What are Drag Types and Drop Targets?

Drag and drop actions allow users to click and drag an item from location to another within a screen. This allows users to intuitively interact with content, rearrange items, and trigger further actions by dropping onto a designated area. Some examples of drag and drop actions are:

• Dragging a record from a grid onto a delete area to remove it
• Dragging a contact from a grid onto a specific company on a company table to move that contact to that company
• Dragging items into different sections on a Kanban board to change the state of the record - see Making Kanban Boards

How are Drag Types and Drop Targets Configured?

To set up drag and drop on components, a 

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 on the object you are dragging from and a 

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 on the object you are dropping onto is required. Components that can have 

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are:

• grids
• cards

Any component which has an

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 can be a Drop Target. The Drop Action (performed when the drop occurs) is configured in an Actionflow on the Drop Target.

For example, to assign a new company to an employee, a user creates two grids on a screen. The employee and company table have a relationship and are linked by a CompanyIDfield. The employee can be dragged and dropped onto a company to update CompanyID attribute for the employee. 

Creating Drag and Drop Actions

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s and 

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s are set on components on a screen.

Creating a Drag Type

1. Right-click on the grid and select

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    on the component from which data will be dragged

2. On the

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   , in the Action Settings section, under Drag Type, select or create a drag type, e.g. Move Contact

3. If creating a Drag Type, click the

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    button
   1. Name: Enter a name for the drag type
   2. Attributes: create the attributes to be used in the Actionflow, e.g. CompanyID

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4. A Drag Mappings section will become available in the Action Settings
5. Click the 

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    button
6. Map across attributes from the table onto the 

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   attributes set above, to be used within the Actionflow

Components with a drag type can be dragged and dropped onto any component which has a drop target with a matching drag type.

Creating a Drop Target

1. Click on the component where data will be dropped to open the

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2. On the

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   , in the Drop Targets section, select or create a drop target, e.g. Add Contact
3. If creating a Drop Target, click the

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    button
   1. Name: Enter a name for the drop target
   2. Drag Type: Select the drag type (e.g. Move Contact) that matches the drag type set on the component being dragged
   3. Drop Action: Select

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   4. Actionflow: Select or create an Actionflow to run when a component with a matching drag type is dropped onto this component

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4. If creating an 

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   , select the

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   as the an

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5. Map in the attribute(s) created on the 

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6. Then configure your Actionflow as required, e.g. delete a record, move that contact to a company, change the state of the record, etc.

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Drag Types and Drop Targets

Worked Examples

Here's a worked example using the Company Data (available from the Learning Centre).

In this example, we are using:  

• A Company Approval Review screen containing:
  • a grid backed by the Companies table
    • with a Background Filter to only companies where their Status does not equal Approved or Rejected
  • two areas containing Approve and Reject icons  - this screen was created using the Multi-Tile  template

Tip
If you are completing this chapter as part of the Actionflow course and using a training instance, the data and screens have already been pre-loaded into the Actionflow Advanced Application. For this example, we'll be working on the Company Approval Review screen.

Example 1: Approve Company Using Drag and Drop

In this example, we'll configure company records on a grid to be draggable, and set up an area on a screen as a drop target to receive the record(s). When a company is dropped in the area, its Status will be updated to Approved. We'll add some additional processing to our Actionflow to update the audit details on the record, showing who made the change, along with the date and time.

Drag Type Setup

1. Open the Company Approval Review screen
2. Right-click on the Companies Pending Review grid and select 

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3. Click the 

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4. In the Action Settings section, click the 

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    icon next to 

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    to create a new drag type:
   1. Name: Company
   2. Attributes: select 

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      1. Name: CompanyID
      2. Type: Integer

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5. A Drag Mappings section will become available in the Action Settings
6. Click the 

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    button
7. Map across the CompanyID attribute from the Companies

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    to the 

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8. Click Confirm Mappings

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    the View

Drop Target Setup

1. On the Company Approval Review screen
2. Click on the area holding the  icon
3. Ensure the

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    for the area, OuterBorderTop, is selected
4. Click the 

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5. In the Drop Targets section, click the 

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    icon to add a new drop target:
   1. Name: CompanyApproval
   2. Drag Type: Select the Company Drag Type you set up above
   3. Drop Action: Actionflow
   4. Actionflow: click 

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       to create a new Actionflow
      1. Name: Company Approval

Actionflow Setup

1. Connect the input of the Company 

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2. Map in the CompanyID attribute 
3. Create a 

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    action
   1. Name: Update Status and Audit
4. Add three Output Attributes:
   1. NewApprovedStatus: this should contain the new 
   2. NewUpdatedByName: this should contain details of the user making the change using the internal variable _user - see Internal Variables
      1. Review the existing table data to see the formatting of the attribute

   3. NewUpdatedByTime: this should contain the date and time the user updates the record
      
      

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      title How?
      Code Block theme Emacs title Name: NewApprovedStatus, Type: String "Approved" Code Block theme Emacs title Name: NewUpdatedByName, Type: String _user.name + " (" + _user.fullUsername + ")" Code Block theme Emacs title Name: NewUpdatedTime, Type: Datetime now()

      
      

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5. Connect the 

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    to the 

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    action
6. Hover over the Calculate action and click, out
7. Click anywhere on the canvas to create a new 

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    action
   1. Name: Save Company
   2. Type: Update
   3. Table: Companies
8. Map across the three attributes created by the Calculate action onto their relevant attributes in the Companies table, and the CompanyID from the input

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Testing

1. On the Company Approval Review screen, 

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    the screen
2. Drag a company from the Companies Pending Review grid onto the Approve icon
   1. The company should be removed from this screen and instead appear on the Companies screen

Example 2: Reject Company Using Drag and Drop (Optional)

Repeat the steps above to set up the area holding the  icon as a Drop Target. Remember to change the Expression in the Output Attribute to "Rejected".