xfce4-docklike-plugin — Patched

A patched build of xfce4-docklike-plugin for Linux Mint / Ubuntu (Noble 24.04, amd64) with icon consistency fixes and a styled window count badge.

What's Changed

1. Consistent Icons (Dock ↔ Popup ↔ Whisker ↔ Desktop)

Problem: The popup menu showed the window's own icon (xfw_window_get_icon), while the dock button used the theme icon from the .desktop file. This caused mismatches — especially for apps like Software Manager (mintinstall.py).

Fix: GroupMenuItem::updateIcon() now uses the same .desktop theme icon as the dock button, with a fallback to the window icon if no .desktop match is found.

Before: dock button = 🟢 theme icon | popup = ❌ window icon (different)
After:  dock button = 🟢 theme icon | popup = 🟢 theme icon (same)

2. WM_CLASS Extension Stripping

Problem: Apps like mintinstall.py, appname.sh, or Wine .exe apps have file extensions in their WM_CLASS, which prevents matching against .desktop filenames (e.g. mintinstall).

Fix: AppInfos::search() now strips common scripting extensions (.py, .sh, .rb, .pl, .exe) before lookup — so Mintinstall.py → mintinstall → matches mintinstall.desktop.

Extensions stripped:

.py — Python apps (e.g. Software Manager, Timeshift)
.sh — Shell scripts
.rb — Ruby apps
.pl — Perl apps
.exe — Wine apps

3. Window Count Badge (CSS Styled)

Problem: The window count label had no default styling — it appeared as plain text overlapping the icon.

Fix: Added default CSS for .window_count in Theme.hpp:

Pill-shaped badge (border-radius: 999px)
Semi-transparent background using GTK theme colors
Hidden automatically when ≤ 2 windows (via gtk_widget_hide)
Only visible when > 2 windows of the same app are open

.window_count {
  background-color: alpha(@menu_item_bgcolor_hover, 0.85);
  color: @menu_item_color;
  border-radius: 999px;
  font-size: 9px;
  min-width: 10px;
  min-height: 10px;
  padding: 0px;
  margin: 0px;
}

You can override this in ~/.config/xfce4-docklike-plugin/gtk.css.

Installation

Pre-built .deb (Linux Mint 22 / Ubuntu 24.04 Noble, amd64)

sudo apt install ./xfce4-docklike-plugin-patched_0.5.1-1_amd64.deb
xfce4-panel -r

Note: Uses Conflicts: xfce4-docklike-plugin — will replace the system package. No prior installation needed.

Build from Source

Prerequisites

sudo apt install git meson ninja-build g++ \
  libgtk-3-dev libxfce4panel-2.0-dev libxfce4ui-2-dev \
  libxfce4util-dev libxfce4windowing-dev libxfce4windowingui-dev \
  libglib2.0-dev

Clone & Build

git clone https://github.com/newman2x/xfce4-docklike-plugin-patched.git
cd xfce4-docklike-plugin-patched
meson setup build
cd build
ninja

Install

sudo cp src/libdocklike.so \
  /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xfce4/panel/plugins/libdocklike.so
xfce4-panel -r

Files Changed

File	Change
`src/GroupMenuItem.cpp`	`updateIcon()` — use `.desktop` theme icon instead of window icon
`src/AppInfos.cpp`	`search()` — strip `.py/.sh/.rb/.pl/.exe` from WM_CLASS before matching
`src/Group.cpp`	`updateStyle()` — hide label widget when ≤ 2 windows
`src/Theme.hpp`	`DEFAULT_THEME` — add `.window_count` CSS badge styling

CSS Customization

Complete reference for styling via ~/.config/xfce4-docklike-plugin/gtk.css

Theme Variables

Defined at runtime from the current GTK theme:

Variable	Description
`@menu_bgcolor`	Popup menu background color
`@menu_item_color`	Menu item text color
`@menu_item_color_hover`	Menu item text color on hover
`@menu_item_bgcolor_hover`	Menu item background color on hover
`@active_indicator_color`	Active window indicator color
`@inactive_indicator_color`	Inactive window indicator color

Selector Tree

#docklike-plugin                          the entire plugin widget
└── .group                                each app button in the dock
    ├── .open_group                       has at least 1 open window
    ├── .active_group                     currently focused app
    ├── .hover_group                      mouse hovering over button
    ├── .drop_target                      drag-and-drop highlight
    └── .window_count                     badge showing window count
                                          only visible when > 1 window
                                          position: bottom-right (GTK_ALIGN_END)

.xfce-docklike-window                     the floating popup window
└── .menu                                 menu container box
                                          background: @menu_bgcolor
    └── .menu_item                        one row per open window
        ├── .active_menu_item             row of currently focused window
        ├── .hover_menu_item              row being hovered
        └── grid                          3-column layout inside the row
            │
            ├── col 0, row 0  .icon       app icon (from .desktop file)
            │                             size controlled in updateIcon()
            │                             fallback: window's own icon
            │
            ├── col 1, row 0  .title      window title text
            │                             ellipsized at end if too long
            │                             width: gtk_label_set_width_chars()
            │                             active window = bold markup <b>
            │                             minimized window = italic markup <i>
            │
            ├── col 2, row 0  button      close button ✕
            │                             icon: "window-close"
            │                             no border (GTK_RELIEF_NONE)
            │
            └── col 0-2, row 1  .preview  window thumbnail screenshot
                                          spans all 3 columns (full width)
                                          hidden when window is minimized
                                          scale: Settings::previewScale
                                          refresh: Settings::previewSleep ms
                                          X11 only — not available on Wayland

