Drag-and-Drop Destinations (Solaris Common Desktop Environment: Programmer's Guide)

Solaris Common Desktop Environment: Programmer's Guide

Drag-and-Drop Destinations

The following components on the desktop provide drop destinations:

Editors
File Manager
Front Panel

Each component accepts drops of text selections, files, and buffers. Most of the text drop destinations are provided automatically by the Motif library. File or buffer data drop destinations require additional code.

When a user drops data from a file, and that file is modified in some way, the modifications can be written back to the original holder of the file. This behavior is described as saveback. However, when data is dropped from a buffer, the data does not have information about an originating file. As a result, changes to data from buffers cannot be written back, because there is no original holder of the data. This behavior is described as no saveback.

For example, the Mailer can export mail attachments to editors using drag and drop. If the attachment is exported as a buffer (that has no saveback), the editor has no way to change the original attachment in the mailer. So, the editor can only save its modified version of the attachment to a new file.

Because mail attachments are not already separate files (they are embedded into a mail folder file), they are only exported as buffers and cannot be saved back by other editors.

If the attachment is exported as a file (that has saveback) the editor saves its modified version to that same file. Table 5-3 describes the drops of text selections, files, and buffers on editor-type components such as Text Editor, Icon Editor, Calendar and Mailer.

Table 5-3 Editor Drop Destinations


Drop Destination	Text Selections	Files	Buffers
Text Editor: Main Window	Insert	Insert	Insert
Terminal: Main Window	Insert	N/A	N/A
Icon Editor: Main Window	N/A	Load (if file in icon format) saveback	Load into read-only (if data in icon format) no saveback
Mailer: Message List	N/A	Append (if file in mail format)	Append (if data in mail format)
Mailer: Compose	Insert	Insert	Insert
Mailer: Attachment List	Attach	Attach	Attach
Calendar: Main Window	N/A	Schedule Appointment (if file in appointment format)	Schedule appointment (if data in appointment format)
Calendar: Appointment Editor	Insert into text field	Fill in appointment fields (if file in appointment format)	Fill in appointment fields (if data in appointment format)
AppBuilder	N/A	Load (if file in BIX or BIL format) saveback	Load into read-only (if data in BIP format) no saveback

Table 5-4 describes the drops of text selections, files, and buffers on file and folder icons in the File Manager.

Table 5-4 File Manager Drop Destinations


Drop Destination	Text Selections	Files	Buffers
File Icon	Invoke drop action on target file and dropped text (if file accepts text drops and dropped text in appropriate format) no saveback/copy	Invoke drop action on target file and dropped file (if file accepts file drop and dropped file in appropriate format) saveback	Invoke drop action on target file and dropped data (if file accepts data drop and dropped data in appropriate format) no saveback/copy
Folder Icon	Insert text into new file using "Untitled" name in folder	Copy/move file to folder	Insert data into new file using supplied name (if available) in folder else using "Untitled"
Action Icon	Invoke action on text (if appropriate format and accepts text drop) no saveback	Invoke action on files (if appropriate format and accepts file drop) saveback	Invoke action on data (if appropriate format and accepts data drop) no saveback
Mail Container Icon	Append to mailbox (if text in mail format)	Append to mailbox (if file in mail format)	Append to mailbox (if data in mail format)

Table 5-5 describes the drops of text selections, files, and buffers on action icons in the Front Panel.

Table 5-5 Front Panel Drop Destinations


Drop Destination	Text Selections	Files	Buffers
Text Editor	Load into read-only no saveback	Load saveback	Load into read-only no saveback
Calendar	Schedule appointment (if text in appointment format)	Schedule appointment (if file in appointment format)	Schedule appointment (if data in appointment format)
Mail	Compose message attach text	Compose message attach file	Compose message attach data
Printer	Print text (if print method available for text)	Print file contents (if print method available for file format)	Print data (if print method available for data format)
Trash Can	N/A	Move file to Trash Can	N/A
Subpanel: Install Icon	N/A	Install icon	N/A
Subpanel: Action	Same as File Manager	Same as File Manager	Same as File Manager
Subpanel: Executable	Same as File Manager	Same as File Manager	Same as File Manager

See the Common Desktop Environment: Style Guide and Certification Checklist for more information and guidelines on how the drag and drop should appear to the user.