Drag and drop in multi-window mode

Devices that run Android 7.0 (API level 24) or higher support multi-window mode, which lets users move data from one app to another by dragging and dropping.

The source app, where the operation starts, provides the data. The target app, where the operation ends, receives the data.

When the user starts to drag content, the source app should set the DRAG_FLAG_GLOBAL flag to indicate that the user can drag data to another app.

Because the data moves across app boundaries, the apps share access to the data using a content URI. This requires the following:

• The source app must set either or both of the DRAG_FLAG_GLOBAL_URI_READ and DRAG_FLAG_GLOBAL_URI_WRITE flags, depending on the read or write access to the data that the source app wants to grant to the target app.
• The target app must call requestDragAndDropPermissions() immediately before handling the data that the user drags into the app. If the target app no longer needs access to the dragged data, the app can then call release() on the object that was returned from requestDragAndDropPermissions(). Otherwise, the permissions are released when the containing activity is destroyed. If your implementation involves starting a new Activity to process the dropped URIs, you will need to grant the new Activity the same permissions. You must set the clip data and a flag:

  Kotlin

  intent.setClipData(clipData)
  intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSION)

  Java

  intent.setClipData(clipData);
  intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSION);

The following code snippets demonstrate how to release read-only access to dragged data immediately after the user drop operation takes place. See the Drag and Drop Demo on GitHub for a more complete example.

Source activity

Kotlin

// Drag a file stored in an images/ directory in internal storage.
val internalImagesDir = File(context.filesDir, "images")
val imageFile = File(internalImagesDir, imageFilename)
val uri = FileProvider.getUriForFile(context, contentAuthority, imageFile)

val listener = OnDragStartListener@{ view: View, _: DragStartHelper ->
    val clipData = ClipData(ClipDescription("Image Description",
                                            arrayOf("image/*")),
                            ClipData.Item(uri))
    // Must include DRAG_FLAG_GLOBAL to permit dragging data between apps.
    // This example provides read-only access to the data.
    val flags = View.DRAG_FLAG_GLOBAL or View.DRAG_FLAG_GLOBAL_URI_READ
    return@OnDragStartListener view.startDragAndDrop(clipData,
                                                     View.DragShadowBuilder(view),
                                                     null,
                                                     flags)
}

// Container where the image originally appears in the source app.
val srcImageView = findViewById<ImageView>(R.id.imageView)

// Detect and start the drag event.
DragStartHelper(srcImageView, listener).apply {
    attach()
}

Java

// Drag a file stored in an images/ directory in internal storage.
File internalImagesDir = new File(context.getFilesDir(), "images");
File imageFile = new File(internalImagesDir, imageFilename);
final Uri uri = FileProvider.getUriForFile(context, contentAuthority, imageFile);

// Container where the image originally appears in the source app.
ImageView srcImageView = findViewById(R.id.imageView);

// Enable the view to detect and start the drag event.
new DragStartHelper(srcImageView, (view, helper) -> {
    ClipData clipData = new ClipData(new ClipDescription("Image Description",
                                                          new String[] {"image/*"}),
                                     new ClipData.Item(uri));
    // Must include DRAG_FLAG_GLOBAL to permit dragging data between apps.
    // This example provides read-only access to the data.
    int flags = View.DRAG_FLAG_GLOBAL | View.DRAG_FLAG_GLOBAL_URI_READ;
    return view.startDragAndDrop(clipData,
                                 new View.DragShadowBuilder(view),
                                 null,
                                 flags);
}).attach();

Target activity

Kotlin

// Container where the image is to be dropped in the target app.
val targetImageView = findViewById<ImageView>(R.id.imageView)

targetImageView.setOnDragListener { view, event ->

    when (event.action) {

        ACTION_DROP -> {
            val imageItem: ClipData.Item = event.clipData.getItemAt(0)
            val uri = imageItem.uri

            // Request permission to access the image data being dragged into
            // the target activity's ImageView element.
            val dropPermissions = requestDragAndDropPermissions(event)
            (view as ImageView).setImageURI(uri)

            // Release the permission immediately afterward because it's no
            // longer needed.
            dropPermissions.release()
            return@setOnDragListener true
        }

        // Implement logic for other DragEvent cases here.

        // An unknown action type is received.
        else -> {
            Log.e("DragDrop Example", "Unknown action type received by View.OnDragListener.")
            return@setOnDragListener false
        }

    }
}

Java

// Container where the image is to be dropped in the target app.
ImageView targetImageView = findViewById(R.id.imageView);

targetImageView.setOnDragListener( (view, event) -> {

    switch (event.getAction()) {

        case ACTION_DROP:
            ClipData.Item imageItem = event.getClipData().getItemAt(0);
            Uri uri = imageItem.getUri();

            // Request permission to access the image data being dragged into
            // the target activity's ImageView element.
            DragAndDropPermissions dropPermissions =
                requestDragAndDropPermissions(event);

            ((ImageView)view).setImageURI(uri);

            // Release the permission immediately afterward because it's no
            // longer needed.
            dropPermissions.release();

            return true;

        // Implement logic for other DragEvent cases here.

        // An unknown action type was received.
        default:
            Log.e("DragDrop Example","Unknown action type received by View.OnDragListener.");
            break;
    }

    return false;
});