A simple CAPS LOCK widget for Awesome

(fork from https://github.com/stefano-m/awesome-capslock_widget)

(See also the AwesomeWM Num Lock widget)

Useful when you have a keyboard that does not have a CAPS LOCK indicator.

This widget is really simple and parses the output of xset to figure out whether CAPS LOCK is active or not. (Hint: you need the xset utility for this widget to work)

This script is simple and you can edit the file init.lua if you want to change it.

Installation

1. Ensure that xset is available to you on your system.
2. Clone this repository in your ~/.config/awesome/ folder.

   cd ~/.config/awesome/
   git clone git@github.com:iacchus/awesomewm-capslock-widget.git
   

3. Refer to Usage (below.) and follow it's three steps.
4. Restart Awesome (e.g. press modkey + Control + R or run awesome-client "awesome.restart()" from a terminal).

Usage

For Awesome 4.x, add the following to your ~/.config/awesome/rc.lua:

-- FIRST. If you just cloned the repo in ~/.config/awesome/ require the module
--          at the beginning of the file (anywhere there should be ok.):
local capslock = require("awesomewm-capslock-widget")

-- etcetc... more config here...

-- SECOND. Add the widget to the wibox: Look for "-- Right widgets",
--           as shown below, and add the line `capslock,` where you want to
--           see the widget (pay attention to the ending commas `,`):
    s.mywibox:setup {

      -- more config here...

      { -- Right widgets
        layout = wibox.layout.fixed.horizontal,
        wibox.widget.systray(),
        capslock,
        -- more config here

-- THIRD. Add the keybinding to `global_keys` so that the widget can change state
--          on keypress, by adding the line `capslock.key` there:
--
-- {{{ Key bindings
local globalkeys = awful.util.table.join(
  capslock.key,
-- more config follows

Now, when CAPS LOCK is active, an uppercase letter A will be displayed

when CAPS LOCK is inactive, a lowecase letter a will be displayed:

These can be changed by changing the activated and deactivated attributes of the widget as Pango markup strings. You will probably need to adjust the forced_width attribute too.

For example:

local capslock = require("awesomewm-capslock-widget")
capslock.forced_width = 35
capslock.activated = "<u>CAPS</u>"
capslock.deactivated = "<u>caps</u>"

When the mouse is over the widget, a tooltip that says Caps Lock on/Caps Lock off is also shown.

Contributing

If you have ideas about how to make this better, feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.