Drag and drop to Windows desktop

Question

Hi
I've been struggling with this for a while, I've got a TransferHandler class that allows drag and drop from Windows desktop to application, now I'd like to do the reverse, but can't seem to provide the suitable DataFlavor to the OS, I'm using javaFileListFlavor obviously. I am currently creating a Transferable with createTransferable, but this is a StringSelection, and I can't remove this because I need it for internal drag and drop in the application. Please advise.
public class CDrag extends TransferHandler {
    public CDrag(TreeTableView ttv) {
        this.ttv = ttv;
        dndData = new ArrayList();
        relPath = "/";
        try {
            uriFlavor = new DataFlavor("text/uri-list;class=java.lang.String");
        } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
    @Override
    public int getSourceActions(JComponent c) {
        return MOVE;
    @Override
    protected Transferable createTransferable(JComponent c) {
        String nodes = "";
        int j = 0;
        TreePath[] sel = ttv.treeTable.getTreeSelectionModel().getSelectionPaths();
        for (TreePath i : sel) {
            FileNode fNode = (FileNode) i.getLastPathComponent();
            if (j > 0) {
                nodes = nodes + "\n";
            nodes = nodes + fNode.toString();
            j++;
        return new StringSelection(nodes);
    @Override
    protected void exportDone(JComponent c, Transferable t, int action) {
        if (!dndData.isEmpty()) {
            File[] sg = (File[]) dndData.toArray();
         // delete files that are dropped
            dndData.clear();
    @Override
    public boolean canImport(TransferSupport supp) {
        if (supp.isDataFlavorSupported(DataFlavor.stringFlavor)) {
            return true;
        if (supp.isDataFlavorSupported(DataFlavor.javaFileListFlavor)) {
            return true;
        if (supp.isDataFlavorSupported(uriFlavor)) {
            return true;
        return false;
    private boolean importFiles(TransferSupport supp, File[] files) {
     // function that recursively processes all files and folders
    @Override
    public boolean importData(TransferSupport supp) {
        if (!canImport(supp)) {
            return false;
        String fns = "";
        Transferable t = supp.getTransferable();
        try {
            if (supp.isDataFlavorSupported(DataFlavor.javaFileListFlavor)) {
                File[] fnsl = (File[]) ((List) t.getTransferData(DataFlavor.javaFileListFlavor)).toArray();
                return importFiles(supp, fnsl);
            } else if (supp.isDataFlavorSupported(uriFlavor)) {
                String s = (String)t.getTransferData(uriFlavor);
          StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(s, System.getProperty("line.separator"));
          ArrayList files = new ArrayList<File>();
          while (st.hasMoreTokens()) {
               String file = st.nextToken();
               try {
                       URL url = new URL(file);
                    files.add(new File(URLDecoder.decode(url.getPath())));
               } catch (MalformedURLException mue) {
                return importFiles(supp, (File []) files.toArray());
            } else {
                fns = (String) t.getTransferData(DataFlavor.stringFlavor);
        } catch (UnsupportedFlavorException ex) {
            Logger.getLogger(CDrag.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
        } catch (IOException ex) {
            Logger.getLogger(CDrag.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
     // the rest of the code here process a StringSelection
        return true;
    private List<File> dndData;
    private String relPath;
    private DataFlavor uriFlavor;
}I have the following information available in the FileNode class - the name of the file, the path inside the application, date modified, size, whether it is a file or folder. How do I get these values into a javaFileListFlavor that Windows will understand? Also, I would need a way of returning the actual file data (which will be read from a remote server). The basic File class doesn't allow many of these things to be set.
Regards
Lionel

Answer 1

I have the following information available in the FileNode class - the name of the file, the path inside the application, date modified, size, whether it is a file or folder. How do I get these values into a javaFileListFlavor that Windows will understand? Also, I would need a way of returning the actual file data (which will be read from a remote server). The basic File class doesn't allow many of these things to be set.I know I tried the same thing - I'm not sure this can be done at all, it could be that this can't be done if the file doesn't already exist somewhere on the local file system.
Edited by: tjacobs01 on Feb 11, 2009 12:41 AM