API proposal: drag view

[Pavel Safrata]

Hi Steve,
I take it that you want it only for the drag start and you are not 
concerned about an inaccessible value during the rest of the gesture (we 
are not always the source so we don't always set the drag image). Still, 
how would you even access the dragboard in a different node than the one 
that started the DnD to call the getter if we provided it? I don't think 
we have a mechanism for one node starting DnD and another node altering 
the dragboard.
Thanks,
Pavel

On 15.1.2013 18:55, steve.x.northover at oracle.com wrote:
> Without a getter, the application has no idea whether a drag image has 
> already been set for them.  Having a setter without a getter generally 
> makes no sense.  Since we set the drag image, we can easily return the 
> image that we set.
>
> Steve
>
> On 15/01/2013 4:20 AM, Pavel Safrata wrote:
>> Hi Richard, Steve,
>>
>> On 14.1.2013 20:51, steve.x.northover at oracle.com wrote:
>>> +1
>>>
>>> I'd like to see some example code where the tree and table set a 
>>> default image as part of the implementation of these controls. 
>>> Applications would get a reasonable image for free and be able to 
>>> override it as necessary.  Having and getter is necessary for this.
>>
>> Is it? What will be done with it? User will get the image and 
>> programatically check if it looks good?
>>
>> (please see my answers to Richard's comments below).
>>
>>>
>>> BTW, the last time I looked, on Windows, when you set image content, 
>>> then you will get a drag image for free.  This doesn't happen on the 
>>> Mac.  We should stop doing this on Windows.
>>>
>>> Steve
>>>
>>> On 14/01/2013 2:09 PM, Richard Bair wrote:
>>>> HI Pavel!
>>>>
>>>> Overall great. I don't see why you can't have a getter. The only 
>>>> way to set the drag view is via an API we control so it seems 
>>>> pretty easy to implement the getter as well. 
>>
>> No. DnD is an OS feature. You can drag data from native applications 
>> to FX. Is it possible on all systems to find out what did the native 
>> application use as drag image? I'm really not sure. Anybody has the 
>> knowledge?
>>
>>>> You could either have a DragView class which encapsulates the 
>>>> node/image and the offsetX and offsetY, or you could just break it 
>>>> out into three properties on the DragBoard and save yourself the 
>>>> extra class.
>>
>> If we are OK with the properties having value only during starting 
>> DnD and not during the rest of the gesture, then yes, this could be 
>> done. But I still don't see the value.
>>
>>>>
>>>> I think you should just have an image based dragImage property and 
>>>> dragImageOffsetX and dragImageOffsetY properties. We shouldn't by 
>>>> default put anything in as the drag image, except for a few UI 
>>>> controls. We'll want a ListView, TreeView, TableView, TreeTableView 
>>>> to automatically pre-populate the DragBoard before the 
>>>> onDragDetected code is called, so that those control give you a 
>>>> nice drag image for free but the developer is free to replace it or 
>>>> clear it as they see fit.
>>
>> I don't think this is possible with the proposed API. The DragBoard 
>> instance doesn't exist until you start DnD in the DRAG_DETECTED 
>> handler, so you cannot really pre-populate it. Would it be sufficient 
>> if the controls contained getDefaultDragImage() method that users 
>> would explicitly call?
>>
>>>>
>>>> The developer could use the synchronous version of snapshot. But I 
>>>> think either snapshot should be fixed to be transparent by default 
>>>> instead of a white fill by default or add another snapshot method 
>>>> which produces a transparent fill by default.
>>
>> True. Kevin, how easy/hard it would be to add such snapshot method?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Pavel
>>
>>>> Basically:
>>>>
>>>> source.setOnDragDetected(new EventHandler<MouseEvent>() {
>>>>      public void handle(MouseEvent event) {
>>>>          DragBoard db = source.startDragAndDrop(TransferMode.ANY);
>>>>          db.setContent(…);
>>>>          db.setDragImage(source.snapshot());
>>>>          db.setDragImageOffsetX(event.getX());
>>>>          db.setDragImageOffsetY(event.getY());
>>>>          event.consume();
>>>>      }
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>> Maybe also have a convenience method on DragBoard:
>>>>
>>>>      db.updateDragImage(node, x, y);
>>>>
>>>> which then just calls the 3 setters as appropriate.
>>>>
>>>> Richard
>>>>
>>>> On Jan 13, 2013, at 11:59 PM, Pavel 
>>>> Safrata<pavel.safrata at oracle.com>  wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hello,
>>>>> this is a proposal of an API allowing to specify the image 
>>>>> floating with mouse cursor during a drag&drop operation.
>>>>>
>>>>> Jira: http://javafx-jira.kenai.com/browse/RT-14730
>>>>>
>>>>> I propose to add two methods to DragBoard:
>>>>> setDragView(Image image, double offsetX, double offsetY)
>>>>> setDragView(Node node, double offsetX, double offsetY)
>>>>>
>>>>> The first one simply uses the given image for the drag view with 
>>>>> the offsetX and offsetY specifying cursor position over the image. 
>>>>> The second one renders the given node to an image and uses the 
>>>>> result (the coordinates being in the node's local space).
>>>>>
>>>>> The typical usage will look like this:
>>>>>         sourceNode.setOnDragDetected(new EventHandler<MouseEvent>() {
>>>>>             public void handle(MouseEvent event) {
>>>>>                 Dragboard db = 
>>>>> source.startDragAndDrop(TransferMode.ANY);
>>>>>                 ClipboardContent content = ...
>>>>>                 db.setContent(content);
>>>>>                 db.setDragView(sourceNode, event.getX(), 
>>>>> event.getY()); // that's it
>>>>>                 event.consume();
>>>>>             }
>>>>>         });
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> This API is meant for telling the operating system what visual 
>>>>> cues to provide, I don't think it is useful (and I'm not sure it 
>>>>> is even possible) to provide getters.
>>>>>
>>>>> There is a possibility to provide default drag view - if none of 
>>>>> those methods is called, the default drag view would be an image 
>>>>> of the drag gesture source. This should work nice most of the 
>>>>> times. However, it may cause inconveniences to some existing apps 
>>>>> - for instance a text editor node which puts the selected text on 
>>>>> the DragBoard - after updating FX the application starts to show 
>>>>> the entire editor in the drag view. For this reason I think the 
>>>>> default behavior should remain unchanged.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> Pavel
>>