A wxDataObject represents data that can be copied to or from the clipboard, or
dragged and dropped. The important thing about wxDataObject is that this is a
-"smart" piece of data unlike usual "dumb" data containers such as memory
-buffers or files. Being "smart" here means that the data object itself should
+'smart' piece of data unlike usual 'dumb' data containers such as memory
+buffers or files. Being 'smart' here means that the data object itself should
know what data formats it supports and how to render itself in each of
supported formats.
A supported format, incidentally, is exactly the format in which the data can
be requested from a data object or from which the data object may be set. In
-the general case, an object may support different formats on "input" and
-"output", i.e. it may be able to render itself in a given format but not be
+the general case, an object may support different formats on 'input' and
+'output', i.e. it may be able to render itself in a given format but not be
created from data on this format or vice versa. wxDataObject defines an
enumeration type
};
\end{verbatim}
-which allows to distinguish between them. See
+which allows to distinguish between them. See
\helpref{wxDataFormat}{wxdataformat} documentation for more about formats.
-Not surprizingly, being "smart" comes at a price of added complexity. This is
+Not surprizingly, being 'smart' comes at a price of added complexity. This is
reasonable for the situations when you really need to support multiple formats,
but may be annoying if you only want to do something simple like cut and paste
text.
To provide a solution for both cases, wxWindows has two predefined classes
-which derive from wxDataObject:
-\helpref{wxDataObjectSimple}{wxdataobjectsimple} and
-\helpref{wxDataObjectComposite}{wxdataobjectcomposite}.
+which derive from wxDataObject: \helpref{wxDataObjectSimple}{wxdataobjectsimple} and
+\helpref{wxDataObjectComposite}{wxdataobjectcomposite}.
\helpref{wxDataObjectSimple}{wxdataobjectsimple} is
the simplest wxDataObject possible and only holds data in a single format (such
as HTML or text) and \helpref{wxDataObjectComposite}{wxdataobjectcomposite} is
So, you have several solutions when you need a wxDataObject class (and you need
one as soon as you want to transfer data via the clipboard or drag and drop):
-\begin{twocollist}
-\twocolitem{0. Use one of built-in classes}{You may use wxTextDataObject,
+\begin{twocollist}\itemsep=1cm
+\twocolitem{{\bf 0. Use one of built-in classes}}{You may use wxTextDataObject,
wxBitmapDataObject or wxFileDataObject in the simplest cases when you only need
-to support one format and your data is either text, bitmap or list of files}
-\twocolitem{1. Derive your class from wxDataObjectSimple}{This is the simplest
+to support one format and your data is either text, bitmap or list of files.}
+\twocolitem{{\bf 1. Use wxDataObjectSimple}}{Deriving from wxDataObjectSimple is the simplest
solution for custom data - you will only support one format and so probably
won't be able to communicate with other programs, but data transfer will work
in your program (or between different copies of it).}
-\twocolitem{2. Use wxDataObjectComposite}{This is a quite simple, but rather
-powerful solution which allows you to support any number of formats (either
+\twocolitem{{\bf 2. Use wxDataObjectComposite}}{This is a simple but powerful
+solution which allows you to support any number of formats (either
standard or custom if you combine it with the previous solution).}
-\twocolitem{3. Derive from wxDataObject directly}{This is the solution of
+\twocolitem{{\bf 3. Use wxDataObject directly}}{This is the solution for
maximal flexibility and efficiency, but it also is the most difficult to
implement.}
\end{twocollist}
-Please note that the easiest way to use Drag'n'Drop and the clipboard with
+Please note that the easiest way to use drag and drop and the clipboard with
multiple formats is by using wxDataObjectComposite, but it is not the most
efficient one as each wxDataObjectSimple would contain the whole data in its
-respective formars. Now imagine that you want to paste 200 pages of text in
+respective formats. Now imagine that you want to paste 200 pages of text in
your proprietary format, as well as Word, RTF, HTML, Unicode and plain text to
the clipboard and even today's computers are in trouble. For this case, you
will have to derive from wxDataObject directly and make it enumerate its
formats and provide the data in the requested format on demand.
Note that neither the GTK data transfer mechanisms for the clipboard and
-Drag'n'Drop nor the OLE data transfer copies any data until another application
-actually requests the data. This is in contrast to the "feel" offered to the
+drag and drop, nor the OLE data transfer copy any data until another application
+actually requests the data. This is in contrast to the 'feel' offered to the
user of a program who would normally think that the data resides in the
-clipboard after having pressed "Copy" - in reality it is only declared to be
+clipboard after having pressed 'Copy' - in reality it is only declared to be
available.
