Capturing events help

Question

Im building a visual component where the user can drag node(s) from a palette to a main panel. These nodes can be connected to one another with links that one can create by gliding over the node and dragging it to the node that it needs to be connected to. My problem now is how do I determine which way the arrow is going i.e. what if the user is dragging to the left or right ot top or bottom of the node how can I capture this?
Thank you all for your time

Answer 1

My problem now is how do I determine which way the arrow
is going i.e. what if the user is dragging to the
left or right ot top or bottom of the node how can I
capture this? You'll need to have custom DnD code to handle mouse drag events (see MouseMotionListener.mouseDragged) when dragging within the main panel. You'll need to detect collisions with other nodes in your mouseDragged method. Collision detection is sometimes difficult to do depending on the shape of your nodes. Simplest way is to get the bounds of each node and use the Rectangle methods to calculate collision points with the dragged node as you're dragging. When you detect a mouse released event, you'll use the last known direction as an indicator on which way to point the arrow.