Bug 463840

Summary:	Elisa doesn't react properly when its running instance activated from a different virtual desktop
Product:	[Applications] Elisa	Reporter:	fw.smit01
Component:	general	Assignee:	Matthieu Gallien <matthieu_gallien>
Status:	CONFIRMED ---
Severity:	normal	CC:	kde, nate, nicolas.fella
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	22.12.1
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Other
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description fw.smit01 2023-01-04 16:03:42 UTC

SUMMARY
Some applications allow only one main window. When opening them from another virtual desktop, you get the loading animation, but it doesn't move the application to the current desktop, nor does it switch to that virtual desktop.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Make sure to have at least 2 virtual desktops
2. On desktop 1, open Elisa
3. On desktop 2, try to open Elisa again (from the task manager or application launcher)

OBSERVED RESULT
There is a loading animation, but nothing happens

EXPECTED RESULT
I expect one of 2 things:
(1) I switch to the virtual desktop that has this application and the application is put on top
(2) The application moves to the current virtual desktop

I'm not quite sure which one is better, they are both not ideal. I would probably go with (1) and add a setting for allowing a single window on multiple virtual desktops. But implementing just option (1) would already improve the situation.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: Fedora Linux 36
KDE Plasma Version: 5.26.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.101.0
Qt Version: 5.15.7
Kernel Version: 6.0.15-200.fc36.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 12 × Intel® Core™ i7-8750H CPU @ 2.20GHz
Memory: 15,4 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor: Mesa Intel® UHD Graphics 630
Manufacturer: HP
Product Name: HP ZBook Studio G5

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
1. Applications that allow just one main window specify this in their desktop files. There seem to be multiple names for this setting, but it's something like:

SingleMainWindow=true

2. This can also be reproduced with just a single virual desktop, but then it's only possible when trying to open the application from the application launcher, which is less common. There is also the visual indication of the application already being there in the Task manager.

Comment 1 Nicolas Fella 2023-01-04 16:27:08 UTC

> I expect one of 2 things:
(1) I switch to the virtual desktop that has this application and the application is put on top
(2) The application moves to the current virtual desktop

Both of these are possible and configurable in systemsettings

Comment 2 Nicolas Fella 2023-01-04 16:30:46 UTC

(In reply to Nicolas Fella from comment #1)
> > I expect one of 2 things:
> (1) I switch to the virtual desktop that has this application and the
> application is put on top
> (2) The application moves to the current virtual desktop
> 
> Both of these are possible and configurable in systemsettings

It's a bit broken currently (see https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=462996)

That said, Elisa seems particularly broken, it doesn't implement window activation properly

Comment 3 fw.smit01 2023-01-04 17:29:17 UTC

Ah, I see, didn't see that setting. Then there are a few things that could be improved.

A. When I try the same thing with Signal or Joplin, I get a short (~2 seconds) and then I have to click again. I would prefer if it switched directly. It seems the application first has to process the request, then it has to activate the window. Using the desktop file you could already know to just activate it directly.
B. Elisa should use proper window activation (it's not really relevant anymore when (A) is implemented)
C. In the task manager the windows don't seem like they're open. This is logical for applications that can just open a new window, but it might be better for single-window applications to show up here, so the user knows that clicking it will not open a new window. I'll leave it up to you to decide if this would be an improvement.