Drag file into JTextArea

Question

Hi
i want to enable drag ability for JtextArea i.e. when a file is dragged onto the JtextArea the files contents are to be shown. I am new to Drag and Drop
public MyEditor()
          //Create the textArea and configure it.
          output = new JTextArea();
          output.setMargin(new Insets(5,5,5,5));
          output.getDocument().addUndoableEditListener(undoManager);
          output.getDocument().addDocumentListener(new MyTextAreaListener());
          dt = new DropTarget(output,new MyDropTarget());
class MyDropTarget implements DropTargetListener
        public void dragEnter(DropTargetDragEvent dtde)
        public void dragExit(DropTargetEvent dte)
        public void dragOver(DropTargetDragEvent dtde)
        public void dropActionChanged(DropTargetDragEvent dtde)
       public void drop(DropTargetDropEvent dtde)
            Transferable tr = dtde.getTransferable();
            DataFlavor[] flavors = tr.getTransferDataFlavors();
            if (flavors.isFlavorJavaFileListType())
dtde.acceptDrop(DnDConstants.ACTION_COPY_OR_MOVE);
ta.setText("Successful file list drop.\n\n");
java.util.List list = (java.util.List)tr.getTransferData(flavors[i]);
for (int j = 0; j < list.size(); j++) {
ta.append(list.get(j) + "\n");
dtde.dropComplete(true);
The contents of the method is wrong..public void drop(DropTargetDropEvent dtde)..can anyone help me. my problem is this code does not work

Answer 1

import java.awt.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.HashMap;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.text.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;
import javax.swing.undo.*;
import java.awt.dnd.*;
import java.awt.datatransfer.*;
public class MyEditor extends JFrame
     private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
      * JTextArea
     public static JTextArea output;
      * HashMap
     private HashMap actions;
      * inputFile
     private String fileName;
      * Manager for UNDO operation
     private UndoManager undoManager = new UndoManager();
      * JScrollpane
     private JScrollPane scrollPane;
      * JFrame
      private static JFrame fr = new JFrame();
       * Drop Target
      private DropTarget dt;
      * create Menubar for the frame
     public MyEditor()
          //Create the textArea and configure it.
          output = new JTextArea();
          output.setMargin(new Insets(5,5,5,5));
          output.getDocument().addUndoableEditListener(undoManager);
          output.getDocument().addDocumentListener(new MyTextAreaListener());
           dt = new DropTarget(output,new MyDropTarget());
        scrollPane = new JScrollPane(output);
          scrollPane.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(600, 400));
        JLabel label = new JLabel("  ");
        fr.getContentPane().add(label, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
          fr.getContentPane().add(scrollPane, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        fr.addWindowListener(new MyWindowListener());
          //createActionTable(output);
          /*/Create menuitems
          JMenu fileMenu = createFileMenu();
          //Add menuItems to MenuBar
          JMenuBar mb = new JMenuBar();
          mb.add(fileMenu);
          mb.add(editMenu);
          mb.add(formatMenu);
          mb.add(searchMenu);
          fr.setJMenuBar(mb);*/
      * Get Name of Action from HashMap
      * @param name
      * @return Action
     private Action getActionByName(String name)
          return (Action)(actions.get(name));
      * Create the GUI and show it.  For thread safety,
      * this method should be invoked from the
      * event-dispatching thread.
     private static void createAndShowGUI()
          //Make sure we have nice window decorations.
          JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);
           * Instance of this class
          MyEditor searcheditor = new MyEditor();
          //searcheditor.createMenuBar();
          fr.setTitle("Editor");
          fr.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DO_NOTHING_ON_CLOSE);
          fr.pack();
          fr.setVisible(true);
      * Main Method
      * @param args command Line Arguments
     public static void main(String[] args)
          javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable()
               public void run()
                    createAndShowGUI();
     class MyWindowListener implements WindowListener
        public void windowOpened(WindowEvent e)
        public void windowIconified(WindowEvent e)
        public void windowDeiconified(WindowEvent e)
        public void windowActivated(WindowEvent e)
        public void windowDeactivated(WindowEvent e)
        public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e)
            MyTextAreaStatus myob = new MyTextAreaStatus();
            boolean status = myob.getStatus();
            if(!status)
                int option = JOptionPane.showConfirmDialog(output,"File not Saved \n Do you want to close?","MyEditor",JOptionPane.YES_NO_OPTION,JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE);
                if( option == JOptionPane.YES_OPTION)
                    System.exit(0);
                else
                    myob.setStatus(false);
            else
                System.exit(0);
        public void windowClosed(WindowEvent e)
    class MyTextAreaListener implements DocumentListener
        MyTextAreaStatus myob;
        public void changedUpdate(DocumentEvent e)
             System.out.println("Changed");
             boolean temp = false;
             myob = new MyTextAreaStatus();
             myob.setStatus(temp);
        public void insertUpdate(DocumentEvent e)
            System.out.println("inserted");
            boolean temp = false;
            myob = new MyTextAreaStatus();
            myob.setStatus(temp);
        public void removeUpdate(DocumentEvent e)
             System.out.println("Removed");
             boolean temp = false;
             myob = new MyTextAreaStatus();
             myob.setStatus(temp);
    class MyTextAreaStatus
         * booean to determine te status of textArea
        boolean currentStatus = true;
        public void setStatus(boolean tempStatus)
             System.out.println("temp Status is"+tempStatus);
             currentStatus = tempStatus;
             System.out.println("currentStatus is"+currentStatus);
        public boolean getStatus()
            System.out.println("status is"+currentStatus);
            return currentStatus;
    class MyDropTarget implements DropTargetListener
        public void dragEnter(DropTargetDragEvent dtde)
        public void dragExit(DropTargetEvent dte)
        public void dragOver(DropTargetDragEvent dtde)
        public void dropActionChanged(DropTargetDragEvent dtde)
        public void drop(DropTargetDropEvent dtde)
            try
                Transferable tr = dtde.getTransferable();
                DataFlavor[] flavors = tr.getTransferDataFlavors();
                for (int i = 0; i < flavors.length; i++)
                if (flavors.isFlavorJavaFileListType())
dtde.acceptDrop(DnDConstants.ACTION_COPY_OR_MOVE);
java.util.List list = (java.util.List)tr.getTransferData(flavors[i]);
for (int j = 0; j < list.size(); j++)
output.append(list.get(j) + "\n");
dtde.dropComplete(true);
catch(UnsupportedFlavorException use)
catch(IOException ioe)
here is a code that will work. trying dragging a file into the text area.Only the path appears.not the contents