ClipData

open class ClipData : Parcelable

Representation of a clipped data on the clipboard.

ClipData is a complex type containing one or more Item instances, each of which can hold one or more representations of an item of data. For display to the user, it also has a label.

A ClipData contains a ClipDescription, which describes important meta-data about the clip. In particular, its getDescription().getMimeType(int) must return correct MIME type(s) describing the data in the clip. For help in correctly constructing a clip with the correct MIME type, use newPlainText(java.lang.CharSequence,java.lang.CharSequence), newUri(android.content.ContentResolver,java.lang.CharSequence,android.net.Uri), and newIntent(java.lang.CharSequence,android.content.Intent).

Each Item instance can be one of three main classes of data: a simple CharSequence of text, a single Intent object, or a Uri. See Item for more details.

Implementing Paste or Drop

To implement a paste or drop of a ClipData object into an application, the application must correctly interpret the data for its use. If the Item it contains is simple text or an Intent, there is little to be done: text can only be interpreted as text, and an Intent will typically be used for creating shortcuts (such as placing icons on the home screen) or other actions.

If all you want is the textual representation of the clipped data, you can use the convenience method Item.coerceToText. In this case there is generally no need to worry about the MIME types reported by getDescription().getMimeType(int), since any clip item can always be converted to a string.

More complicated exchanges will be done through URIs, in particular "content:" URIs. A content URI allows the recipient of a ClipData item to interact closely with the ContentProvider holding the data in order to negotiate the transfer of that data. The clip must also be filled in with the available MIME types; newUri(android.content.ContentResolver,java.lang.CharSequence,android.net.Uri) will take care of correctly doing this.

For example, here is the paste function of a simple NotePad application. When retrieving the data from the clipboard, it can do either two things: if the clipboard contains a URI reference to an existing note, it copies the entire structure of the note into a new note; otherwise, it simply coerces the clip into text and uses that as the new note's contents.

In many cases an application can paste various types of streams of data. For example, an e-mail application may want to allow the user to paste an image or other binary data as an attachment. This is accomplished through the ContentResolver ContentResolver#getStreamTypes(Uri, String) and ContentResolver#openTypedAssetFileDescriptor(Uri, String, android.os.Bundle) methods. These allow a client to discover the type(s) of data that a particular content URI can make available as a stream and retrieve the stream of data.

For example, the implementation of Item.coerceToText itself uses this to try to retrieve a URI clip as a stream of text:

Implementing Copy or Drag

To be the source of a clip, the application must construct a ClipData object that any recipient can interpret best for their context. If the clip is to contain a simple text, Intent, or URI, this is easy: an Item containing the appropriate data type can be constructed and used.

More complicated data types require the implementation of support in a ContentProvider for describing and generating the data for the recipient. A common scenario is one where an application places on the clipboard the content: URI of an object that the user has copied, with the data at that URI consisting of a complicated structure that only other applications with direct knowledge of the structure can use.

For applications that do not have intrinsic knowledge of the data structure, the content provider holding it can make the data available as an arbitrary number of types of data streams. This is done by implementing the ContentProvider ContentProvider#getStreamTypes(Uri, String) and ContentProvider#openTypedAssetFile(Uri, String, android.os.Bundle) methods.

Going back to our simple NotePad application, this is the implementation it may have to convert a single note URI (consisting of a title and the note text) into a stream of plain text data.

The copy operation in our NotePad application is now just a simple matter of making a clip containing the URI of the note being copied:

Note if a paste operation needs this clip as text (for example to paste into an editor), then Item#coerceToText(Context) will ask the content provider for the clip URI as text and successfully paste the entire note.

Summary

Public constructors

ClipData(
    label: CharSequence!, 
    mimeTypes: Array<String!>!, 
    item: ClipData.Item!)

ClipData(
    description: ClipDescription!, 
    item: ClipData.Item!)

ClipData(other: ClipData!)

Public methods

open fun addItem(item: ClipData.Item!): Unit

open fun addItem(
    resolver: ContentResolver!, 
    item: ClipData.Item!
): Unit

open fun describeContents(): Int

open fun getDescription(): ClipDescription!

open fun getItemAt(index: Int): ClipData.Item!

open fun getItemCount(): Int

open static fun newHtmlText(
    label: CharSequence!, 
    text: CharSequence!, 
    htmlText: String!
): ClipData!

open static fun newIntent(
    label: CharSequence!, 
    intent: Intent!
): ClipData!

open static fun newPlainText(
    label: CharSequence!, 
    text: CharSequence!
): ClipData!

open static fun newRawUri(
    label: CharSequence!, 
    uri: Uri!
): ClipData!

open static fun newUri(
    resolver: ContentResolver!, 
    label: CharSequence!, 
    uri: Uri!
): ClipData!

open fun toString(): String

open fun writeToParcel(
    dest: Parcel, 
    flags: Int
): Unit

Properties

static val CREATOR: Parcelable.Creator<ClipData!>