Drag and drop is a part of the HTML5 standard.
Drag the image above into the rectangle.
In HTML
The HTML5 working draft specification includes support for drag & drop. HTML5 supports different kinds of dragging and dropping features including:
- Drag and Drop texts and HTML codes
- Drag and Drop HTML elements
- Drag and Drop files
Based on needed action, one of the above types can be used. Note that when an HTML element is dragged for moving its current position, its ID is sent to the destination parent element; so it sends a text and can be considered as the first group.
Google's web-based e-mail application Gmail supports drag-and-drop of images and attachments in the latest Google Chrome browser and Apple's Safari (5.x). And Google Image search supports drag & drop.
Drag and Drop
Drag and drop is a very common feature. It is when you "grab" an object and drag it to a different location.
In HTML5, drag and drop is part of the standard, and any element can be draggable.
Browser Support
The numbers in the table specify the first browser version that fully supports Drag and Drop.
| API | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drag and Drop | 4.0 | 9.0 | 3.5 | 6.0 | 12.0 |
HTML Drag and Drop Example
The example below is a simple drag and drop example:
Example
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<script>
function allowDrop(ev) {
ev.preventDefault();
}
function drag(ev) {
ev.dataTransfer.setData("text", ev.target.id);
}
function drop(ev) {
ev.preventDefault();
var data = ev.dataTransfer.getData("text");
ev.target.appendChild(document.getElementById(data));
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="div1" ondrop="drop(event)" ondragover="allowDrop(event)"></div>
<img id="drag1" src="img_logo.gif" draggable="true"
ondragstart="drag(event)" width="336" height="69">
</body>
</html>
Try it Yourself »It might seem complicated, but lets go through all the different parts of a drag and drop event.
Make an Element Draggable
First of all: To make an element draggable, set the draggable attribute to true:
<img draggable="true">
What to Drag - ondragstart and setData()
Then, specify what should happen when the element is dragged.
In the example above, the ondragstart attribute calls a function, drag(event), that specifies what data to be dragged.
The dataTransfer.setData() method sets the data type and the value of the dragged data:
function drag(ev) {
ev.dataTransfer.setData("text", ev.target.id);
}
In this case, the data type is "text" and the value is the id of the draggable element ("drag1").
Where to Drop - ondragover
The ondragover event specifies where the dragged data can be dropped.
By default, data/elements cannot be dropped in other elements. To allow a drop, we must prevent the default handling of the element.
This is done by calling the event.preventDefault() method for the ondragover event:
event.preventDefault()
Do the Drop - ondrop
When the dragged data is dropped, a drop event occurs.
In the example above, the ondrop attribute calls a function, drop(event):
function drop(ev) {
ev.preventDefault();
var data = ev.dataTransfer.getData("text");
ev.target.appendChild(document.getElementById(data));
}
Code explained:
- Call preventDefault() to prevent the browser default handling of the data (default is open as link on drop)
- Get the dragged data with the dataTransfer.getData() method. This method will return any data that was set to the same type in the setData() method
- The dragged data is the id of the dragged element ("drag1")
- Append the dragged element into the drop element
Drag image back and forth
How to drag (and drop) an image back and forth between two <div> elements.