1. JavaFX Tutorial
2. JavaFX Overview
3. Your First JavaFX Application
4. JavaFX Stage
5. JavaFX Scene
6. JavaFX Node
7. JavaFX Properties
8. JavaFX FXML
9. JavaFX CSS Styling
10. JavaFX ImageView
11. JavaFX Text
12. JavaFX Fonts
13. JavaFX Hyperlink
14. JavaFX Label
15. JavaFX Button
16. JavaFX MenuButton
17. JavaFX SplitMenuButton
18. JavaFX ToggleButton
19. JavaFX RadioButton
20. JavaFX CheckBox
21. JavaFX ChoiceBox
22. JavaFX ComboBox
23. JavaFX ListView
24. JavaFX DatePicker
25. JavaFX ColorPicker
26. JavaFX TextField
27. JavaFX PasswordField
28. JavaFX Slider
29. JavaFX TextArea
30. JavaFX ToolBar
31. JavaFX Tooltip
32. JavaFX ProgressBar
33. JavaFX FileChooser
34. JavaFX DirectoryChooser
35. JavaFX Accordion
36. JavaFX TitledPane
37. JavaFX SplitPane
38. JavaFX TabPane
39. JavaFX ScrollPane
40. JavaFX Group
41. JavaFX Region
42. JavaFX Pane
43. JavaFX HBox
44. JavaFX VBox
45. JavaFX Separator
46. JavaFX FlowPane
47. JavaFX TilePane
48. JavaFX GridPane
49. JavaFX MenuBar
50. JavaFX ContexMenu
51. JavaFX WebView
52. JavaFX PieChart
53. JavaFX TableView
54. JavaFX TreeView
55. JavaFX TreeTableView
56. JavaFX HTMLEditor
57. JavaFX Pagination
58. JavaFX BarChart
59. JavaFX StackedBarChart
60. JavaFX ScatterChart
61. JavaFX LineChart
62. JavaFX AreaChart
63. JavaFX StackedAreaChart
64. JavaFX Color
65. JavaFX 2D
66. JavaFX Effects
67. JavaFX 3D
68. JavaFX Transformation
69. JavaFX Animation
70. JavaFX Media - JavaFX Video and Audio Support
71. JavaFX Canvas
72. JavaFX Drag and Drop
73. JavaFX Concurrency

• Drop Source and Drop Target
• JavaFX Drag and Drop Example

The JavaFX Drag and Drop support enables you to design your JavaFX applications so that users can drag JavaFX nodes (controls) onto other JavaFX nodes and have your application be able to listen for, and react to these drag-and-drop events. Drag and drop can be useful as a way for users to specify actions more easily, in the situations where that makes sense - e.g dragging files to new locations, or data to analytics operations etc.

By the way, the JavaFX Drag and Drop support is quite similar to the HTML5 Drag and Drop support. If you already know HTML5 drag and drop functionality (via JavaScript) it will be easier to understand how JavaFX Drag and Drop functionality works. If not - just start directly with JavaFX Drag and Drop support.

Drop Source and Drop Target

The JavaFX Drag and Drop support divides JavaFX controls involved in drag and drop into the categories drag sources and drop targets .

A drag source is a JavaFX control (e.g. a 2D shape, ImageView etc.) which can be dragged onto another node. In general, most JavaFX controls can be used as drag sources.

A drop target is a JavaFX control onto which you can drag and then drop a drag source. When the drag source is dropped onto the drop target an event is fired which your application can listen for and respond to.

JavaFX Drag and Drop Example

Here is a JavaFX drag and drop example showing how to make one 2D circle into a drag source, and another 2D circle into a drop target:

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.event.EventHandler;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.input.*;
import javafx.scene.layout.Pane;
import javafx.scene.paint.Color;
import javafx.scene.shape.Circle;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class DragAndDropExample extends Application {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        launch(args);
    }

    public void start(Stage primaryStage) {

        Circle circle = createCircle("#ff00ff", "#ff88ff",100);

        circle.setOnDragDetected((MouseEvent event) -> {
            System.out.println("Circle 1 drag detected");

            Dragboard db = circle.startDragAndDrop(TransferMode.ANY);

            ClipboardContent content = new ClipboardContent();
            content.putString("Circle source text");
            db.setContent(content);
        });
        circle.setOnMouseDragged((MouseEvent event) -> {
            event.setDragDetect(true);
        });

        Circle circle2 = createCircle("#00ffff", "#88ffff",300);

        circle2.setOnDragOver(new EventHandler<DragEvent>() {
            public void handle(DragEvent event) {
                if (event.getGestureSource() != circle2 && event.getDragboard().hasString()) {
                    event.acceptTransferModes(TransferMode.COPY_OR_MOVE);
                }

                event.consume();
            }
        });

        circle2.setOnDragDropped((DragEvent event) -> {
            Dragboard db = event.getDragboard();
            if (db.hasString()) {
                System.out.println("Dropped: " + db.getString());
                event.setDropCompleted(true);
            } else {
                event.setDropCompleted(false);
            }
            event.consume();
        });

        Pane pane = new Pane();
        pane.getChildren().add(circle);
        pane.getChildren().add(circle2);

        Scene scene = new Scene(pane, 1024, 800, true);
        primaryStage.setScene(scene);
        primaryStage.setTitle("2D Example");

        primaryStage.show();
    }

    private Circle createCircle(String strokeColor, String fillColor, double x) {
        Circle circle = new Circle();
        circle.setCenterX(x);
        circle.setCenterY(200);
        circle.setRadius(50);
        circle.setStroke(Color.valueOf(strokeColor));
        circle.setStrokeWidth(5);
        circle.setFill(Color.valueOf(fillColor));
        return circle;
    }
}