Drag and Drop

Use DragArea and DropArea to move data between parts of the UI with a drag-and-drop gesture. On platforms that support it, a DropArea also accepts drops from other applications.

The payload is a data-transfer value, which abstracts over the file-type transfer mechanisms supported by each platform. data-transfer values are opaque in Slint code: construct and read them via callbacks implemented in the host language.

Example

export global Api {
    pure callback string-to-transfer(string) -> data-transfer;
    pure callback transfer-to-string(data-transfer) -> string;
    pure callback can-drop(data-transfer) -> bool;
}

export component Example inherits Window {
    width: 300px;
    height: 200px;

    VerticalLayout {
        spacing: 8px;
        padding: 8px;

        Rectangle {
            background: #f0c000;
            DragArea {
                data: Api.string-to-transfer("Hello World");
                allow-copy: true;
            }
            Text { text: "Drag me"; }
        }

        Rectangle {
            background: drop.contains-drag ? #80e080 : #a0a0a0;
            drop := DropArea {
                can-drop(event) => {
                    Api.can-drop(event.data) ? DragAction.copy : DragAction.none
                }
                dropped(event) => {
                    debug("Got: ", Api.transfer-to-string(event.data));
                    return event.proposed-action;
                }
            }
            Text { text: "Drop here"; }
        }
    }
}

slint

Both can-drop and dropped return a DragAction: DragAction.copy, DragAction.move, DragAction.link to accept with that action, or DragAction.none to reject. can-drop runs during hover (drives the cursor and current-action); dropped runs on release and the returned action is what gets reported back to the source via drag-finished.

Drag actions

A DragArea declares which actions it permits (allow-copy, allow-move, allow-link). At least one must be set to true; a DragArea that permits no action never starts a drag (the compiler warns). When no modifier key is pressed, the proposed action is the first allowed of move, copy, link; modifier keys request a specific action (Ctrl -> copy, Shift -> move, Ctrl+Shift -> link). On macOS, use Command (⌘) instead of Ctrl. The target picks the final action in can-drop (for hover) and dropped (final answer), the runtime clamps each against the source’s allowed set, and when the drop completes the source’s drag-finished(action) fires so a “move” source can remove the original data.

DragArea {
    data: Api.make-data();
    allow-copy: false;
    allow-move: true;
    // Dim the source while the drag is in flight.
    opacity: self.dragging ? 0.4 : 1.0;
    drag-finished(action) => {
        if action == DragAction.move {
            Api.remove-source();
        }
    }
}

DropArea {
    can-drop(event) => event.allow-move ? DragAction.move : DragAction.none;
    dropped(event) => {
        Api.accept-drop(event.data);
        return event.proposed-action;
    }
}

slint

The hovering target’s chosen action is also exposed as current-action, useful for visual feedback (a different cursor, icon, or highlight per action).

Rust

fn main() {
    let app = Example::new();
    // For simple plain text and image transfers, a simple conversion is supplied
    // which handles the common case.
    let api = app.global::<Api>();
    api.on_string_to_transfer(Into::into);
    // A helper for reading plain text from a `DataTransfer` is also supplied.
    api.on_transfer_to_string(|data| data.plain_text().unwrap_or_default());
    api.on_can_drop(|data| {
        // This helper abstracts over various "plain text" MIME types
        data.has_plain_text()
    });
    // ...
}

rust

C++

// `DataTransfer` is currently not fully implemented in C++

C++

NodeJS

import * as slint from "slint-ui";

const ui = slint.loadFile(new URL("example.slint", import.meta.url));
const window = new ui.Example();

window.Api.string_to_transfer = (text) => {
    const transfer = new slint.DataTransfer();
    transfer.plainText = text;
    return transfer;
};

// A helper for reading plain text from a `DataTransfer` is also supplied.
window.Api.transfer_to_string = (data) => data.plainText ?? "";

// This helper abstracts over various "plain text" MIME types
window.Api.can_drop = (data) => data.hasPlainText;

js

Python

import slint
from slint import DataTransfer

class App(slint.loader.example.Example):

    @slint.callback(global_name="Api", name="string-to-transfer")
    def string_to_transfer(self, text: str) -> DataTransfer:
        transfer = DataTransfer()
        transfer.plain_text = text
        return transfer

    # A helper for reading plain text from a `DataTransfer` is also supplied.
    @slint.callback(global_name="Api", name="transfer-to-string")
    def transfer_to_string(self, data: DataTransfer) -> str:
        return data.plain_text or ""

    # This helper abstracts over various "plain text" MIME types
    @slint.callback(global_name="Api", name="can-drop")
    def can_drop(self, data: DataTransfer) -> bool:
        return data.has_plain_text

python