C# and HTML5: drag and Drop elements

HTML5 API includes Drag and Drop (DnD) native functionality.

The event listener methods for all the drag and drop events accept Event object which has a readonly attribute called dataTransfer. The event.dataTransfer returns DataTransfer object associated with the event

This is the list of events fired during the different stages:

In this post we develop an application to handle the drag and drop events between two elements, and launch a HttpPost method in the server which will ends inserting the dragged value in database.

First of all we create an MVC project in C#. Under Controller folder in the HomeController we add this code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;

namespace HTML5DragAndDrop.Controllers {
   public class HomeController : Controller {
      ITestDatabase _testDatabase = new TestDatabase();

      public ActionResult Index() {
         return View();
      }

      public ActionResult About() {
         ViewBag.Message = "Your application description page.";

         return View();
      }

      public ActionResult Contact() {
         ViewBag.Message = "Your contact page.";

         return View();
      }

      [HttpPost]
      public JsonResult InsertTestElements(string testElement) {
         int? insertResult = null;

         if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(testElement)) {
            string[] elementData = testElement.Split(':');

            string symbol = elementData[0].Trim();
            string name = elementData[1].Trim();

            insertResult = _testDatabase.InsertElement(symbol, name);
         }

         return Json(insertResult);
      }
   }
}

Now we create a folder in the root of the project called Code. Under this folder we create two new files:

ITestDatabase.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

public interface ITestDatabase {
   int InsertElement(string symbol, string name);
}   
 

TestDatabase.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;

public class TestDatabase : ITestDatabase {
   /// <summary>
   /// Save an element in the database and return the new ID
   /// </summary>
   /// <param name="symbol"></param>
   /// <param name="name"></param>
   /// <returns></returns>
   public int InsertElement(string symbol, string name) {
      // save the element in database
      // now it returns just a number: it will be the Id of the record
      return 1;
   }
}

The first step is the definition of the UXinterface, in sequence the display is this

We are adding h5utils.js file, with an implementation of AddEvent function to simplify our code:

h5utils.js

var AddEvent = (function () {
   if (document.addEventListener) {
      return function (el, type, fn) {
         if (el && el.nodeName || el === window) {
            el.addEventListener(type, fn, false);
         } else if (el && el.length) {
            for (var i = 0; i < el.length; i++) {
               AddEvent(el[i], type, fn);
            }
         }
      };
   } else {
      return function (el, type, fn) {
         if (el && el.nodeName || el === window) {
            el.attachEvent('on' + type, function () 
                  { 
                    return fn.call(el, window.event); 
                  });
         } else if (el && el.length) {
            for (var i = 0; i < el.length; i++) {
               AddEvent(el[i], type, fn);
            }
         }
      };
   }
})();

var pDragElement = document.createElement('p');
var chemicalElements = document.querySelectorAll('div > p'), el = null;
for (var i = 0; i < chemicalElements.length; i++) {
   el = chemicalElements[i];
   el.setAttribute('draggable', 'true');
   AddEvent(el, 'dragstart', dragStartElement);
   AddEvent(el, 'dragend', dragEndElement);
}

function dragStartElement(e) {
   e.dataTransfer.effectAllowed = 'copy';
   e.dataTransfer.setData('Text', this.id);
   e.dataTransfer.setData('Type', this.innerHTML);

   this.style.backgroundColor = "#ffa31a";
}

function dragEndElement(e) {
   this.style.backgroundColor = "#fff9f0";
}

var divBoxElements = document.querySelector('#divBoxElements');

AddEvent(divBoxElements, 'dragover', function (e) {
   if (e.preventDefault) e.preventDefault();
   e.dataTransfer.dropEffect = 'copy';
   return false;
});

AddEvent(divBoxElements, 'drop', function (e) {
   if (e.stopPropagation) e.stopPropagation();

   var element = e.dataTransfer.getData('Type');
   pDragElement.innerHTML = "Adding " + element + " element";

   var pClone = pDragElement.cloneNode(true);
   var newDiv = document.createElement("div");
   newDiv.appendChild(pClone);
   divBoxElements.appendChild(newDiv);
   InsertTestElement(element);

   return false;
});

In the Index.cshtml we change as following code:

Index.cshtml

@{
   ViewBag.Title = "Home Page";
}

<div class="jumbotron">
    <h1>Drag and drop example</h1>
    <p class="lead">HTML5 API includes Drag and Drop (DnD) 
    native functionality. The event listener methods for all the drag and 
    drop events accept Event object which has a readonly attribute called 
    dataTransfer. The event.dataTransfer returns DataTransfer object 
    associated with the event.</p>
    <p><a href="https://puresourcecode.com" 
    class="btn btn-primary btn-lg">Learn more »</a></p>
</div>

<div class="row">
    <p id="1A">1: A</p>
    <p id="2B">2: B</p>
    <p id="3C">3: C</p>
    <p id="4D">4: D</p>
    <p id="5E">5: E</p>
    <div id="divBoxElements 
       style="border: 1px solid #dcdcdc; width: 300px; height: 300px;"
    ></div>
</div>

@section scripts {
    <script src="~/Scripts/html5utils.js"></script>
    <script>
        <!--
        function InsertTestElement(element) {
            var url = '@Url.Action("InsertTestElements", "Home")';

            $.post(url, { testElement: element }, function (data) {
                switch (data) {
                    case 1:
                        divBoxElements.innerHTML = 
                             element + " inserted OK";
                        setTimeout(function () { 
                             divBoxElements.innerHTML = ""; }, 2000);
                        break;

                    default:
                        alert("Error inserting the element");
                }
            });
        }
        //-->
    </script>
}

Download or fork tthis code on Github.

Happy coding!