Drag text between edit controls

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Recently, I completed a CDragEdit class. With this class,
user can copy/move string between edit controls or other editors
just by drag-and-drop.

The drag_edit_src.zip
is the source code of CDragEdit and the drag_edit_test.zip is the test
program, including its source code also, of CDragEdit. Both of zip files
have one README.TXT. In this file, I have described how to use it and
how it works. For your convenience, I also listed the content of
README.TXT at the bottom of this mail.

In the past time, if you want to copy/move string from one edit control
to another edit control or copy/move string from one edit window of
foreign application to a edit control, only you can do is copy, cut,
and paste via clipboard. For such a inconvenience, I implemented a
CDragEdit control which is based on the standard CEdit control so that
you can override the existent application’s edit control as a drag-drop
enabled control very easily. Besides that the CDragEdit’s drag-drop
capability is implemented via OLE’s UDT (Uniform Data Transfer) so you
can use its drag-drop to share data with most applications. e.g.
Visual C++, WordPad, Word, …,etc.

If you have any question about the CDragEdit, don’t hesitate to e-mail to
me.

* Class hierarchy of CDragEdit

CObject

|

+-CCmdTarget

  |

  +-CWnd

    |

    +-CEdit

      |

      +-CDragEdit
* How to use the CDragEdit ?

To use a drag edit control in an existing dialog box

In your dialog definition file, you need to include the “CDragEdit.h” first, and

then declare CDragEdit member variable corresponding to each edit control that

you want it become a drag-drop enabled control. After you have declared the

CDragEdit variables, you have to use DDX_Control() to subclass the standard edit

control as a CDragEdit control in DoDataExchange() and call CDragEdit::Init(),

in OnInitialDialog(), to initiate the CDragEdit and enable its drag-drop

capability.
To use a drag edit control in toolbar

Calling CDragEdit::Create() to create a drag edit control and then

call CDragEdit::Init() to initiate this edit control and enable

its drag-drop capability.
For example, you want to use two drag edit controls in the CTestDragEDitDlg. You

need to add some codes in your xxxDlg.h and xxxDlg.cpp as below:
////////////////////// //TestDragEditDlg.h ////////////////////// #include
"CDragEdit.h" //include it in your xxxDlg.h

class CTestDragEditDlg : public CDialog
{
	...
	// Dialog Data
	//{{AFX_DATA(CTestDragEditDlg)
	enum { IDD = IDD_DRAGEDIT };
	CDragEdit m_edit2; //declare a CDragEdit variable 
	CDragEdit m_edit1; //for each edit control
	//}}AFX_DATA
	...
}

//////////////////////
//TestDragEditDlg.cpp
//////////////////////
void CTestDragEditDlg::DoDataExchange(CDataExchange* pDX)
{
	CDialog::DoDataExchange(pDX);
	//{{AFX_DATA_MAP(CTestDragEditDlg)
	DDX_Control(pDX, IDC_EDIT2, m_edit2); //subclass the standard edit
	DDX_Control(pDX, IDC_EDIT1, m_edit1); //control as a CDragEdit
	//}}AFX_DATA_MAP
}

BOOL CTestDragEditDlg::OnInitDialog()
{
	...
	    //You need to initiate CDragEdit first 
	m_edit1.Init();
	    m_edit2.Init();
	...
}

How the CDragEdit works ?

As I mentioned, the drag-drop of CDragEdit is implemented via OLE

drag-and-drop. So, I implemented a CDEDropTarget, which is based on

COleDropTarget, and a CDEDataSource, which is based on COleDataSource.

The CDEDropTaregt serves the CDragEdit as a data comsumer and the

CCDEDataSource serves the CDragEdit as a data producer.

Drag-drop data transfers usually begin when the user press the left

button of mouse. So, in CDragEdit, simply handle the WM_LBUTTONDOWN

messagem, coping selected string into a CDEDataSource object using

CacheGlobalData(), and call CDEDataSource::DoDragDrop() to tranfer

string to a drop target.
In CDragEdit::Init(), I register this window as a drop target by

calling CDEDropTarget::Register(). Once a CDragEdit is registered

with OLE to be a drop target, it becomes eligible to receive

OnDropEnter(), OnDropOver(), OnDropLeave(), and OnDrop() notifications

from OLE. In OnDrop(), the CDragEdit will retrieve data with CF_TEXT

format from COleDataObject and place at the dropped point.
For more information, please refer to the comment of source code.