- Qt 6.9
- Qt Quick
- Qt Quick Examples and Tutorials
- QML Dynamic View Ordering Tutorial
- QML Dynamic View Ordering Tutorial 2 - Dragging View Items
- Qt 6.9.3 Reference Documentation

A Simple ListView and Delegate ◦ Moving Dragged Items

# QML Dynamic View Ordering Tutorial 2 - Dragging View Items

Now that we have a visible list of items we want to be able to interact with them. We'll start by extending the delegate so the visible content can be dragged up and down the screen. The updated delegate looks like this:

         Component {
             id: dragDelegate

             MouseArea {
                 id: dragArea

                 property bool held: false
                 required property string name
                 required property string type
                 required property string size
                 required property int age

                 anchors {
                     left: parent?.left
                     right: parent?.right
                 }
                 height: content.height

                 drag.target: held ? content : undefined
                 drag.axis: Drag.YAxis

                 onPressAndHold: held = true
                 onReleased: held = false

                 Rectangle {
                     id: content
                     anchors {
                         horizontalCenter: parent.horizontalCenter
                         verticalCenter: parent.verticalCenter
                     }
                     width: dragArea.width
                     height: column.implicitHeight + 4

                     border.width: 1
                     border.color: "lightsteelblue"
                     color: dragArea.held ? "lightsteelblue" : "white"
                     Behavior on color { ColorAnimation { duration: 100 } }
                     radius: 2
                     states: State {
                         when: dragArea.held

                         ParentChange {
                             target: content
                             parent: root
                         }
                         AnchorChanges {
                             target: content
                             anchors {
                                 horizontalCenter: undefined
                                 verticalCenter: undefined
                             }
                         }
                     }
                     Column {
                         id: column
                         anchors {
                             fill: parent
                             margins: 2
                         }

                         Text { text: qsTr('Name: ') + dragArea.name }
                         Text { text: qsTr('Type: ') + dragArea.type }
                         Text { text: qsTr('Age: ') + dragArea.age }
                         Text { text: qsTr('Size: ') + dragArea.size }
                     }
                 }
             }
         }

##### Walkthrough

The major change here is the root item of the delegate is now a MouseArea which provides handlers for mouse events and will allow us to drag the delegate's content item. It also acts as a container for the content item which is important as a delegate's root item is positioned by the view and cannot be moved by other means.

             MouseArea {
                 id: dragArea

                 property bool held: false
                 required property string name
                 required property string type
                 required property string size
                 required property int age

                 anchors {
                     left: parent?.left
                     right: parent?.right
                 }
                 height: content.height

                 drag.target: held ? content : undefined
                 drag.axis: Drag.YAxis

                 onPressAndHold: held = true
                 onReleased: held = false

                 Rectangle {
                     id: content
                 }
             }

Dragging the content item is enabled by binding it to the MouseArea's drag.target property. Because we still want the view to be flickable we wait until the MouseArea's pressAndHold signal is emitted before binding the drag target. This way when mouse moves before the hold timeout has expired it is interpreted as moving the list and if it moves after it is interpreted as dragging an item. To make it more obvious to the user when an item can be dragged we'll change the background color of the content item when the timeout has expired.

                     color: dragArea.held ? "lightsteelblue" : "white"
                     Behavior on color { ColorAnimation { duration: 100 } }

The other thing we'll need to do before an item can be dragged is to unset any anchors on the content item so it can be freely moved around. We do this in a state change that is triggered when the delegate item is held, at the same time we can reparent the content item to the root item so that is above other items in the stacking order and isn't obscured as it is dragged around.

                     states: State {
                         when: dragArea.held

                         ParentChange {
                             target: content
                             parent: root
                         }
                         AnchorChanges {
                             target: content
                             anchors {
                                 horizontalCenter: undefined
                                 verticalCenter: undefined
                             }
                         }
                     }

Example project @ code.qt.io