6 ms·
Gmail: Drag and drop attachments onto messages
- spuz 16y agoCool. This was the only feature of Outlook I've missed since starting to use Gmail for work. Now I'm golden :)
- elbac 16y agoDoesn't work in chrome on mac
- misterbwong 16y agoIf anyone else is wondering (as i did) how this works, I believe they're using the w3c file api. Details here: http://dev.w3.org/2006/webapi/FileAPI/ http://dev.w3.org/2006/webapi/FileAPI/
- sp332 16y agoExample code from Mozilla Hacks: http://hacks.mozilla.org/category/fileapi/ http://hacks.mozilla.org/category/fileapi/
- mgriffith 16y agoactually, they are most likely using part of the new drag and drop API in HTML5. firefox and chrome both provide a `ev.originalEvent.dataTransfer` object as part of the DragEvent interface. additionally (and importantly), they allow the drag/drop to originate from outside of the browser. see: http://decafbad.com/blog/2009/07/15/html5-drag-and-drop http://decafbad.com/blog/2009/07/15/html5-drag-and-drop and: http://hacks.mozilla.org/2009/07/html5-drag-and-drop/ http://hacks.mozilla.org/2009/07/html5-drag-and-drop/
- misterbwong 16y agod'oh. you're right. my quick google had me thinking that html5 only allowed for in browser drag/drop so I concluded that it was the file api.
- Shtirlic 16y agoWorking on Ubuntu Chrome 5.0.342.9 beta
- c0un7d0wn 16y agoand not working on Ubuntu/10.04 (lucid) Firefox/3.6.3
- EvanK 16y agoNot working in Firefox 3.6 on mac
- slackerIII 16y agoNow if only I could paste screenshots in.
- wizard_2 16y agoI've been doing that in firefox and gmail for a long time.
- vijaydev 16y agohow?
- tomsaffell 16y agoTurn on 'Inserting images' in Gmail Labs. And while you're there try 'Message Sneak Peek' too..
- lunchbox 16y agoI don't think that addresses the essence of SlackerIII's comment. You still have to go through the tedium of launching an external program to take the screenshot, choosing a filename/save location, and then inserting/pasting into Gmail. See my comment (up) about Outlook 2010.
- dpritchett 16y agoI agree. The inability to PrtScrn+Paste into web forms continues to hamstring online workflow. I have a longer rant on that here: http://www.sharingatwork.com/2009/02/enterprise-collaborations-image-problem/ http://www.sharingatwork.com/2009/02/enterprise-collaboratio...
- cma 16y agoWith the python FUSE bindings you could setup a .jpg file on your desktop that could dynamically change based on the contents of your clipboard (and could disappear when the contents aren't an image). It wouldn't be too much more than plugging a bunch of libraries together. edit: (missed the mention of Outlook, guess you aren't able to run FUSE)
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- LiveTheDream 16y agoplupload by the makers of tinymce (http://www.plupload.com http://www.plupload.com) Allows you to upload files using HTML5 Gears, Silverlight, Flash, BrowserPlus or normal forms, providing some unique features such as upload progress, image resizing and chunked uploads. Or uploadify (http://www.uploadify.com http://www.uploadify.com)
- wolfhumble 16y agoPer the provided demos, none of these seem to support drag and drop. Or am I missing something?
- oliveoil 16y agoI like how the screenshots show a typical webbrowsing session: your main browser hidden, only the gmail message compose window visible and neatly sized-down so there's space for the folder window on the left.
- thwarted 16y agoYou know you can hit the little overlaid boxes with the arrow pointing to the upper right in the upper right of the compose screen to "pop-out" the new email composition into another, bare window, right?
- proexploit 16y agoSometimes in the past I've forgotten that GMail isn't drag and drop and tried to drag files in. Now it works. I feel as if this feature was developed to personally get me to out myself on my past habits.
- anurag 16y agoIt's great that they're supporting this, but the UI is unintuitive - you can only drag files onto the green box (which is ugly btw) but users will try to drag files onto the message textarea, which won't work. Even changing 'Drag files here' to 'Drag files into this box' will help.
- jcnnghm 16y agoI don't know, I had to attach files earlier, and it seemed pretty obvious to me. Just checked, and the actual text is "Drop files here".
- augustl 16y agoIn Firefox 3.6, you can read files with a FileReader. There doesn't seem to be any global FileReader object in 5.0.342.9 beta (Ubuntu). The Gmail file drag and drop works fine, so I'm certain I'm using a supported Chrome version. Is there any documentation for how the file reading works in Chrome? I would like to implement it in an application of mine that so far only works in Firefox 3.6.
- grandalf 16y agothis has been possible for a long time if the drop target is the input type="file" ... which can be styled to look like something intuitive. It's funny that this sort of UI is finally coming to the web. I had sort of revamped my whole work flow to avoid it, partially due to using lots of web based apps and partially due to linux.
- zsouthboy 16y agoThe input type="file" way is one file at a time. You can't drag and drop 4 pictures into a file input.
- fjabre 16y agoNot that I don't applaud the effort but it's kind of awkward/clunky to drag & drop from the desktop to a browser window..
- nooneelse 16y agoUmmm... why? Why is it more awkward/clunky than with any other set of windows? Also, why so negative? If you don't like it, use the old way; it isn't like they removed that.
- andrewljohnson 16y agoI would have probably used this a lot years ago, but now what I yearn for is tab-autocomplete, emacs-style, for attachment fields. This is a much faster way for me to attach files, and it doesn't frac my wrists making me touch the infernal mouse.
- jrockway 16y agoWhy not just send your email from Emacs then? message-mode is great.
- joe_the_user 16y agoDrag-and-drop is one of most over-rated features ever: * It requires excess wrist motion to accomplish some which could be done in few keystrokes. * Only in a few situation is it ever entirely clear what dragging and dropping will do. * Outside of, again, a few situations, it is unclear which objects to drag and where to drop them. In anything but file manager, it becomes a frickin' game of Carmen San Diego.
- jonknee 16y agoBut yet I bet people have been attempting to drag and drop for attachments since Gmail started. For non technical users this is a big help.
- joe_the_user 16y agoThis "non-technical user" seems to be a beast similar to the boing-boing quote of William Gibson: "something the size of a baby hippo, the color of a week-old boiled potato, that lives by itself, in the dark, in a double-wide on the outskirts of Topeka. It's covered with eyes and it sweats constantly. The sweat runs into those eyes and makes them sting. It has no mouth... no genitals, and can only express its mute extremes of murderous rage and infantile desire by changing the channels on a universal remote." see: http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/02/why-i-wont-buy-an-ipad-and-think-you-shouldnt-either.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:%20boingboing/iBag%20(Boing%20Boing) http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/02/why-i-wont-buy-an-ipad-... This non-technical user does nothing and understands nothing. They have no fear of tenotinus since they won't be using any functionality for more than ten minutes.
- mothaiba 16y agoBig woop. I've been doing this forever with the dragdropupload add-on. I do like the insert invitation feature though, and wish there was a better way to easily read through emails, archiving as I go, without being directed back to the inbox.
- mattparcher 16y ago37signals also announced drag and drop file upload today, for their Campfire app (web-based chat), but it supports Safari in addition to Chrome and Firefox (3.5, instead of 3.6 as required by Google): http://productblog.37signals.com/products/2010/04/new-in-campfire-drag-and-drop-uploading.html http://productblog.37signals.com/products/2010/04/new-in-cam... Does anyone have an idea as to how 37signals solved it differently, with more browser support?
- pieter 16y agoMight be obvious for everybody, but in Safari, you can drop a file on the 'no file selected' text you get after you press 'attach a file'.