How to Implement Drag and Drop Feature in React Native

Do you want to give your React Native app drag-and-drop abilities? Look nowhere else! This article will show you how to use the well-liked react-native-draggable package to build this feature. Let's get going!

Step 1: Set up your React Native project

First, we need to set up a new React Native project. Open up your terminal and type the following command:

npx react-native init DragAndDropExample

This will create a new project named "DragAndDropExample" in the current directory.

Step 2: Install the react-native-draggable library

Next, we need to install the react-native-draggable library. Run the following command in your terminal:

npm install react-native-draggable --save

The library will be installed as well as added to the dependencies list for your project.

Step 3: Implement the drag and drop feature

We are now prepared to add the drag and drop functionality to our software. the following code to App.jsin your preferred code editor:

import React, { useState } from 'react';
import { View, StyleSheet } from 'react-native';
import Draggable from 'react-native-draggable';

const App = () => {
  const [coordinates, setCoordinates] = useState({ x: 0, y: 0 });

  const handleDrag = (e, { x, y }) => {
    setCoordinates({ x, y });
  };

  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <Draggable
        x={coordinates.x}
        y={coordinates.y}
        onDrag={handleDrag}
        style={styles.draggable}
      >
        <View style={styles.box} />
      </Draggable>
    </View>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    alignItems: 'center',
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
  draggable: {
    zIndex: 999,
  },
  box: {
    width: 50,
    height: 50,
    backgroundColor: 'red',
  },
});

export default App;

The useState hook and other relevant components are first imported into this code from react-native and react-native-draggable. The current x and y positions of the draggable element will then be stored in a state variable named coordinates.

The draggable element will be called handleDrag each time it is dragged after we have defined this method. The new x and y positions are added to the coordinates state using this function.

Finally, a View component with a Draggable component is rendered. We supply the Draggable component with the handleDrag function, some style settings, and the current x and y positions from the coordinates state.

4. Test your application.

Use the following command to launch your app after saving your changes to App.js:

npx react-native run-android

This will launch your app on a connected device or in the Android emulator.

A red box that you can move across the screen with your finger should now appear. Congratulations, you've finished adding drag and drop support to your React Native application!

Conclusion

In this article, we've shown you how to use the react-native-draggable module to add drag and drop functionality to your React Native application. You should now have accomplished the aforementioned steps by using