How to drag and drop files

Thomas Steiner

The HTML Drag and Drop interfaces enable web applications to accept dragged and dropped files on a web page. During a drag and drop operation, dragged file and directory items are associated with file entries and directory entries respectively. When it comes to dragging and dropping files into the browser, there are two ways of doing it: the modern and the classic way.

The modern way

Using the File System Access API's `DataTransferItem.getAsFileSystemHandle()` method

The DataTransferItem.getAsFileSystemHandle() method returns a promise with a FileSystemFileHandle object if the dragged item is a file, and a promise with a FileSystemDirectoryHandle object if the dragged item is a directory. These handles let you read, and optionally write back to the file or directory. Note that the Drag and Drop interface's DataTransferItem.kind will be "file" for both files and directories, whereas the File System Access API's FileSystemHandle.kind will be "file" for files and "directory" for directories.

Browser Support

Source

The classic way

Using the classic `DataTransferItem.getAsFile()` method

The DataTransferItem.getAsFile() method returns the drag data item's File object. If the item is not a file, this method returns null. While you can read the file, there is no way to write back to it. This method has the disadvantage that it does not support directories.

Browser Support

Source

Progressive enhancement

The snippet below uses the modern File System Access API's DataTransferItem.getAsFileSystemHandle() method when it is supported, then falls back to the non-standard DataTransferItem.webkitGetAsEntry() method, and finally falls back to the classic DataTransferItem.getAsFile() method. Be sure to check the type of each handle, since it could be either of:

FileSystemFileHandle when the modern code path is chosen.
File when the classic code path is chosen.

All types have a name property, so logging it is fine and will always work.

// Run feature detection.
const supportsFileSystemAccessAPI =
  'getAsFileSystemHandle' in DataTransferItem.prototype;

// This is the drag and drop zone.
const elem = document.querySelector('main');

  // Prevent navigation.
elem.addEventListener('dragover', (e) => {
  e.preventDefault();
});

// Visually highlight the drop zone.
elem.addEventListener('dragenter', (e) => {
  elem.style.outline = 'solid red 1px';
});

// Visually unhighlight the drop zone.
elem.addEventListener('dragleave', (e) => {
  elem.style.outline = '';
});

// This is where the drop is handled.
elem.addEventListener('drop', async (e) => {
  // Prevent navigation.
  e.preventDefault();
  // Unhighlight the drop zone.
  elem.style.outline = '';
  // Prepare an array of promises…
  const fileHandlesPromises = [...e.dataTransfer.items]
    // …by including only files (where file misleadingly means actual file _or_
    // directory)…
    .filter((item) => item.kind === 'file')
    // …and, depending on previous feature detection…
    .map((item) =>
      supportsFileSystemAccessAPI
        // …either get a modern `FileSystemHandle`…
        ? item.getAsFileSystemHandle()
        // …or a classic `File`.
        : item.getAsFile(),
    );
  // Loop over the array of promises.
  for await (const handle of fileHandlesPromises) {
    // This is where we can actually exclusively act on the files.
    if (handle.kind === 'file' || handle.isFile) {
      console.log(`File: ${handle.name}`);
    }
  }
});

Demo

HTML

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
    <title>How to drag and drop files</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <main>
      <h1>How to drag and drop files</h1>
      <p>Drag and drop one or multiple files onto the page.</p>
      <pre></pre>
    </main>
  </body>
</html>

CSS


        :root {
  color-scheme: dark light;
  box-sizing: border-box;
}

*,
*:before,
*:after {
  box-sizing: inherit;
}

body {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 1rem;
  font-family: system-ui, sans-serif;
  line-height: 1.5;
  min-height: 100vh;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
}

img,
video {
  height: auto;
  max-width: 100%;
}

main {
  flex-grow: 1;
}

footer {
  margin-top: 1rem;
  border-top: solid CanvasText 1px;
  font-size: 0.8rem;
}

JS


        const supportsFileSystemAccessAPI =
  "getAsFileSystemHandle" in DataTransferItem.prototype;
const supportsWebkitGetAsEntry =
  "webkitGetAsEntry" in DataTransferItem.prototype;

const elem = document.querySelector("main");
const debug = document.querySelector("pre");

elem.addEventListener("dragover", (e) => {
  // Prevent navigation.
  e.preventDefault();
});

elem.addEventListener("dragenter", (e) => {
  elem.style.outline = "solid red 1px";
});

elem.addEventListener("dragleave", (e) => {
  elem.style.outline = "";
});

elem.addEventListener("drop", async (e) => {
  e.preventDefault();
  elem.style.outline = "";
  const fileHandlesPromises = [...e.dataTransfer.items]
    .filter((item) => item.kind === "file")
    .map((item) =>
      supportsFileSystemAccessAPI
        ? item.getAsFileSystemHandle()
        : supportsWebkitGetAsEntry
        ? item.webkitGetAsEntry()
        : item.getAsFile()
    );

  for await (const handle of fileHandlesPromises) {
    if (handle.kind === "directory" || handle.isDirectory) {
      console.log(`Directory: ${handle.name}`);
      debug.textContent += `Directory: ${handle.name}\n`;
    } else {
      console.log(`File: ${handle.name}`);
      debug.textContent += `File: ${handle.name}\n`;
    }
  }
});