The
DragSource
is the entity responsible
for the initiation of the Drag
and Drop operation, and may be used in a number of scenarios:
- 1 default instance per JVM for the lifetime of that JVM.
- 1 instance per class of potential Drag Initiator object (e.g
TextField). [implementation dependent]
- 1 per instance of a particular
Component
, or application specific
object associated with a Component
instance in the GUI. [implementation dependent]
- Some other arbitrary association. [implementation dependent]
Once the
DragSource
is
obtained, a
DragGestureRecognizer
should
also be obtained to associate the
DragSource
with a particular
Component
.
The initial interpretation of the user's gesture,
and the subsequent starting of the drag operation
are the responsibility of the implementing
Component
, which is usually
implemented by a DragGestureRecognizer
.
When a drag gesture occurs, the
DragSource
's
startDrag() method shall be
invoked in order to cause processing
of the user's navigational
gestures and delivery of Drag and Drop
protocol notifications. A
DragSource
shall only
permit a single Drag and Drop operation to be
current at any one time, and shall
reject any further startDrag() requests
by throwing an IllegalDnDOperationException
until such time as the extant operation is complete.
The startDrag() method invokes the
createDragSourceContext() method to
instantiate an appropriate
DragSourceContext
and associate the DragSourceContextPeer
with that.
If the Drag and Drop System is
unable to initiate a drag operation for
some reason, the startDrag() method throws
a java.awt.dnd.InvalidDnDOperationException
to signal such a condition. Typically this
exception is thrown when the underlying platform
system is either not in a state to
initiate a drag, or the parameters specified are invalid.
Note that during the drag, the
set of operations exposed by the source
at the start of the drag operation may not change
until the operation is complete.
The operation(s) are constant for the
duration of the operation with respect to the
DragSource
.