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Dragging Items Between G2 Processes

You can drag single items between separate G2 processes running on the same machine. You cannot drag G2 items to non-Gensym applications.

On Windows NT platforms, you can also drag and drop text between G2 processes and other applicable applications. For more information about this functionality, see Dragging Text Between G2 and Other Applications.

Depending on how you configure your user interface, dragging an item has the same result as performing the G2 clone (copy) or transfer (move) operation. You can configure the effect of dragging for classes of items, or for individual items.

When you drag an item from one G2 to another, all user-accessible system-defined attributes are passed with the dragged item. The new item in the destination G2 is transient, and includes all the user-defined and system-defined attributes of the original item in the source G2. A subworkspace cannot be included with a dragged item.

As with item passing through RPCs, you must have compatible definitions to be able to drag and drop an item from one G2 to another. You cannot drop an item into a G2 that does not define the item's class. If a definition for an item does not exist in the destination G2, you can drag the class definition to the target G2 first (if it is configured appropriately), and then drag the item itself.

While you drag an item from one G2 to another, the item is unavailable to users and cannot be accessed in any way. Clicking on the icon of an item that is being dragged to another system reveals a dummy item. The dummy item is replaced by the real item as soon as the item is passed. The new item has the same appearance as the original.

Configuring Classes for Drag and Drop

By default, you cannot drag an item outside the G2 window on which it resides. Attempting to drop an item onto a non-kb-workspace, such as the Message Board, fails.

In order to drag items between G2s, you must configure either the item class or an individual item you want to drag.

To configure a class or item:

To configure a class of items for drag and drop operations:

To configure an individual item for drag and drop operations:

For example, the following configuration statements specify that dragging objects while pressing Control and any mouse button clones an object, and that dragging while pressing Alt and any mouse button transfers the object:

For more information about how to configure your G2 user interface to associate mouse buttons with OLE configuration clauses, see Associating a Mouse Click with Drag and Drop Capabilities.

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