Skip to main content

rawClipboardData

Type

property

Summary

Provides low-level access to the contents of the clipboard.

Syntax

set the rawClipboardData[<key>] to <data>
set the rawClipboardData to empty

Description

Use the rawClipboardData to gain low-level access to the system clipboard. The keys for the rawClipboardData are platform-specific. You can query the keys of the rawClipboardData to determine what types of data are on the clipboard.

note

The rawClipboardData cannot be accessed outside of a lock clipboard/unlock clipboard pair. This is to ensure the clipboard contents do not change during access.

If the contents of the clipboard were placed there by another app, the clipboard will have to be cleared before being used: set the rawClipboardData to empty. Attempting to overwrite externally-provided data without clearing the clipboard will throw an error.

This property should only be used if you require low-level access; the fullClipboardData property is more appropriate for most uses.

As a low-level feature, platform differences are not hidden. In particular, the form of the keys of the rawClipboardData are platform-specific, but can be summarized as:

  • Windows: arbitrary strings but keys of the form CF_xxx correspond to
   the clipboard formats defined by Windows itself
- OSX: Uniform Type Identifiers (UTIs) with an extension.
OSTypes/MIME-types can be used by prefixing the key with
com.apple.ostype:/public.mime-type:
- Linux: arbitrary strings (X11 atoms) but, by convention, MIME types
are used
tip

All contents of the rawClipboardData are binary - use the textEncode/textDecode functions to convert to/from the appropriate encoding.

tip

It is good practice to clear the clipboard before use: set the rawClipboardData to empty

Examples

lock the clipboard
put the keys of the rawClipboardData
unlock the clipboard
lock the clipboard
set the rawClipboardData["text/plain;charset=utf-8"] \
to textEncode("Hello, World!", "UTF-8" ) -- Linux
set the rawClipboardData["CF_UNICODETEXT"] \
to textEncode("Hello, World!", "UTF-16" ) -- Windows
set the rawClipboardData["public.utf8-plain-text"] \
to textEncode("Hello, World!", "UTF-8" ) -- OSX
unlock the clipboard

command: lock clipboard, unlock clipboard

function: clipboard, textEncode, textDecode

glossary: clipboard, property

property: clipboardData, fullClipboardData, rawDragData

Compatibility and Support

Introduced

LiveCode 8.0

OS

mac

windows

linux

Platforms

desktop

Thank you for your feedback!

Was this page helpful?