Conky to show current i3 workspaces. i3-msg script [SOLVED]

Question

Currently I have conky piped to i3 bar. i3 bar shows workspaces on it's own, I like this functionality but it overlaps with the conky output. I set workspace buttons off but of course i have no way of seeing workspaces. So in short I want conky  to display all the open workspaces and highlight the current one. the solution i have come up with is to use the command
i3-msg -t get_workspaces
which displays an output like
[{"num":1,"name":"1","visible":false,"focused":false,"rect":{"x":0,"y":19,"width":1366,"height":749},"output":"LVDS1","urgent":false},{"num":2,"name":"2","visible":false,"focused":false,"rect":{"x":0,"y":19,"width":1366,"height":749},"output":"LVDS1","urgent":false},{"num":3,"name":"3","visible":false,"focused":false,"rect":{"x":0,"y":19,"width":1366,"height":749},"output":"LVDS1","urgent":false},{"num":4,"name":"4","visible":false,"focused":false,"rect":{"x":0,"y":19,"width":1366,"height":749},"output":"LVDS1","urgent":false},{"num":5,"name":"5","visible":true,"focused":true,"rect":{"x":0,"y":19,"width":1366,"height":749},"output":"LVDS1","urgent":false}]
so if i could pipe it to grep or form a sort of script to filter out the numbers and which desktop is visible i could easily put it into conky but i am not sure how to go about create such a script. Once i have the script i could easily create my conkyrc to give the desired output but i am not sure where to start with such a script.
Last edited by jaredanderson (2013-08-18 08:15:33)

Answer 1

To be honest never liked running two bars, takes up too much space. the jshon thing wasn't a hundred percent what i was looking for but it gave me a good base to build off of. my script looks like this.
#! /bin/bash
if [ $# -lt 1 ]
then
echo "no command"
exit
fi
case $1 in
"color")
color=`i3-msg -t get_workspaces | jshon -a -e name -u -p -e focused -u | paste -d ' ' - - | grep $2 | cut -c3-`
# set true and false to 0 and 1 for conky
#true and false determines highlight for workspace
if [ "$color" = "" ]; then
echo "null"
elif [ "$color" = "false" ]; then
echo "0"
elif [ "$color" = "true" ]; then
echo "1"
fi
"status")
stat=`i3-msg -t get_workspaces | jshon -a -e name -u | grep $2`
#shows if workspace entered exists
#only negative is tenth workspace is plotted to 0
if [ "$stat" = "" ]; then
echo "0"
else
echo $stat
fi
esac
there is probably an even better way to do this but this works for me.
I then added these lines to my conkyrc
"full_text":
${if_match ${exec ~/.scripts/i3wc status 1}>0}
"1",
${else} "",
${endif}
"color":
${if_match ${exec ~/.scripts/i3wc color 1}<1}"\#2aa198"${else}
${if_match ${exec ~/.scripts/i3wc color 1}>0}"\#cb4b16"${else}
"\#ffffff"
${endif}
${endif}
a slight draw back is this makes my conkyrc gargantuan because I have to insert this set individually for all nine workspaces.
but it shows all workspaces and highlights the current one which is exactly what 'i wanted so I can't complain. thanks for the help progandy never would have done it without you.
probably could remove the final else in the conkyrc under color. color wouldn't be use because no text is output
Last edited by jaredanderson (2013-08-18 08:27:24)