There are several predefined data object classes derived from
wxDataObjectSimple: \helpref{wxFileDataObject}{wxfiledataobject},
-\helpref{wxTextDataObject}{wxtextdataobject} and
+\helpref{wxTextDataObject}{wxtextdataobject} and
\helpref{wxBitmapDataObject}{wxbitmapdataobject} which can be used without
change.
-You may also derive your own data object classes from
-\helpref{wxCustomDataObject}{wxprivatedataobject} for user-defined types. The
+You may also derive your own data object classes from
+\helpref{wxCustomDataObject}{wxcustomdataobject} for user-defined types. The
format of user-defined data is given as mime-type string literal, such as
"application/word" or "image/png". These strings are used as they are under
Unix (so far only GTK) to identify a format and are translated into their
Windows equivalent under Win32 (using the OLE IDataObject for data exchange to
-and from the clipboard and for Drag'n'Drop). Note that the format string
-translation under Windows is not yet finnished.
+and from the clipboard and for drag and drop). Note that the format string
+translation under Windows is not yet finished.
+
+\pythonnote{At this time this class is not directly usable from wxPython.
+Derive a class from \helpref{wxPyDataObjectSimple}{wxdataobjectsimple}
+instead.}
\wxheading{Virtual functions to override}
of its functions which are pure virtual in the base class.
The data objects which only render their data or only set it (i.e. work in
-only one direction), should return 0 from
+only one direction), should return 0 from
\helpref{GetFormatCount}{wxdataobjectgetformatcount}.
\wxheading{Derived from}
\wxheading{See also}
-\helpref{Clipboard and drag and drop overview}{wxclipboardonfigoverview},
-\helpref{DnD sample}{samplednd},
-\helpref{wxFileDataObject}{wxfiledataobject},
-\helpref{wxTextDataObject}{wxtextdataobject},
-\helpref{wxBitmapDataObject}{wxbitmapdataobject},
-\helpref{wxPrivateDataObject}{wxprivatedataobject},
-\helpref{wxDropTarget}{wxdroptarget},
-\helpref{wxDropSource}{wxdropsource},
-\helpref{wxTextDropTarget}{wxtextdroptarget},
+\helpref{Clipboard and drag and drop overview}{wxdndoverview},
+\helpref{DnD sample}{samplednd},
+\helpref{wxFileDataObject}{wxfiledataobject},
+\helpref{wxTextDataObject}{wxtextdataobject},
+\helpref{wxBitmapDataObject}{wxbitmapdataobject},
+\helpref{wxCustomDataObject}{wxcustomdataobject},
+\helpref{wxDropTarget}{wxdroptarget},
+\helpref{wxDropSource}{wxdropsource},
+\helpref{wxTextDropTarget}{wxtextdroptarget},
\helpref{wxFileDropTarget}{wxfiledroptarget}
\latexignore{\rtfignore{\wxheading{Members}}}
\membersection{wxDataObject::GetAllFormats}\label{wxdataobjectgetallformats}
-\constfunc{virtual void}{GetAllFormats}{
- \param{wxDataFormat *}{formats},
- \param{Direction}{ dir = Get}}
+\constfunc{virtual void}{GetAllFormats}{ \param{wxDataFormat *}{formats}, \param{Direction}{ dir = Get}}
Copy all supported formats in the given direction to the array pointed to by
-{\it formats} (there is enough place for GetFormatCount(dir) formats in it).
+{\it formats}. There is enough space for GetFormatCount(dir) formats in it.
\membersection{wxDataObject::GetDataHere}\label{wxdataobjectgetdatahere}
\constfunc{virtual size\_t}{GetFormatCount}{\param{Direction}{ dir = Get}}
-Return the number of available formats for rendering or setting the data.
+Returns the number of available formats for rendering or setting the data.
\membersection{wxDataObject::GetPreferredFormat}\label{wxdataobjectgetpreferredformat}
\constfunc{virtual wxDataFormat}{GetPreferredFormat}{\param{Direction}{ dir = Get}}
-Returns the preferred format for either rendering the data (if {\it dir} is
-{\tt Get}, its default value) or for setting it. Usually this will be the
+Returns the preferred format for either rendering the data (if {\it dir} is {\tt Get},
+its default value) or for setting it. Usually this will be the
native format of the wxDataObject.
\membersection{wxDataObject::SetData}\label{wxdataobjectsetdata}
-\func{virtual bool}{SetData}{
- \param{const wxDataFormat\&}{ format},
- \param{size\_t}{ len},
- \param{const void }{*buf} }
+\func{virtual bool}{SetData}{ \param{const wxDataFormat\&}{ format}, \param{size\_t}{ len}, \param{const void }{*buf} }
Set the data in the format {\it format} of the length {\it len} provided in the
buffer {\it buf}.
-Returns TRUE on sucess, FALSE on failure.
-
+Returns TRUE on success, FALSE on failure.