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Window Buttons Extension

This is an extension for Gnome 3 which puts minimize, maximize and close buttons in the top panel. Supports custom button layouts and css theming!

Screenshot
Current (14/Aug/2012) themes, top-to-bottom: default, Ambiance, Radiance, Zukwito, Zukwito-Dark

Configure with gnome-shell-extension-prefs (GNOME 3.4) or by editing extension.js (GNOME 3.2).

Author: biox (Josiah Messiah)
Maintainer: mathematical.coffee [email protected]

Note - the mathematicalcoffee fork of this extension is where development happens, and it all then gets pushed to the original biox repository.

Installation

NEW: Install it from extensions.gnome.org.

GNOME 3.4

Either download the .zip file from the Downloads page or checkout the code to the gnome3.4 branch.

If you have the .zip file, go to Gnome tweak tools --> Shell Extensions --> Install from zip file --> choose the zip file.

If you have the source code, copy the folder to the appropriate place:

$ cp [email protected] ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/

Configure using gnome-shell-extension-prefs. No shell restarts required.

GNOME 3.2

As above (but if you are checking out the code, use the gnome3.2 branch).

You will also have to add '[email protected]' to the org.gnome.shell enabled-extensions key.

NOTE: previous versions of this extension allowed you to copy a settings file to /usr/share to configure the extension with dconf-editor; this has been discontinued because the extension won't pass review on https://extensions.gnome.org if it asks you to do anything requiring root access like that.

You must configure by editing the extension.js file. You have to gnome-shell after making changes to extension.js.

Configuration

The following is an explanation of the configuration options available. For GNOME 3.2 folk trying to edit extension.js, there is a bit more explanation in that file.

Button order

This is the order of the buttons, for example minimize then maximize then close, or close then maximize then minimize. There are two settings that affect this: order and pinch.

The pinch setting is whether you want to pinch the order of the buttons from Metacity or Gnome shell:

  • PinchType.METACITY means the order will be taken from the key /apps/metacity/general/button_layout,
  • PinchType.GNOME_SHELL takes the order from /org/gnome/shell/overrides/button-layout,
  • PinchType.CUSTOM means you'll specify the order yourself.

If you choose PinchType.CUSTOM, then you have to specify order.

order is a string (default ':minimize, maximize, close') specifying button order. The available buttons are 'minimize', 'maximize', and 'close', separated by a comma.

The colon : splits the buttons into two groups: left and right. These can be positioned separately. For example, minimize:maximize, close will allow you to position the 'minimize' button separately to the 'maximize, close' buttons.

Themes

What theme to use for the buttons. There are two settings that control what theme is used: doMetacity and theme.

If doMetacity is set to true, window buttons will use whatever theme is in /apps/metacity/general/theme (if we have a matching theme). Otherwise, we we will use the theme setting to determine which theme to use.

Themes are stored in the themes directory of this extension, for example ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/[email protected]/themes. You must set the theme to one of these names. For further details see the 'Themes' section below.

When the buttons appear.

By default, the window buttons will be visible all the time unless you have no windows on your workspace, in which case they hide.

You can change this with the showbuttons setting.

  • ShowButtonsWhen.ALWAYS means the buttons will be shown all the time, even if there are no windows on the workspace.
  • ShowButtonsWhen.WINDOWS (the default) means the buttons will be shown if and only if there are windows on the workspace.
  • ShowButtonsWhen.WINDOWS_VISIBLE means the buttons will be shown if and only if there are visible (i.e. non-minimized) windows on the workspace.
  • ShowButtonsWhen.CURRENT_WINDOW_MAXIMIZED means the buttons will be shown if and only if the current window is maximized.
  • ShowButtonsWhen.ANY_WINDOW_MAXIMIZED means the buttons will be shown if and only if there are any maximized windows on the workspace. In this case, clicking on a window button will control the uppermost maximized window which is not necesserily the current window!.

Positioning the buttons in the panel

Recall you can position the left and right groups of buttons separately (determined by the colon ':' in order).

If you use GNOME 3.4, use gnome-shell-extension-prefs for the positioning - it's easier.

If you use GNOME 3.2, it's a little more confusing. See the following from extension.js.

const buttonPosition = {
    left: {
        // Position of the left group of buttons (if any). Change as you like.
        // Default: between the activities bar and the app menu, i.e. second
        //  item from the left in the left box.
        box: Boxes.LEFT,
        position: 2
    },

    right: {
        // Position of the right group of buttons (if any). Change as you like.
        // Default: after the title bar as far right as possible, i.e. the first
        // item from the left in the right box.
        box: Boxes.RIGHT,
        position: 1
    }
};

The position of a button group is determined by two factors: what box it is in, and what position it has within that box.

For the box:

  • Boxes.LEFT means in the left box (usually holds the activities and window title buttons)
  • Boxes.MIDDLE means the centre box (usually holds the date/time, unless you have an extension that moves the clock to the right for you).
  • Boxes.RIGHT means the right box (status area, user menu).

The position is a number representing whereabouts in the box you want the buttons to be.

For example 1 means 'first item from the left', 2 means 'second item from the left' and so on. If you want to anchor from the right, use a negative number: -1 means 'first item from the right' and so on.

More examples are in extension.js (for GNOME 3.2).

Themes

The Window Buttons extension is themeable. Themes live in the themes. The name of the directory is the name of the theme.

If you want to make your own theme, you have to add a folder into the themes directory. To start off, copy the default theme:

$ cd [email protected]/themes
$ cp -r default my_new_theme

Then, edit the style.css file to style the window buttons. At a bare minimum, you need to define styles for .window-button, .minimize, .maximize and .close.

The .window-button style affects each individual button. The .minimize, .maximize and .close styles define the styles for each individual button. You will have to do something like

background-img: url("path/to/picture")

for each button, and the picture should have the symbol for the button in it (i.e. we do not draw _, X, etc on the buttons).

See themes/default/style.css for more information.

Changelog

v3/v4 on e.g.o:

  • Add hover style for the 'default' theme (#4)
  • Fix bug in do-metacity option preventing extension enablement on 3.4.1 (#3)
  • "Maximized" windows means fully-maximized (not half-maximized) (#1)
  • Added more options for when the buttons show (#2)

To-do

  • Add unfocused window support for better theming
  • Modify themes so that we handle drawing the icon and only the background image need be provided?
  • Moar themes!

Version map

For 'version', see 'version' in metadata.json (this is the version of the extension as it appears/is planned for on extensions.gnome.org).

  • v1, v3: GNOME 3.2-compatible.
  • v2, v4: GNOME 3.4-compatible.