Can HTML 5 drag-and-drop handle folders?

Question

I'm impressed by Gmail's ability to let you drag files into emails for attachments, but when I try to drag a folder onto it, it says the file has 0 bytes. Is this a Gmail limitation, or is this something that's fundamentally not doable with the current HTML 5 spec?

Answer 1

I'm pretty certain that you wouldn't want to allow folder dragging and dropping in a browser for security reasons (Don't quote me on this I have not tested it).

Imagine if folder dragging was allowed, that means that the browser can allow capabilities for developers to read through local storage directory structure. An evildoer can add a malicious script, drop it in a folder and execute it through Javascript (for example). This would be a serious invasion of privacy and harmful to the end-user.

Don't quote me on this, maybe HTML 5 supports folder drag-and-drop and have security ways to handle evildoers.

Answer 2

The current draft of html5 only supports a file list object for handling the getData events. so you can drag multiple files to a drag target but no folders