Lesson: Drag and Drop and Data Transfer

Drag and drop, and cut, copy and paste (collectively called data transfer) are essential features of most applications. But what kind of support does Swing provide and how do you take advantage of it?

For many components, when performing a drag and drop or a cut and paste operation, Swing handles all of the work for you. For a handful of components, most of the work is done for you and all that is left for you is to plug in the details of the data import and export.

This lesson provides an introduction to the data transfer mechanism used by Swing and discusses, in particular, the TransferHandler class, the workhorse of the data transfer system.

If you are interested in using JavaFX to create your GUI, see Drag-and-Drop Feature in JavaFX Applications.