previous window screen name

[eugenetaranov]

Hello,

would it be possible to obtain a screen name of the previous application window?

I tried to grab the window and screen in hs.application.watcher.deactivated but it does not seem to work.

Thanks

[asmagill]

Does something like this work:

appWatcher = hs.application.watcher.new(function(name, event, app)
    if event == hs.application.watcher.deactivated then
        if app then
            local focusedWindow = app:focusedWindow()
            if focusedWindow then
                local screen = focusedWindow:screen()
                if screen then
                    print(app:name(), focusedWindow:title(), screen:name())
                else
                    print("unable to get screen for " .. tostring(focusedWindow:title()))
                end
            else
                print("unable to get focusedWindow for " .. tostring(app:name()))
            end
        else
            print("no application object returned for " .. tostring(name))
        end
    end
end):start()

I don't have multiple monitors available to me atm, but a quick testing looks like it's working on my machine... a few "headless" applications (i.e. no dock icon) seem to give it trouble with "no focused window for ..." but depending upon your usage this might be sufficient or you could try checking out hs.application:mainWindow or hs.application:visibleWindows instead of focusedWindow and see if they're more reliable.

[eugenetaranov]

@asmagill thanks so much, works like a charm!

I need to move mouse cursor from another screen every time I switch windows, in the meantime I got it working in different way - simply checking whether mouse pointer is located on another screen or not:

function applicationWatcher(appName, eventType, appObject)
    if (eventType == hs.application.watcher.activated) then
  		local win = hs.window.focusedWindow()

      -- move mouse pointer if it is located on different screen
      if (win:screen():id() ~= hs.mouse.getCurrentScreen():id()) then
  			local f = win:frame()
        center_x = f.x + f.w/2 + f.w * 0.2
        center_y = f.y + f.h/2 + f.h * 0.2
        hs.mouse.setAbsolutePosition(hs.geometry.point(center_x, center_y))
      end
      
    end
end
appWatcher = hs.application.watcher.new(applicationWatcher)
appWatcher:start()