fix: do not use clipboard on X11 #42

reitzig · 2021-05-28T10:48:01Z

Implements #41 for X11.

reitzig · 2021-05-28T11:01:02Z

Maybe wtype could be used for Wayland, but I can't test that.

reitzig · 2021-05-28T11:56:45Z

emote/picker.py

-            os.system("xdotool key ctrl+v")
+        emojis = "".join(self.emoji_append_list)
+        if not config.is_wayland and self.current_window:
+            os.system(f"xdotool windowfocus '{self.current_window}' type --args 1 '{emojis}'")


Some remarks.

type alone after the sleep didn't work; indeed, the picker window stuck around so I think it received the type.

By explicitly targetting the window that was active before the picker came up, we can do away with the sleep.

Using windowfocus because type --window doesn't (always) work (neither here nor from the shell); cf. section SENDEVENT NOTES in man xdotool.

cf. issue tom-james-watson#41

reitzig · 2021-05-28T12:14:59Z

Testing this with "man shrugging":

With gedit as target:

No emoji font, looks legit.

Thunderbird:

Github:

Slack:

and sometimes

and sometimes nothing.

Tweetdeck:

But sometimes:

Apparently, type sometimes doesn't get through whatever bullshit "modern" web apps do with keyboard events before doing the actually expected thing, at least not fast enough. I never observed this with the clipboard variant.

Maybe a sleep is necessary after all? What's your experience?

I saw some improvement doing this:

os.system(f"xdotool windowfocus --sync '{self.current_window}'")
time.sleep(0.15)
os.system(f"xdotool type --args 1 '{emojis}'")

But the first "character" still got swallowed sometimes. 😪

tom-james-watson · 2021-06-13T10:07:40Z

Hello - thanks for your contribution!

I looked into this previously and there's no reliable way to do this on Wayland unfortunately. See atx/wtype#22 for why wtype doesn't work.

I think a better version of what you're trying to do would be to keep the app working the same as it does now, but then to copy back the original clipboard contents after pasting.

However at the moment the app also has some features that are designed around clipboard use. As an example, you can open the app, right click several emojis and then close the app with Esc. The selected emojis are appended to your clipboard as you select them, with the state of which are selected visible in the app. You then would paste those emojis into whatever app you are using. If the app were just selection of single emojis, maybe it would be easier to make this change.

I think if we were to change to restoring clipboard contents after pasting, the app would require some UX tweaks to make it so that the only way to interact with the app is to "finalize" a selection in a way that performs a paste. I would imagine that would also break some flows though where people are relying on having the emojis hang around in their clipboard.

djmattyg007 · 2021-07-04T02:41:57Z

emote/__init__.py

+            result = subprocess.run(
+                ['xdotool', 'getactivewindow'], 
+                capture_output = True,
+                check = True
+            )
+            return result.stdout.decode("utf-8").strip()


Depending on what versions of python are supported, it might be easier to use subprocess.check_output() with text=True.

djmattyg007 · 2021-07-04T02:42:36Z

emote/picker.py


    def add_emoji_to_recent(self, emoji):
        user_data.update_recent_emojis(emoji)
        emojis.update_recent_category()
-
+        


This change should probably be reverted.

mpsijm · 2023-01-17T21:02:43Z

I just installed Emote from the AUR. It took some manual work to apply the patch, ugly but works 😂 In case this helps anyone, I performed these steps:

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/emote.git
git clone https://github.com/mpsijm/Emote.git
In Emote: git diff master patch-1 > ../emote/pull-42
In emote: apply the below diff to PKGBUILD and makepkg -si

