BCA 502, Mobile Application Development Batch 2021-2024

Dr Chandani Sharma Unit 3

M.M. Institute of Computer Technology & Business Management

Android - Drag and Drop

Android drag/drop framework allows your users to move data from one View to another View in the
current layout using a graphical drag and drop gesture. As of API 11 drag and drop of view onto other
views or view groups is supported. The framework includes following three important components to
support drag & drop functionality −
 Drag event class.
 Drag listeners.
 Helper methods and classes.

The Drag/Drop Process

There are basically four steps or states in the drag and drop process −
 Started − This event occurs when you start dragging an item in a layout, your application
calls startDrag() method to tell the system to start a drag. The arguments inside startDrag()
method provide the data to be dragged, metadata for this data, and a callback for drawing the
drag shadow.
The system first responds by calling back to your application to get a drag shadow. It then displays the
drag shadow on the device.
Next, the system sends a drag event with action type ACTION_DRAG_STARTED to the registered drag
event listeners for all the View objects in the current layout.
To continue to receive drag events, including a possible drop event, a drag event listener must
return true, If the drag event listener returns false, then it will not receive drag events for the current
operation until the system sends a drag event with action type ACTION_DRAG_ENDED.
 Continuing − The user continues the drag. System sends ACTION_DRAG_ENTERED action
followed by ACTION_DRAG_LOCATION action to the registered drag event listener for the
View where dragging point enters. The listener may choose to alter its View object's appearance
in response to the event or can react by highlighting its View.
The drag event listener receives a ACTION_DRAG_EXITED action after the user has moved the drag
shadow outside the bounding box of the View.
 Dropped − The user releases the dragged item within the bounding box of a View. The system
sends the View object's listener a drag event with action type ACTION_DROP.
 Ended − Just after the action type ACTION_DROP, the system sends out a drag event with
action type ACTION_DRAG_ENDED to indicate that the drag operation is over.

The DragEvent Class

The DragEvent represents an event that is sent out by the system at various times during a drag and
drop operation. This class provides few Constants and important methods which we use during
Drag/Drop process.

Constants
Following are all constants integers available as a part of DragEvent class.
Sr.No. Constants & Description
ACTION_DRAG_STARTED
1
Signals the start of a drag and drop operation.
ACTION_DRAG_ENTERED
2
Signals to a View that the drag point has entered the bounding box of

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BCA 502, Mobile Application Development Batch 2021-2024
Dr Chandani Sharma Unit 3
M.M. Institute of Computer Technology & Business Management

the View.

ACTION_DRAG_LOCATION
3 Sent to a View after ACTION_DRAG_ENTERED if the drag shadow
is still within the View object's bounding box.

ACTION_DRAG_EXITED
4 Signals that the user has moved the drag shadow outside the bounding
box of the View.

ACTION_DROP
5 Signals to a View that the user has released the drag shadow, and the
drag point is within the bounding box of the View.

ACTION_DRAG_ENDED
6
Signals to a View that the drag and drop operation has concluded.

Methods
Following are few important and most frequently used methods available as a part of DragEvent class.
Sr.No. Constants & Description

int getAction()
1
Inspect the action value of this event.

ClipData getClipData()
2 Returns the ClipData object sent to the system as part of the call to
startDrag().

ClipDescription getClipDescription()
3
Returns the ClipDescription object contained in the ClipData.

boolean getResult()
4
Returns an indication of the result of the drag and drop operation.

float getX()
5
Gets the X coordinate of the drag point.

float getY()
6
Gets the Y coordinate of the drag point.

String toString()
7
Returns a string representation of this DragEvent object.

Listening for Drag Event

If you want any of your views within a Layout should respond Drag event then your view either
implements View.OnDragListener or setup onDragEvent(DragEvent) callback method. When the
system calls the method or listener, it passes to them a DragEvent object explained above. You can have
both a listener and a callback method for View object. If this occurs, the system first calls the listener
and then defined callback as long as listener returns true.

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BCA 502, Mobile Application Development Batch 2021-2024
Dr Chandani Sharma Unit 3
M.M. Institute of Computer Technology & Business Management

The combination of the onDragEvent(DragEvent) method and View.OnDragListener is analogous to the

combination of the onTouchEvent() and View.OnTouchListener used with touch events in old
versions of Android.

Starting a Drag Event

You start with creating a ClipData and ClipData.Item for the data being moved. As part of
the ClipData object, supply metadata that is stored in a ClipDescription object within the ClipData. For
a drag and drop operation that does not represent data movement, you may want to use null instead of
an actual object.
Next either you can extend extend View.DragShadowBuilder to create a drag shadow for dragging the
view or simply you can use View.DragShadowBuilder(View) to create a default drag shadow that's the
same size as the View argument passed to it, with the touch point centered in the drag shadow.

Example
Following example shows the functionality of a simple Drag & Drop
using View.setOnLongClickListener(), View.setOnTouchListener()and View.OnDragEventListene
r().
Step Description
You will use Android studio IDE to create an Android application and
1 name it as My Application under a
package com.example.saira_000.myapplication.
Modify src/MainActivity.java file and add the code to define event
2 listeners as well as a call back methods for the logo image used in the
example.

