CODEWITHSUNDEEP
objective-ccocoamacosuser-interfacedrag-and-drop
jorgenpt
jorgenpt

Reputation: 61

How to be notified in OS X when a drag operation *starts* anywhere?

I'm wondering if there's any way to have my application be notified when a drag-and-drop operation starts anywhere on the screen, even if I don't have an active window there.

I've looked into the normal drag-and-drop APIs, but I haven't spotted anything that does this. The NSDraggingDestination protocol along with the -[NSWindow/NSView registerForDraggedTypes:] method allows you to notice when someone is dragging something and that crosses over into your window, but I'd like to notice it when any dragging operation is started anywhere on the screen.

Any tips on how to go about this? Is there a standard Cocoa API for it, or is there a private API / some kind of dirty hack to get this information?

Thanks in advance :)

Upvotes: 3

Views: 638

Answers (2)

JoséNunoFerreira
JoséNunoFerreira

Reputation: 170

i haven't done it,
but i am assuming you need some kind of external software monitoring ALL mouse activity on the system, and reporting it to your app (or your application doing this itself),
as dragging events are usually reported in your app only when there is activity inside your app's window..

Upvotes: 0

user557219
user557219

Reputation:

Take a look at NSEvent’s +addGlobalMonitorForEventsMatchingMask:handler:. I’m not sure if you can track mouse dragging but it’s certainly possible to track mouse button up/down events.

Upvotes: 3

Related Questions