A DankMaterialShell (DMS) bar plugin that adds a single collapsible button to the bar which expands to reveal a group of other widgets inline — each keeping its own live pill and working popout.
Status: beta (v0.7.0)
Expanded — the group reveals its member widgets inline, with a double-chevron marking the end:
Collapsed — folded back into a single button:
Bars get crowded. Widget Group lets you fold a cluster of widgets behind one button and reveal them on demand. Because the members render inline in the bar window (not in a separate popout), each member's own popout positions correctly below the bar — exactly as if it were placed directly on the bar.
- Group any widgets behind one bar button — both third-party widget plugins and DMS built-in bar widgets (clock, media, system tray, monitors, control center, …).
- Members are the real widgets — live pills and fully working popouts.
- Auto-oriented expansion: the group expands toward the open side of the bar automatically (left/right on horizontal bars, up/down on vertical) — no direction to configure.
- Per-button click actions: assign the left / right / middle mouse clicks independently — expand the group, run a shell command, open a member widget, or do nothing (left defaults to expand). Once the group is expanded, its members take their own clicks and behave exactly as they do anywhere else on the bar.
- Pin icons to the collapsed view: toggle any member to keep its live icon on the bar next to the button even while the group is folded.
- Unified click (optional): treat the collapsed button + pinned icons as one item — a click anywhere on it fires the assigned mouse action, like a single Control-Center-style bar widget. The expand/collapse symbol is excluded, so the group can always be unfolded.
- Expand/collapse symbols: an unfold symbol on the button plus a matching end-cap button at the far end (group icon + collapse control), with a configurable symbol position. Left-clicking a symbol always folds/unfolds, whatever the left-click action is set to. The button symbol can also stay hidden until you hover the group, giving its space back while hidden.
- Overlay mode (optional): expand without pushing neighbouring widgets — members overflow and paint on top instead. Paints over reliably for a group in the centre section.
- One open at a time (optional): expanding a group can auto-collapse any other open group.
- Readable when overlapping: a solid backing behind the expanded group, with an optional border so it stays delineated even on opaque bars.
- Button display: icon, label, both, or nothing (just the expand/collapse symbol); choose the button icon from a searchable Material icon picker.
- Auto-collapse (optional): collapse after a configurable delay (1–30s), with an option to only start the timer once the mouse leaves the expanded group.
- Multiple groups via variants — each is a separate bar widget.
- Tabbed editor: a selected group's settings are organized into Setup / Definition / Actions / Behavior / Members tabs — no more scrolling one long list.
- Member management like a real list: add/edit members in a focused dialog, drag the handle to reorder, and hover between rows for a + that inserts a widget at that exact spot.
- DankMaterialShell (quickshell-based) with the plugin system.
- Members can be DMS built-in bar widgets, or third-party widget-type plugins (those must be enabled).
dms plugins install widgetGroupClone into your DMS plugins directory:
git clone https://github.com/rdannenbring/widget-group.git \
~/.config/DankMaterialShell/plugins/widgetGroupThen enable it in DMS Settings → Plugins, configure a group, and add it to your bar via Bar Settings → Add Widget.
- Enable any third-party widget plugins you want to group (built-ins need no setup).
- Enable Widget Group in Settings → Plugins and open its settings.
- Create a group, then click it to edit. The editor is tabbed: Definition (button icon/label/display), Actions (per-button click actions, unified click), Behavior (expand/collapse symbol + position + hover-only, overlay, one-open-at-a-time, expanded border, auto-collapse), Members.
- On the Members tab, click Add widget… (or the + between rows) to add members via a dialog; click a row to change it, drag the handle to reorder, use the pin to keep a member's icon on the bar when collapsed, and the × to remove.
- Bar Settings → Add Widget to place the group on your bar.
On the bar, each mouse button does whatever you assigned it (by default left click expands the group). The expand/collapse symbols always fold and unfold the group on left click, whatever the actions are set to, so the group is never stuck.
- Third-party members must be widget plugins (they have a bar pill + popout). Daemon/launcher/desktop plugins aren't applicable. DMS built-in bar widgets can also be added directly.
- Overlay mode keeps the collapsed footprint and paints members on top of neighbours. Because bar sections paint in a fixed order (centre on top), the "paint over" is reliable for a group in the centre section; a left/right group only paints over its own section. Members fill any free space in their own section first, then spill over.
- Show symbol only on hover gives the symbol's space back while it's hidden, so the group changes width as you hover it — in a centre section that re-centres everything around it. Leave it off if you'd rather nothing moved.
- With auto-collapse → only after mouse leaves: if you open a member's popout and move onto that popout window, the group counts it as "mouse left" and collapses after the delay. The member's popout itself stays open.
The group is itself a real bar widget (PluginComponent); each variant is one group.
For each member it instantiates that plugin's widget component once — from PluginService.pluginWidgetComponents[id] — injecting the bar context (axis, barThickness, barConfig, screen, …) the way DMS's own WidgetHost does. It then proxies the member's horizontalBarPill / verticalBarPill / popoutContent components and renders them inline in its own pill. (QML Components capture their definition scope, so the proxied pill/popout keep binding to the live member instance — real data, real interactions.)
The key design point: members render inline in the bar window, not inside a popout. So each member's own popout computes its position relative to the actual bar and opens correctly below it — exactly as if the widget were placed on the bar directly. A floating dropdown panel would put members in a separate window and break that positioning; rendering inline is what makes it work.
Files
GroupWidget.qml— the collapsible button, member layout (horizontal/vertical, expand direction), and auto-collapse timer.GroupMember.qml— one embedded member: instantiates the target widget and forwards bar context.GroupSettings.qml— the editor (variants, members, display/direction/auto-collapse).DropdownIconPicker.qml— searchable Material-symbol picker (shared with the Dropdown Menu plugin).assets/— screenshots, plus a vendored Material Symbols codepoints index that backs the icon picker (seeassets/NOTICE.md).
assets/material-symbols-rounded.codepoints is a third-party file from Google's
material-design-icons, used under Apache-2.0 — see assets/NOTICE.md.