Copy image abc.png in res/drawable-* folders. You can use images with
3 different resolution in case you want to provide them for different
devices.
Modify layout XML file res/layout/activity_main.xml to define default
4
view of the logo images.
Run the application to launch Android emulator and verify the result of
5
the changes done in the application.
Following is the content of the modified main activity file src/MainActivity.java. This file can include
each of the fundamental lifecycle methods.
package com.example.saira_000.myapplication;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.ClipData;
import android.content.ClipDescription;
import android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.DragEvent;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;
import android.view.MotionEvent;

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BCA 502, Mobile Application Development Batch 2021-2024
Dr Chandani Sharma Unit 3
M.M. Institute of Computer Technology & Business Management

import android.view.View;
import android.widget.ImageView;
import android.widget.RelativeLayout;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

ImageView img;
String msg;
private android.widget.RelativeLayout.LayoutParams layoutParams;

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
img=(ImageView)findViewById(R.id.imageView);

img.setOnLongClickListener(new View.OnLongClickListener() {
@Override
public boolean onLongClick(View v) {
ClipData.Item item = new ClipData.Item((CharSequence)v.getTag());
String[] mimeTypes = {ClipDescription.MIMETYPE_TEXT_PLAIN};

ClipData dragData = new ClipData(v.getTag().toString(),mimeTypes, item);

View.DragShadowBuilder myShadow = new View.DragShadowBuilder(img);

v.startDrag(dragData,myShadow,null,0);
return true;
}
});

img.setOnDragListener(new View.OnDragListener() {
@Override
public boolean onDrag(View v, DragEvent event) {
switch(event.getAction()) {
case DragEvent.ACTION_DRAG_STARTED:
layoutParams = (RelativeLayout.LayoutParams)v.getLayoutParams();
Log.d(msg, "Action is DragEvent.ACTION_DRAG_STARTED");

// Do nothing
break;

case DragEvent.ACTION_DRAG_ENTERED:
Log.d(msg, "Action is DragEvent.ACTION_DRAG_ENTERED");
int x_cord = (int) event.getX();
int y_cord = (int) event.getY();
break;

case DragEvent.ACTION_DRAG_EXITED :

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BCA 502, Mobile Application Development Batch 2021-2024
Dr Chandani Sharma Unit 3
M.M. Institute of Computer Technology & Business Management

Log.d(msg, "Action is DragEvent.ACTION_DRAG_EXITED");

x_cord = (int) event.getX();
y_cord = (int) event.getY();
layoutParams.leftMargin = x_cord;
layoutParams.topMargin = y_cord;
v.setLayoutParams(layoutParams);
break;

case DragEvent.ACTION_DRAG_LOCATION :
Log.d(msg, "Action is DragEvent.ACTION_DRAG_LOCATION");
x_cord = (int) event.getX();
y_cord = (int) event.getY();
break;

case DragEvent.ACTION_DRAG_ENDED :
Log.d(msg, "Action is DragEvent.ACTION_DRAG_ENDED");

// Do nothing
break;

case DragEvent.ACTION_DROP:
Log.d(msg, "ACTION_DROP event");

// Do nothing
break;
default: break;
}
return true;
}
});

img.setOnTouchListener(new View.OnTouchListener() {
@Override
public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event) {
if (event.getAction() == MotionEvent.ACTION_DOWN) {
ClipData data = ClipData.newPlainText("", "");
View.DragShadowBuilder shadowBuilder = new View.DragShadowBuilder(img);

img.startDrag(data, shadowBuilder, img, 0);

img.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE);
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
}
});
}
}

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BCA 502, Mobile Application Development Batch 2021-2024
Dr Chandani Sharma Unit 3
M.M. Institute of Computer Technology & Business Management

Following will be the content of res/layout/activity_main.xml file −

In the following code abc indicates the logo of tutorialspoint.com
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
tools:context=".MainActivity">

<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Drag and Drop Example"
android:id="@+id/textView"
android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:textSize="30dp" />

<TextView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="Tutorials Point"
android:id="@+id/textView2"
android:layout_below="@+id/textView"
android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
android:textSize="30dp"
android:textColor="#ff14be3c" />>

<ImageView
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:id="@+id/imageView"
android:src="@drawable/abc"
android:layout_below="@+id/textView2"
android:layout_alignRight="@+id/textView2"
android:layout_alignEnd="@+id/textView2"
android:layout_alignLeft="@+id/textView2"
android:layout_alignStart="@+id/textView2" />

</RelativeLayout>
Following will be the content of res/values/strings.xml to define two new constants −
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<string name="app_name">My Application</string>
</resources>

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BCA 502, Mobile Application Development Batch 2021-2024
Dr Chandani Sharma Unit 3
M.M. Institute of Computer Technology & Business Management

Following is the default content of AndroidManifest.xml −

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="com.example.saira_000.myapplication" >

<application
android:allowBackup="true"
android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
android:label="@string/app_name"
android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >

<activity
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:label="@string/app_name" >

<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>

</activity>

</application>
</manifest>