Drag and Drop makes it easier to get work done on an iPad by allowing you to drag links, text, images and documents between apps in a way that was never possible. For example, creating a note in the Notes app with text and photos from a website was a tedious task composed of copying and pasting each item. With Drag and Drop, I am able to grab multiple types of items at once from the webpage and drop them all at once in my note.

Drag and Drop drags content from a source and drops it on a target. A view becomes a drag source by implementing the UIDragInteractionDelegate protocol. A view becomes a drop target by implementing the UIDropInteractionDelegate protocol.

And the good news is, it’s easy to implement.

Implementing Drag

• First, your drag source view needs to conform to the UIDragInteractionDelegate.
• Create a UIDragInteraction instance and add it to your view.
• Create a drag item by implementing the dragInteraction(_:itemsForBeginning:) method in the delegate.

let dragInteraction = UIDragInteraction(delegate: self)
view.addInteraction(dragInteraction)


func dragInteraction(_ interaction: UIDragInteraction, itemsForBeginning session: UIDragSession) -> [UIDragItem] {
     guard let image = imageView.image else { return [] }

     let provider = NSItemProvider(object: image)
     let item = UIDragItem(itemProvider: provider)
     item.localObject = image

     return [item]
}

That’s it! You can now drag your item around your view and across views. Next, you need to implement Drop.

Implementing Drop

• Like Drag, you need to first conform to the UIDropInteractionDelegate on the view you want to accept drops.
• You need to create a UIDropInteraction.
• Decide what types of drag items you want to accept by implementing the dropInteraction(_ interaction:, canHandle session:) -> Bool method.
• Tell the delegate how you want to consume the drag item with the dropInteraction(_ interaction:, sessionDidUpdate session:) -> UIDropProposal method (copy, move, etc.).
• Finally, after you lift your finger, request the data for the drag item with dropInteraction(_ interaction:, performDrop session:).

 let dropInteraction = UIDropInteraction(delegate:self)
 view.addInteraction(dropInteraction)

 func dropInteraction(_ interaction: UIDropInteraction, canHandle session: UIDropSession) -> Bool {
      return session.canLoadObjects(ofClass: [UIImage.self])
 }

 func dropInteraction(_ interaction: UIDropInteraction, sessionDidUpdate session: UIDropSession) -> UIDropProposal {
     return UIDropProposal(operation: .copy)
 }

 func dropInteraction(_ interaction: UIDropInteraction, performDrop session: UIDropSession) {
     session.loadObjects(ofClass: UIImage.self) { imageItems in
         let images = imageItems as! [UIImage]
         self.imageView.image = images.first
     }
 }

To allow your apps to send or receive data from other apps, implement the designated delegate protocol and follow the steps above for that protocol. There are many more methods that can be implemented to give greater customization to the drag and drop workflow in Apple’s documentation.

What about iPhone?

With all of the talk about iPad, you may be wondering if this feature is available on the iPhone. The answer is yes and no. While the full API is available on the iPhone, it only works within individual apps. You cannot drag items from one app to another, but you can, for example, drag a file from one folder in your app to another folder in another part your app.

Conclusion

In 2015, Apple took iPad to a whole other level with multitasking. Now, with Drag and Drop, Apple continues to push iPad further. You now know how easy it is to implement this powerful feature into your apps. As an iPad user, I can’t wait to see what you and the rest of developers come up with using Drag and Drop.

Learn more about why you should update your apps for iOS 11 before launch day, or download our ebook for a deeper look into how the changes affect your business.