Thread: Desktop shortcut drag and drop

I wonder what the java program would receive when a file is dragged from the desktop into the program.
If the java program got the path to the file, it could read the contents of the file and perhaps build an image using file's icon and a command line that could be used with the Process and Runtime classes.
Have you tried writing the drop receiving code to see what the java program gets?

What's your end goal with this?

Originally Posted by KevinWorkman

What's your end goal with this?

the end goal is to have a desktop application, somewhat like rainmeter or stardock, where you have a panel you can drop shortcuts into, and then i'll add some features to it along the way.

#2
no i haven't tried the drop command, i do not know how to connect it with the standard jpanel from netbeans, i thought there should be premade drop events to chose from, but i can't find any.

Have you looked at the tutorials? There are some simple examples there you could experiment with.
Lesson: Drag and Drop and Data Transfer (The Java™ Tutorials > Creating a GUI With JFC/Swing)

I'd suggest you take one of the example programs from the tutorial and play with it to see how DnD works.

Escape the escape character.

System.out.println("\\");

You need to escape (tell the compiler to ignore) the \ which is the escape character: "\\"

Or you could just create a new File instance and use the getName() function. Probably better as it's more platform independent than using a hard-coded character that might change for different systems.

i got .getName to work. thx.

I recommend you check out the API and the basic tutorials, which incidentally are the first and second respective results for googling "java file".

Can you provide an SSCCE that demonstrates this problem? JButtons don't do that for me by default.

if you run this and just moves the mouse over the 4 jbuttons you'll see that they get "selected" and keep getting darker and darker the more times you drag the mouse over them

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
 
public class Test extends JFrame {
 
    JPanel ta;
 
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new Test();
    }
 
    public Test() {
        setSize(300, 300);
        setUndecorated(true);
        setBackground(new Color(0, 0, 0, 0));        
        ta = new JPanel();
        ta.setLayout(new GridLayout(2, 4));
        ta.setBackground(new Color(0, 0, 0, 10));
        getContentPane().add(ta, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        JButton q = new JButton();
        JButton q1 = new JButton();
        JButton q2 = new JButton();
        JButton q3 = new JButton();
        q.setBackground(new Color(0, 0, 0, 10));
        q1.setBackground(new Color(0, 0, 0, 10));
        q2.setBackground(new Color(0, 0, 0, 10));
        q3.setBackground(new Color(0, 0, 0, 10));
        ta.add(q);
        ta.add(q1);
        ta.add(q2);
        ta.add(q3);
        setVisible(true);
        repaint();
    }
}

Please Edit your post and wrap your code with[code=java]<YOUR CODE HERE>[/code] to get highlighting

How do you test with this code to see the problem?

How do you test with this code to see the problem?

The color is almost black now. I don't see any permanent color changes when I move the mouse over the buttons.

I think I see what you mean, and I believe it has to do with specifying an alpha value for the background color of the JButton. Every time you mouse over it, the alpha value gets a little darker. I've shortened your example to make it more obvious:

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Color;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
 
public class Test extends JFrame {
 
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new Test();
    }
 
    public Test() {
        JButton button = new JButton("Mouse Over Me");
        button.setBackground(new Color(0, 255, 0, 10));
        add(button);
 
        add(new JLabel("move mouse back and forth between here and button"), BorderLayout.SOUTH);
        pack();
        setVisible(true);
    }
}

I'm looking into it, but in the mean time, somebody smarter than me might know why this happens...