`PKGBUILD` diff

diff --git a/PKGBUILD b/PKGBUILD
index 780b156..79be016 100644
--- a/PKGBUILD
+++ b/PKGBUILD
@@ -14,11 +14,13 @@ source=(
   "https://github.com/tom-james-watson/Emote/archive/${_pkgref}.tar.gz"
   'setup.py'
   'fix-skin-tone-static-path.patch'
+  'pull-42.patch'
 )
 sha512sums=(
   'SKIP'
   'ef8caea8ad9e9bc0487dd8c816561027adda743c1e8e2779a64e7ae99fb227c820f31ef9c87fb910bae7a8ffc623e5e2e1a53a8c69ce0a35ad96557e97a5a949'
   '52d3dce0cecfe62ccc4469b4b35b27c8332d6dce2d1e2dd5603c85a3025fb4a415df303eaaace5579c4204923cbd8d86846deb1026a01f8b201452453c61746f'
+  'SKIP'
 )
 
 build() {
@@ -26,6 +28,8 @@ build() {
   mv -f "$srcdir/setup.py" "$srcdir/Emote-$_pkgref/setup.py"
   # Fix skin tone and `static/` path issues when not running as a snap
   patch -d "$srcdir/Emote-$_pkgref" -p1 <"$srcdir/fix-skin-tone-static-path.patch"
+  # Apply patch from https://github.com/tom-james-watson/Emote/pull/42
+  patch -d "$srcdir/Emote-$_pkgref" -p1 <"$srcdir/pull-42.patch"
   # Move static files into the library
   mv -T "$srcdir/Emote-$_pkgref/static" "$srcdir/Emote-$_pkgref/emote/static"
   # Fix .desktop file

Testing this with "man shrugging":

[...]

Apparently, type sometimes doesn't get through whatever bullshit "modern" web apps do with keyboard events before doing the actually expected thing, at least not fast enough. I never observed this with the clipboard variant.

Maybe a sleep is necessary after all? What's your experience?

I saw some improvement doing this:
os.system(f"xdotool windowfocus --sync '{self.current_window}'")
time.sleep(0.15)
os.system(f"xdotool type --args 1 '{emojis}'")
But the first "character" still got swallowed sometimes. 😪

@reitzig If I split the command and remove the sleep (see mpsijm@patch-1), I'm getting good results in Firefox, Chrome, Telegram, Slack, Gedit, and Xfce4 Terminal 😄

No characters swallowed yet, but then again, I just installed the tool. 😛 I'll report later if I find an app for which it doesn't work. 🙂

EDIT: LibreOffice (tested with Writer and Calc) does seem to swallow characters, but not consistently, with or without sleep 😅

reitzig changed the title ~~fix: do not use clipboard on X11~~ WIP: fix: do not use clipboard on X11 May 28, 2021

reitzig force-pushed the patch-1 branch from bfc719c to c9c59df Compare May 28, 2021 11:51

reitzig commented May 28, 2021

View reviewed changes

fix: Do not use clipboard on X11

44c713c

cf. issue tom-james-watson#41

reitzig force-pushed the patch-1 branch from c9c59df to 44c713c Compare May 28, 2021 12:09

reitzig changed the title ~~WIP: fix: do not use clipboard on X11~~ fix: do not use clipboard on X11 May 28, 2021

djmattyg007 reviewed Jul 4, 2021

View reviewed changes

djmattyg007 mentioned this pull request Jul 4, 2021

Pasting into terminal doesn't work #44

Open

reitzig mentioned this pull request May 7, 2022

Do not use (main) clipboard #41

Closed

plaffitt mentioned this pull request May 7, 2022

WIP: fix: use xdotool type instead of clipboard on X11 for inserting an emoji #69

Closed

tom-james-watson closed this Jun 20, 2023

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fix: do not use clipboard on X11 #42

fix: do not use clipboard on X11 #42

reitzig commented May 28, 2021

reitzig commented May 28, 2021

reitzig May 28, 2021

reitzig commented May 28, 2021

tom-james-watson commented Jun 13, 2021

djmattyg007 Jul 4, 2021

djmattyg007 Jul 4, 2021

mpsijm commented Jan 17, 2023 •

edited

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fix: do not use clipboard on X11 #42

fix: do not use clipboard on X11 #42

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mpsijm commented Jan 17, 2023 • edited Loading

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