Chromium – Web-App Creation Issue in Ubuntu 12.10

Making a new Chromium profile for the app works around the problem (this is specific to 11.04, 11.10 fixes this issue at the Unity-level.):

To open a website as an app window, add --app=http://example.org to the launcher parameters for chromium. Making and using a new profile is as easy as adding --user-data-dir=/path/to/profile

As long as you put a different path to each web application they will be treated as separate applications.

• Reference blog post
• How do I put a web application on the Launcher?

I came up with this abomination (personal opinion... I'd just like for it to work with sh :) ) It has a few tricks, but is pretty robust for two Windows.. You could specify further windows too, but they have to be manually added by adding more "specificprofile1" along with the corresponding function.. Maybe someone could make it have more.. logic!

#!/bin/bash
# chromium-start.sh $1 
# e.g. put: 
# chrome-start.sh "Profile 1" to .desktop Exec=
# wmctrl -o 1366,0 ; chromium-browser %U --profile-directory=Profile\ 2 & sleep 3; wmctrl -o 0,0

# $1 = Profile folder name

profilename=$1

#2nd Chromium profile
specificprofile1="Profile 1"

echo "starting Chromium"
echo "args: " $1
echo "Profile name: " $profilename
echo "Specific profile: " $specificprofile1

# Just setting Chromium scaling variable, because of course Google Devs don't care about no fractional scaling on linux
scale_var=0.8

# Check if Chromium window with the specified class already exists
# Also allows using icons as "taskbar" switches (clicking icon takes to corresponding Chromium Window)
if wmctrl -l -x | grep "chromium-$profilename"
then
echo "Chromium Window exists, moving focus to it"
wmctrl -x -R chromium-"$profilename"
echo "true"

# Check if 2nd profile $specifiedprofile1 has been started yet or not. The WMCLASS(es) has to have been set correctly...
elif [[ "$specificprofile1" == "$profilename" ]] && [[ ! "`wmctrl -l -x | grep chromium-"$specificprofile1"`" ]]
then
    # TODO: Nesting
    if [ "$specificprofile1" == "$profilename" ]
    then
    echo $specificprofile1 "equals" $profilename
    fi
echo "#2 Chromium Window for $specificprofile1 does not exist"
# wmctrl moves to specific position of desktop (1366 means moving to the following workspace since my resolution is 1366x768)
# Be careful if using sleep timing, since the command needs to have enough time to execute to have the window in the correct workspace
wmctrl -o 1366,0
chromium-browser  --profile-directory="$profilename" --force-device-scale-factor=$scale_var %U &
# https://askubuntu.com/a/626524/654028
# Set's the chromium window which was opened latest to have a custom class, since Chromium doesn't care about the --class= flag...
# It has it's limitations, but should be robust enough for most use... Has not been tested long term.. Something probably could reset the WM_CLASS again
# xprop -id "$(wmctrl -l -x| grep "chromium-browser" | tail -n 1 |awk '{ print $1 }')" -f WM_CLASS 8s -set WM_CLASS "chromium-browser.chromium-$specificprofile1"

# Alternative method for checking if a window with specified class exists
# xprop -id "$(wmctrl -l -x| grep "chromium-$profilename" | tail -n 1 |awk '{ print $1 }')" | grep -o "WM_CLASS(STRING) = ".*"" | grep -o '".*"' | tr -d '"'

# https://stackoverflow.com/a/19441380/5776626
winrep=""
while [[ ! "`echo $winrep | grep -l "Map State: IsViewable"`" ]]
do
    winid="$(wmctrl -l -x| grep "chromium-$profilename" | tail -n 1 |awk '{ print $1 }')"
    # print $winid
    winrep="$(xwininfo -id $winid | grep -o 'Map State: IsViewable')"
    # print $winrep
    sleep 0.75
    xprop -id "$(wmctrl -l -x| grep "chromium-browser" | tail -n 1 |awk '{ print $1 }')" -f WM_CLASS 8s -set WM_CLASS "chromium-browser.chromium-$specificprofile1"
done
# sleep 3

# Move Window directly to workspace (#2 with 1366x768 resolution x = 1366), optionally comment out wmctrl -o 1366,0
# wmctrl -v -i -r $winid -e 0,1366,0,-1,-1

# sleep 5
# Move back to workspace #1
wmctrl -o 0,0


elif ! wmctrl -l -x | grep chromium-"$profilename"
then
echo "#3 Chromium Window $profilename does not exist"
wmctrl -o 0,0
chromium-browser  --profile-directory="$profilename" --force-device-scale-factor=$scale_var %U &


# https://askubuntu.com/a/626524/654028
# ....
# sleep 3

winrep=""
while [[ ! "`echo $winrep | grep -l "Map State: IsViewable"`" ]]
do
    winid="$(wmctrl -l -x| grep "chromium-$profilename" | tail -n 1 |awk '{ print $1 }')"
    # print $winid
    winrep="$(xwininfo -id $winid | grep -o 'Map State: IsViewable')"
    # print $winrep
    sleep 0.75
    xprop -id "$(wmctrl -l -x| grep "chromium-browser" | tail -n 1 |awk '{ print $1 }')" -f WM_CLASS 8s -set WM_CLASS "chromium-browser.chromium-$profilename"
done
wmctrl -o 0,0
# xprop -id "$(wmctrl -l -x| grep "chromium-browser" | tail -n 1 |awk '{ print $1 }')" -f WM_CLASS 8s -set WM_CLASS "chromium-browser.chromium-$profilename"
fi

Issues:

Printing gives errors (deprecation warnings..):

Unescaped left brace in regex is deprecated, passed through in regex; marked by <-- HERE in m/%{ <-- HERE (.*?)}/ at /usr/bin/print line 528.

For debugging you can use the following to print out the errors when using actual icons: https://askubuntu.com/a/664272/654028 (# The Manual alternative)

awk '/^Exec=/ {sub("^Exec=", ""); gsub(" ?%[cDdFfikmNnUuv]", ""); exit system($0)}' chrome-ws2.desktop

while loop bugs out, probably because of looping interval

Error: no such file "at while function"
xwininfo: error: -id requires argument
xprop: error: Invalid window id format: .
xwininfo: error: -id requires argument
xprop: error: Invalid window id format: .
xwininfo: error: -id requires argument
xprop: error: Invalid window id format: .

Also when clicking a corresponding .desktop icon too fast (before the custom class has been set ?), a new window will be opened..

(quite) Sometimes when starting from both Chromium too fast (~<3s), the class of the previously opened window gets reset to chromium-browser.chromium-browser.. Then you can expect the icons to have swapped around or other unexpected behavior.