JavaScript's drag and drop function is implemented through multiple events. 1. Key events include dragstart, drag, dragend, dragover, dragter, dragter, dragleave and drop. 2. To make the element draggable, set draggable="true" and use the dragstart event to pass the data. 3. The target that accepts drag and drop needs to listen to dragover and call e.preventDefault(). 4. Get data in drop event and process it. 5. Optional enhancements include visual feedback and file drag-and-drop support.
Handling drag and drop in JavaScript isn't too complicated once you understand the basic events involved. It's mostly about knowing which events to listen for and how to use the data being passed between elements.

The Basic Drag Events You Need to Know
There are several key events involved in drag and drop:
-
dragstart
– When the user starts dragging an element -
drag
– While the element is being dragged -
dragend
– When the user stops dragging (releases the mouse) -
dragover
– When a dragged element is over a potential drop zone -
dragenter
– When the dragged element enters a drop zone -
dragleave
– When the dragged element leaves a drop zone -
drop
– When the element is dropped on a valid target
Each of these plays a role in making drag and drop work smoothly. Most of the time, you'll focus on dragstart
, dragover
, and drop
.

Making an Element Draggable
By default, only certain elements like images or links can be dragged. But if you want to make other elements draggable, just add the draggable="true"
attribute:
<div id="box" draggable="true">Drag me</div>
Then, set up the dragstart
event to define what happens when dragging begins:

document.getElementById('box').addEventListener('dragstart', function(e) { e.dataTransfer.setData('text/plain', 'This is the data being dragged'); });
Here, setData()
is used to store some information that will be available during the drop. You can store more than just text — but plain text is simplest and most widely supported.
Handling the Drop Zone
For something to accept a drop, you need to handle the dragover
event and prevent the default behavior . Otherwise, the browser won't allow dropping:
document.getElementById('dropzone').addEventListener('dragover', function(e) { e.preventDefault(); // Allows the drop });
Once that's done, you can listen for the drop
event:
document.getElementById('dropzone').addEventListener('drop', function(e) { e.preventDefault(); const data = e.dataTransfer.getData('text/plain'); e.target.textContent = 'Dropped: ' data; });
That's the core of it: drag something, drop it somewhere else, and do something with the data.
Optional Enhancements
You can improve the experience by adding visual feedback:
- Change background color on
dragenter
- Revert style on
dragleave
- Add/remove classes while dragging
Also, don't forget to call e.preventDefault()
in both dragover
and drop
. Without that, the drop won't work in most browsers.
And if you're dragging multiple items or files, dataTransfer.items
and dataTransfer.files
come into play — useful for things like file uploads.
Basically that's it.
The above is the detailed content of How to handle drag and drop events in JavaScript?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

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