I posted a snippet ¹ of python code that used xdotool to raise windows. I got one patch from dusual ² that enabled raising of windows in the current workspace only.

More importantly, Jordan gave a one-liner ³ in bash, that could do the same thing as my long and elaborate python snippet. I had a feeling that this would be much shorter in bash, but I don’t feel comfortable writing bash scripts. :P

Below is a bash snippet that tries to incorporates both the changes. :)

found=0

for win in `xdotool search --class $1`;
do
if [ `xdotool get_desktop_for_window $win` -eq `xdotool get_desktop` ];
then found=1; break;
fi;
done

if [ $found -eq 1 ]; then xdotool windowactivate $win; else $1; fi

Note: When you’ve visual effects enabled (the default option on Ubuntu), getting the current desktop/workspace doesn’t work, probably because Root Window properties are being messed around by it.

Note2: search takes an option --screen. It’d be nice if it also had an option --desktop. This task could then be done in a one-liner.