| 1 | <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
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| 2 | <!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
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| 3 | <topic xml:lang="en-us" id="guestadd-dnd">
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| 4 | <title>Drag and Drop</title>
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| 5 |
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| 6 | <body>
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| 7 | <p>
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| 8 | Oracle VM VirtualBox enables you to drag and drop content from the host
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| 9 | to the guest, and vice versa. For this to work the latest version
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| 10 | of the Guest Additions must be installed on the guest.
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| 11 | </p>
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| 12 | <p>
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| 13 | Drag and drop transparently allows copying or opening files,
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| 14 | directories, and even certain clipboard formats from one end to
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| 15 | the other. For example, from the host to the guest or from the
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| 16 | guest to the host. You then can perform drag and drop operations
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| 17 | between the host and a VM, as it would be a native drag and drop
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| 18 | operation on the host OS.
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| 19 | </p>
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| 20 | <p>
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| 21 | At the moment drag and drop is implemented for Windows-based and
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| 22 | X-Windows-based systems, both on the host and guest side. As
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| 23 | X-Windows supports many different drag and drop protocols only the
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| 24 | most common one, XDND, is supported for now. Applications using
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| 25 | other protocols, such as Motif or OffiX, will not be recognized by
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| 26 | Oracle VM VirtualBox.
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| 27 | </p>
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| 28 | <p>
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| 29 | In the context of using drag and drop, the origin of the data is
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| 30 | called the <i>source</i>. That is, where the actual
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| 31 | data comes from and is specified. The
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| 32 | <i>destination</i> specifies where the data from the
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| 33 | source should go to. Transferring data from the source to the
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| 34 | destination can be done in various ways, such as copying, moving,
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| 35 | or linking.
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| 36 | </p>
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| 37 | <note>
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| 38 | <p>
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| 39 | At the moment only copying of data is supported. Moving or
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| 40 | linking is not yet implemented.
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| 41 | </p>
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| 42 | </note>
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| 43 | <p>
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| 44 | When transferring data from the host to the guest OS, the host in
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| 45 | this case is the source, whereas the guest OS is the destination.
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| 46 | However, when transferring data from the guest OS to the host, the
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| 47 | guest OS this time became the source and the host is the
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| 48 | destination.
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| 49 | </p>
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| 50 | <p>
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| 51 | For security reasons drag and drop can be configured at runtime on
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| 52 | a per-VM basis either using the <b outputclass="bold">Drag and
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| 53 | Drop</b> menu item in the
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| 54 | <b outputclass="bold">Devices</b> menu of the virtual
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| 55 | machine, as shown below, or the <userinput>VBoxManage</userinput>
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| 56 | command.
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| 57 | </p>
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| 58 | <fig id="fig-drag-drop-options">
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| 59 | <title>Drag and Drop Menu Options</title>
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| 60 | <image href="images/dnd-modes.png" placement="break"/>
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| 61 | </fig>
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| 62 | <p>
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| 63 | The following drag and drop modes are available:
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| 64 | </p>
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| 65 | <ul>
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| 66 | <li>
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| 67 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Disabled.</b> Disables the drag
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| 68 | and drop feature entirely. This is the default when creating a
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| 69 | new VM.
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| 70 | </p>
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| 71 | </li>
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| 72 | <li>
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| 73 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Host To Guest.</b> Enables drag
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| 74 | and drop operations from the host to the guest only.
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| 75 | </p>
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| 76 | </li>
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| 77 | <li>
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| 78 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Guest To Host.</b> Enables drag
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| 79 | and drop operations from the guest to the host only.
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| 80 | </p>
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| 81 | </li>
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| 82 | <li>
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| 83 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Bidirectional.</b> Enables drag
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| 84 | and drop operations in both directions: from the host to the
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| 85 | guest, and from the guest to the host.
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| 86 | </p>
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| 87 | </li>
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| 88 | </ul>
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| 89 | <note>
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| 90 | <p>
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| 91 | Drag and drop support depends on the frontend being used. At the
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| 92 | moment, only the VirtualBox Manager frontend provides this
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| 93 | functionality.
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| 94 | </p>
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| 95 | </note>
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| 96 | <p>
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| 97 | To use the <userinput>VBoxManage</userinput> command to control the
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| 98 | current drag and drop mode, see <xref href="vboxmanage.dita#vboxmanage"/>. The
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| 99 | <userinput>modifyvm</userinput> and <userinput>controlvm</userinput>
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| 100 | commands enable setting of a VM's current drag and drop mode from
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| 101 | the command line.
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| 102 | </p>
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| 103 | </body>
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| 104 | </topic>
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