Grid Layout

┌──────────┬────────────────────────┬──────────┐  ← row 0
│  .icon   │        .title          │  button  │
├──────────┴────────────────────────┴──────────┤  ← row 1
│                  .preview                    │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────┘
  col 0          col 1               col 2

Full CSS Example

/* ── Dock Buttons ─────────────────────────────────── */

#docklike-plugin {
  /* the whole plugin */
}

.group {
  border-radius: 6px;
}

.open_group {
  box-shadow: inset 0px -3px 0px 0px @inactive_indicator_color;
}

.active_group {
  box-shadow: inset 0px -3px 0px 0px @active_indicator_color;
  background-color: alpha(@active_indicator_color, 0.1);
}

.hover_group {
  background-color: alpha(@menu_item_bgcolor_hover, 0.2);
}

.drop_target {
  box-shadow: inset 0px -3px 0px 0px @active_indicator_color;
}

/* Window count badge */
.window_count {
  background-color: alpha(@menu_item_bgcolor_hover, 0.85);
  color: @menu_item_color;
  border-radius: 999px;
  border: 1px solid alpha(@menu_item_color, 0.5);
  font-size: 10px;
  min-width: 16px;
  min-height: 16px;
  padding: 0px;
  margin: 2px;
}


/* ── Popup Menu ───────────────────────────────────── */

.xfce-docklike-window .menu {
  margin: 0px;
  padding: 0px;
  border: 0px;
  background-color: @menu_bgcolor;
}

.xfce-docklike-window .menu_item {
  padding: 4px 6px;
}

.xfce-docklike-window .menu_item grid {
  margin: 0px;
  padding: 0px;
}

/* Hovered row */
.xfce-docklike-window .hover_menu_item {
  background-color: alpha(@menu_item_bgcolor_hover, 0.2);
}

/* Focused window row */
.xfce-docklike-window .active_menu_item {
  background-color: alpha(@active_indicator_color, 0.15);
}

/* App icon */
.xfce-docklike-window .menu_item .icon {
  margin-right: 4px;
}

/* Window title */
.xfce-docklike-window .menu_item .title {
  font-size: 11px;
  color: @menu_item_color;
}

/* Close button */
.xfce-docklike-window .menu_item button {
  padding: 0px;
  margin: 0px;
}

/* Preview thumbnail */
.xfce-docklike-window .menu_item .preview {
  margin: 4px 2px 2px 2px;
  border-radius: 6px;
  border: 1px solid alpha(@menu_item_color, 0.15);
}

Notes

CSS file: ~/.config/xfce4-docklike-plugin/gtk.css
Reload: xfce4-panel -r
The .xfce-docklike-window prefix is required for popup menu selectors
Dock button selectors (.group, .window_count) do not need the prefix
The indicator bar/dot/circle is drawn with Cairo — not styleable via CSS
Preview thumbnails are X11 only — Wayland does not support foreign window capture

Upstream

This is a patch on top of the official xfce4-docklike-plugin v0.5.1 by Nicolas Szabo and David Keogh, licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 1,108 Commits
po		po
src		src
.clang-format		.clang-format
.gitlab-ci.yml		.gitlab-ci.yml
.scan-build-false-positives		.scan-build-false-positives
AUTHORS		AUTHORS
COPYING		COPYING
NEWS		NEWS
Original_README.md		Original_README.md
README.md		README.md
TODO.md		TODO.md
meson.build		meson.build
meson_options.txt		meson_options.txt
xfce-revision.h.in		xfce-revision.h.in

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Repository files navigation

xfce4-docklike-plugin — Patched

What's Changed

1. Consistent Icons (Dock ↔ Popup ↔ Whisker ↔ Desktop)

2. WM_CLASS Extension Stripping

3. Window Count Badge (CSS Styled)

Installation

Pre-built .deb (Linux Mint 22 / Ubuntu 24.04 Noble, amd64)

Build from Source

Prerequisites

Clone & Build

Install

Files Changed

CSS Customization

Theme Variables

Selector Tree

Grid Layout

Full CSS Example

Notes

Upstream

About

Uh oh!

Releases 1

Packages

Uh oh!

Contributors

Uh oh!

Languages

Folders and files

Latest commit

History

Repository files navigation

xfce4-docklike-plugin — Patched

What's Changed

1. Consistent Icons (Dock ↔ Popup ↔ Whisker ↔ Desktop)

2. WM_CLASS Extension Stripping

3. Window Count Badge (CSS Styled)

Installation

Pre-built .deb (Linux Mint 22 / Ubuntu 24.04 Noble, amd64)

Build from Source

Prerequisites

Clone & Build

Install

Files Changed

CSS Customization

Theme Variables

Selector Tree

Grid Layout

Full CSS Example

Notes

Upstream

About

Resources

License

Uh oh!

Stars

Watchers

Forks

Releases 1

Packages 0

Uh oh!

Contributors

Uh oh!

Languages

Packages