Java AWT Reference

16

Data Transfer

In this chapter:

• DataFlavor
• Transferable Interface
• ClipboardOwner Interface
• Clipboard
• StringSelection
• UnsupportedFlavorException
• Reading and Writing the Clipboard

One feature that was missing from Java 1.0 was the ability to access the system clipboard. It was impossible to cut and paste data from one program into another. Java 1.1 includes a package called java.awt.datatransfer that supports clipboard operations. Using this package, you can cut an arbitrary object from one program and paste it into another. In theory, you can cut and paste almost anything; in practice, you usually want to cut and paste text strings, so the package provides special support for string operations. The current version allows only one object to be on the clipboard at a time.

java.awt.datatransfer consists of three classes, two interfaces, and one exception. Objects that can be transferred implement the Transferable interface. The Transferable interface defines methods for working with different flavors of an object. The concept of flavors is basic to Java's clipboard model. Essentially, a flavor is a MIME content type. Any object can be represented in several different ways, each corresponding to a different MIME type. For example, a text string could be represented by a Java String object, an array of Unicode character data, or some kind of rich text that contains font information. The object putting the string on the clipboard provides whatever flavors it is capable of; an object ...