Using Xlib via JNA to move a window
- by rob
I'm using JNA to manipulate application windows on Linux by sending Xlib messages but can't seem to move a window.
My original implementation executed wmctrl on the shell to move the windows and that successfully moved the windows. Unfortunately, there's a noticeable amount of overhead associated with calling shell programs from Java, so now I'm trying to make direct API calls using JNA. I'm using the X11 example available from the JNA website and can successfully do a few tricks, such as enumerating the window IDs and reading window properties, so I know JNA+Xlib is at least partially working.
First I tried moving the windows directly using XMoveWindow() but the window manager was apparently blocking those calls.
I ran across a thread that suggested I needed to send a client message using XSendMessage(), so I've done that below, but apparently XSendMessage() is failing because the window doesn't move and I get a return value of 0. I'm guessing I omitted something obvious, but can't quite figure it out. Any suggestions?
Note that, for the purposes of this example, the main method has a window ID hard-coded. This is the window ID of the window I'm trying to move (obtained using wmctrl -l on the console).
import com.sun.jna.NativeLong;
import com.sun.jna.Pointer;
import com.sun.jna.examples.unix.X11;
import com.sun.jna.examples.unix.X11.Atom;
import com.sun.jna.examples.unix.X11.AtomByReference;
import com.sun.jna.examples.unix.X11.Display;
import com.sun.jna.examples.unix.X11.Window;
import com.sun.jna.examples.unix.X11.WindowByReference;
import com.sun.jna.examples.unix.X11.XEvent;
import com.sun.jna.examples.unix.X11.XTextProperty;
import com.sun.jna.examples.unix.X11.XWindowAttributes;
import com.sun.jna.ptr.IntByReference;
import com.sun.jna.ptr.NativeLongByReference;
import com.sun.jna.ptr.PointerByReference;
private static final int FALSE = 0; /** C-style boolean "false" */
private static final int TRUE = 1; /** C-style boolean "true" */
public static void main(String[] args) {
setWindowPos(new Window(0x01300007), 100, 100, 600, 400); // update the Window constructor with the appropriate ID given by wmctrl -l
}
public static boolean setWindowPos(Window window, int x, int y, int w, int h) {
final X11 x11 = X11.INSTANCE;
Display display = x11.XOpenDisplay(null);
NativeLong mask = new NativeLong(X11.SubstructureRedirectMask | X11.SubstructureNotifyMask | X11.ResizeRedirectMask);
XEvent event = new XEvent();
String msg = "_NET_MOVERESIZE_WINDOW"; //$NON-NLS-1$
long grflags = 0l; // use the default gravity of the window
if (x != -1) grflags |= (1 << 8);
if (y != -1) grflags |= (1 << 9);
if (w != -1) grflags |= (1 << 10);
if (h != -1) grflags |= (1 << 11);
event.xclient.type = X11.ClientMessage;
event.xclient.serial = new NativeLong(0l);
event.xclient.send_event = TRUE;
event.xclient.message_type = x11.XInternAtom(display, msg, false);
event.xclient.window = window;
event.xclient.format = 32;
event.xclient.data.l[0] = new NativeLong(grflags); // gravity flags
event.xclient.data.l[1] = new NativeLong(x);
event.xclient.data.l[2] = new NativeLong(y);
event.xclient.data.l[3] = new NativeLong(w);
event.xclient.data.l[4] = new NativeLong(h);
int status = x11.XSendEvent(display, x11.XDefaultRootWindow(display), FALSE, mask, event);
x11.XFlush(display); // need to XFlush if we're not reading X events
if (status == 0) { // 0 indicates XSendEvent failed
logger.error("setWindowPos: XSendEvent failed (" + msg + ")"); //$NON-NLS-1$
return false;
}
return true;
}
