i3 FAQ - Individual question feedhttps://faq.i3wm.org/questions/Frequently asked questions and answers about the i3 window managerenCopyright i3, 2012Wed, 21 Aug 2013 14:28:55 +0000Scratchpad indicator in the status bar?https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2393/scratchpad-indicator-in-the-status-bar/Hi. Is it possible to add an indicator in the status bar that shows up when there is a window in the scratchpad, similar to the workspace indicators? It would sometimes be useful to see whether there still is a window open "in the background" without opening the scratchpad. Thanks!Wed, 21 Aug 2013 09:50:50 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2393/scratchpad-indicator-in-the-status-bar/Comment by cee for <p>Hi. Is it possible to add an indicator in the status bar that shows up when there is a window in the scratchpad, similar to the workspace indicators? It would sometimes be useful to see whether there still is a window open "in the background" without opening the scratchpad. Thanks!</p> https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2393/scratchpad-indicator-in-the-status-bar/?comment=2394#comment-2394Good idea. I would like to see something like that.Wed, 21 Aug 2013 11:55:28 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2393/scratchpad-indicator-in-the-status-bar/?comment=2394#comment-2394Answer by bruno.braga for <p>Hi. Is it possible to add an indicator in the status bar that shows up when there is a window in the scratchpad, similar to the workspace indicators? It would sometimes be useful to see whether there still is a window open "in the background" without opening the scratchpad. Thanks!</p> https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2393/scratchpad-indicator-in-the-status-bar/?answer=2396#post-id-2396A bit dirty solution that works could be a simple script that you append to the i3status output (see man for details): #!/usr/bin/python import subprocess import simplejson def getNodes(data): result = 0 if data['scratchpad_state'] != 'none': result += 1 if (len(data['nodes']) > 0) or (len(data['floating_nodes']) > 0): for node in (data['nodes'] + data['floating_nodes']): result += getNodes(node) return result r = subprocess.check_output(["i3-msg", "-t", "get_tree"]) j = simplejson.loads(r) c = getNodes(j) if c > 0: print "S:%d" % c else: print '' You can save this simple script and call it with i3status, which should give similar result to what you are after. Wed, 21 Aug 2013 13:13:53 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2393/scratchpad-indicator-in-the-status-bar/?answer=2396#post-id-2396Comment by bruno.braga for <p>A bit dirty solution that works could be a simple script that you append to the i3status output (see man for details):</p> <pre><code>#!/usr/bin/python import subprocess import simplejson def getNodes(data): result = 0 if data['scratchpad_state'] != 'none': result += 1 if (len(data['nodes']) &gt; 0) or (len(data['floating_nodes']) &gt; 0): for node in (data['nodes'] + data['floating_nodes']): result += getNodes(node) return result r = subprocess.check_output(["i3-msg", "-t", "get_tree"]) j = simplejson.loads(r) c = getNodes(j) if c &gt; 0: print "S:%d" % c else: print '' </code></pre> <p>You can save this simple script and call it with i3status, which should give similar result to what you are after. </p> https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2393/scratchpad-indicator-in-the-status-bar/?comment=2401#comment-2401If you need to output to i3bar in colors, here is a solution that works nicely: https://gist.github.com/brunobraga/6076658 (see the comments)Wed, 21 Aug 2013 14:28:55 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2393/scratchpad-indicator-in-the-status-bar/?comment=2401#comment-2401