskbar now, I can trigger which window to open by clicking. I share my script for your scrutiny, please note those button template uuid are the few invisible buttons I put inside the floating menu to show different status: title/no title, activate/inactivate.

Finally I can completely hide the native mac docker bar and use instead this BTT float menu, I am happy to get rid of the dock bar!

async function someJavaScriptFunction() {
let openWindows = await BTTActions.getAllStandardWindows();
let menuItems = openWindows.map((eachWindow, index) => {
return {
"icon": path::${eachWindow.AppIconPath}::width@@40,
"title": eachWindow.kCGWindowName,
"appName": eachWindow.kCGWindowOwnerName,
"Order": eachWindow.Order,
"kCGWindowNumber": eachWindow.kCGWindowNumber,
"kCGWindowOwnerPID": eachWindow.kCGWindowOwnerPID,
"action": js::(async () => {BTTActions.activateWindowWithNumberRaiseAppID(${eachWindow.kCGWindowNumber}, true, ${eachWindow.kCGWindowOwnerPID})})(),
};
});

menuItems.sort((a, b) => a.appName.localeCompare(b.appName));

const appNameCounts = menuItems.reduce((acc, item) => {
    acc[item.appName] = (acc[item.appName] || 0) + 1;
    return acc;
}, {});

const smallestOrder = Math.min(...menuItems.map(item => item.Order));

const resultMenuItems = menuItems.map(item => {
    if (appNameCounts[item.appName] === 1) {
        return { ...item, title: "", templateItemUUID: (item.Order === smallestOrder) ? "49B1E707-AD35-485E-9C36-7CA5133B95F7" : "50322501-3495-4D48-97CC-1F1193D5F657" };
    } else {
        const newTitle = item.title.length > 8 ? item.title.slice(0, 8) + ".." : item.title;
        return { ...item, title: newTitle, templateItemUUID: (item.Order === smallestOrder) ? "45EB672D-91FB-4D8B-B04C-E9D24DCC6B97" : "A506E4C6-09CA-4490-8ADA-DFE408E29B25" };
    }
    return item;  // Keep title unchanged if there are duplicates
});
return JSON.stringify(resultMenuItems);

}

[Andreas_Hegenberg]

You can get the active window number by reading this variable:

let activeWin = await get_number_variable("BTTActiveWindowNum")

You could run the script e.g. with the "focused window changed" trigger in the "Automations, Named & Other Triggers" section. You can use the predefined action "Run Content Retrieval Script For Floating Menu"

[YIHUI_LU]

I put my current work in preset sharing forum. right now i am using the window order and its windows boundary to pick the active window.

There are still a lot can be enhanced if you find any resolution for the previous asks.
Right now I have the main taskbar in builtin screen for showing all windows and differentiate their color based upon the screen they are in. In my own laptop i also duplicate and create one specifically for my external screen to only show windows in that screen.

If you have a chance to try the preset, let me know how to improve it. Thanks very much

[YIHUI_LU]

I found it is BTT's limit right now it can not monitor mac os event and use the event as trigger, which is important to this small taskbar i am developing. I am forced to use polling to refresh its content.
I research and found that i can do it with hammerspoon, who is a very lite tool that can monitor mac os windows open/close/move/focus change. By using hammerspoon plus btt I have achieved a very responsive taskbar now.
I can not put hammerspoon config into btt preset. So I just share its script below. basically I use hammerspoon to listent to windows event then trigger a BTT named trigger, and that named trigger just run the floating menu content retrieval script. I am happy with current result. Below is the hammerspoon config file init.lua

-- Create a window filter to listen for window events
local wf = hs.window.filter.new()

-- Function to trigger the BTT named action via AppleScript
function triggerBTTNamedAction()
hs.osascript.applescript([[
tell application "BetterTouchTool"
trigger_named "reevaluate win10 taskbar"
end tell
]])
end

function isNotFromBTT(win)
local appName = win:application():name()
return appName ~= "BetterTouchTool" -- Only proceed if the app is not BTT
end

-- Function to show an alert when a window is opened
function windowOpened(win)
if isNotFromBTT(win) then
-- hs.alert.show("Window opened: " .. win:title())
triggerBTTNamedAction()
end
-- triggerBTTNamedAction()
end

-- Function to show an alert when a window is closed
function windowClosed(win)
if isNotFromBTT(win) then
-- hs.alert.show("Window closed: " .. win:title())
triggerBTTNamedAction()
end
-- triggerBTTNamedAction()
end

-- Function to show an alert when the active window changes
function windowFocused(win)
if isNotFromBTT(win) then
-- hs.alert.show("Window focused: " .. win:title())
triggerBTTNamedAction()
end

-- triggerBTTNamedAction()

end

-- Function to show an alert when a window is moved
function windowMoved(win)
if isNotFromBTT(win) then
-- hs.alert.show("Window moved: " .. win:title())
triggerBTTNamedAction()
end

-- triggerBTTNamedAction()

end

-- Subscribe to window creation (opened), destruction (closed), focus change, and movement events
wf:subscribe(hs.window.filter.windowCreated, windowOpened)
wf:subscribe(hs.window.filter.windowDestroyed, windowClosed)
wf:subscribe(hs.window.filter.windowFocused, windowFocused)
wf:subscribe(hs.window.filter.windowMoved, windowMoved)

[Andreas_Hegenberg]

did you see all the app change&window focus triggers in the „automations, named & other triggers section“?

[YIHUI_LU]

oh, I really did not know that. I really can simply use "focused window did change" only to run content retrieval script. It basically covers window new/close/focus change

the only case is not covered is window move from one screen to another screen, since right now the taskbar shows where each window is where, I hope this event trigger is also possible in BTT itself.
But yeh, it is almost all can be done in BTT.