Feature request: Preference for switch of focus

[ingokeck]

Dear Bjoern,
Thanks a lot for continuing to support this extension! It really helps a lot to keep sane when using Gnome together with messaging programs that send notifications anytime a new message arrives.

I think it might be good to have the possibility to not change the focus to the app window. The reason is that, for example, if the user is typing something in, the newly focussed window gets the typestrokes. If you are typing in a password at the moment, that is more than a simple problem.

Would it be possible just to raise the window and not to change the focus? Maybe also as setting/preference?

Thanks!

[bdaase]

Hey Ingo, thanks for the time to report this feature!

I am not quite sure, whether I did fully understand your use-case: Do you want to bring up the window corresponding to the notification but that window should not be focused? What would be your next interaction then? Tab away from the window? Click into it to focus it explicitly?

It would really help if you would describe your wished work-flow a bit more so we can see what (and how) is doable.

[ingokeck]

The best for me would be to raise the window to the top, but not to give it the focus. Instead the focus should stay with the window where it is.

Example:
I am writing in the terminal. A notification comes in (for example Skype).

Behaviour right now:
The window with the notification (for example Skype) is raised and the focus switched to this window. All keystrokes now go to the window with the notification (Skype) instead of the terminal. Problem: I just happen to type in my password in the Terminal and hit the enter key, before realising that all keystrokes in the last second (i.e. the full password) went into the Skype chat instead of the Terminal.

What I would prefer:
The window with the notification (for example Skype) is raised, but the focus stays with the terminal window. My keystrokes continue to go to the terminal window, even if it is now below the raised window. If I want to interact with the raised window (skype), I will click on it, so it gets the focus. If it disturbs me, I will just move it away (so future notifications won't disturb me, while I will still notice them).

[bdaase]

Thanks for the detailed explanation!
Unfortunately, after consulting the corresponding gnome-shell code I do not see how this is (easily) achievable... :(

[Noremacam]

I thought of another way to fix the wrong window receiving keystrokes.What if it detects the user has typed within, for example, 1000 ms, it doesn't bring the new window forward? This prevents typing into the wrong window. Further, maybe a "Window is Ready" notification might make sense while typing.