GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 661275
Add file drag and drop support to the dash
Last modified: 2013-06-17 09:07:10 UTC
Currently gnome-shell supports drag and drop through the overview, but limited to dropping files on opened windows. It would be useful to also support dropping files on application icons on the launcher. It could mean faster interaction but I'm not sure what to do in case application has multiple instances opened.
(In reply to comment #0) > It could mean faster interaction but I'm not sure what to do > in case application has multiple instances opened. The Shell doesn't have to decide what to do anyway: applications decide what to do with the file, which may be opening a new window, or a new tab, or anything. It's just like opening a file from Nautilus. I think it wouldn't hurt to have this feature, but how is it different from right-click and Open with $APPLICATION? What do you gain?
What does dropping files on an application actually mean? What should happen when you drop a file on an a nautilus icon? What should the shell do? What should nautilus do? You can't even "drop files on a window" you can only drop stuff on a specific area of the window. For example you are dragging a text there is no way for the shell to know where this should be dropped. It just allows you to focus the window and then drop on the appropriate area. For a generic "drop on window/application" feature we need some kind of protocol (default actions) and application changes to support that.
(In reply to comment #2) > What does dropping files on an application actually mean? The same as launching with "Open With...". That is, it launches the application with the file/URI according to the .desktop entry, wrt. %f/%F/%u/%U. > You can't even "drop files on a window" you can only drop stuff on a specific > area of the window. For example you are dragging a text there is no way for the > shell to know where this should be dropped. It just allows you to focus the > window and then drop on the appropriate area. We already mark the output window XdndAware. I see no reason why we wouldn't be able to pass the selection data as gotten from the XdndPosition timestamp and let actors accept/decline the data. As a very silly example, you might want to drag text into an StEntry like GTK+ already lets you do instead of copy/pasting it for some reason.
(In reply to comment #1) > I think it wouldn't hurt to have this feature, but how is it different from > right-click and Open with $APPLICATION? What do you gain? Hmm, probably not much, but if combined with overview search functionality it could be more useful. As I think of it maybe gnome-shell could gain similar functionality to ubuntu launcher - it highlights apps that can open selected file if I remember correctly. Or what about dasher displaying only apps associated with selected file type. Plus some keyboard shortcuts. That would we awesome: 1. press Super 2. search for a file 3. select it (dash displays associated apps) 4a. open file with say second app by pressing for example super+2 4b. drag and drop file to selected app Why would that be useful? Because right now you can only open file from overview in default app.
*** Bug 665365 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Thanks for the bug report. This particular bug has already been reported into our bug tracking system, but please feel free to report any further bugs you find. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 644422 ***