Drag and Drop for Angular components

30 Apr 20247 minutes to read

Drag and drop is a feature of a user interface that allows users to select an item or items and then move them to a different location or onto another interface element by “dragging” the selected item(s) with a pointing device (such as a mouse) and then “dropping” them at the desired location.

Syncfusion Angular components support drag and drop feature through two libraries. These are Draggable and Droppable.

Draggable

The Syncfusion’s Draggable library allows users to make any DOM element draggable by passing it as a parameter to the Draggable constructor. This can be useful for creating interactive and user-friendly interfaces, such as allowing a user to reorder items in a list by dragging them. The below code snippet enables the draggable functionality for the specific DOM element passed to the Draggable constructor.

app.component.ts

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core'
import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser'



import { Component, ViewChild } from '@angular/core';
import { Draggable } from  '@syncfusion/ej2-base';

@Component({

standalone: true,
    selector: 'app-root',
    template:` <div id='container'>
    <div #ele class='element'><p class='drag'>Draggable Element </p></div>
    </div> `
})

export class AppComponent {

@ViewChild('ele',{static: false})element:any;

    ngAfterViewInit() {
        let draggable: Draggable =
        new Draggable(this.element.nativeElement,{ clone: false });
    }
}

main.ts

import { bootstrapApplication } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
import 'zone.js';
bootstrapApplication(AppComponent).catch((err) => console.error(err));

Clone draggable element

Syncfusion provides the option to create a clone of a draggable element while the user is dragging it. It can be achieved by setting the clone property to true. Here’s an example of how to create a clone of a draggable element.

app.component.ts

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core'
import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser'

import { Component, ViewChild } from '@angular/core';
import { Draggable } from  '@syncfusion/ej2-base';

@Component({
standalone: true,
    selector: 'app-root',
    template:` <div id='container'>
    <div #ele class='element'><p class='drag'>Draggable Element </p></div>
    </div> `
})

export class AppComponent {

@ViewChild('ele',{static: false})element:any;

    ngAfterViewInit() {
        let draggable: Draggable =
        new Draggable(this.element.nativeElement,{ clone: true });
    }
}

main.ts

import { bootstrapApplication } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
import 'zone.js';
bootstrapApplication(AppComponent).catch((err) => console.error(err));

Drag area

A drag area is a specific area within a user interface that is designated for drag and drop operations. When an object or element is dragged within a drag area, certain actions or events may be triggered. The user can specify the drag area by using the dragArea property. Refer to the below sample.

app.component.ts

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core'
import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser'

 import { Component, ViewChild } from '@angular/core';
 import { Draggable, Droppable, DropEventArgs } from '@syncfusion/ej2-base';

 @Component({
standalone: true,
    selector: 'app-root',
    template:` <div id='container'>
    <div id='droppable'><p class='drop'>Drop target </p></div>
    <div id='draggable'><p class='drag'>Draggable Element </p></div>
    </div> `
})

export class AppComponent {
    @ViewChild('droppable',{static: false})element: any;
    @ViewChild('draggable',{static: false})element1: any;

    ngAfterViewInit() {
        let draggable: Draggable = new Draggable(document.getElementById('draggable') as HTMLElement, { clone: false, dragArea: "#droppable" });
    }
}

main.ts

import { bootstrapApplication } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
import 'zone.js';
bootstrapApplication(AppComponent).catch((err) => console.error(err));

Droppable

Droppable component refers to an area of a user interface that can receive a draggable component that is being moved by a user. Syncfusion’s Droppable library converts any DOM element into a droppable zone, which accepts draggable elements.

When a draggable component is moved over a droppable component, the drop event can be triggered. The user can get details about the dropped element through the event argument. Based on the event argument, the user can append the dragged element to the target element.

Refer to the following code snippet to enable droppable zones.

app.component.ts

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core'
import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser'


 
 import { Component, ViewChild } from '@angular/core';
 import { Draggable, Droppable, DropEventArgs } from '@syncfusion/ej2-base';

 @Component({

standalone: true,
    selector: 'app-root',
    template:` <div id='container'>
    <div id='droppable'><p class='drop'>Drop target </p></div>
    <div id='draggable'><p class='drag'>Draggable Element </p></div>
    </div> `
})

export class AppComponent {
    @ViewChild('droppable',{static: false})element: any;
    @ViewChild('draggable',{static: false})element1: any;

    ngAfterViewInit() {
        let draggable: Draggable = new Draggable(document.getElementById('draggable') as HTMLElement , {clone: false});
        let droppable: Droppable = new Droppable(document.getElementById('droppable') as HTMLElement , {
            drop: (e: DropEventArgs) => {
                ((e.droppedElement as HTMLElement).querySelector('.drag') as Element).textContent = 'Dropped';
            }
        });
    }
}

main.ts

import { bootstrapApplication } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
import 'zone.js';
bootstrapApplication(AppComponent).catch((err) => console.error(err));