Friday, May 28th, 2010

Drag and Drop it Like it’s Hot, Powered by HTML5

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“What feature would make you use Box more?” This simple question was the challenge for our first-ever Box Hack Olympics. And since uploading content to Box is an essential first step to using the product, CJ and I decided to design a better way to get your files into Box.

What’s the easiest, most intuitive way to do this? Simply dragging files from your desktop into Box. Using the latest HTML5 web standard, we debuted this new feature at the Hack Olympics, and with some help from Len, we’re excited to announce that “drag and drop” is now integrated into Box on Firefox 3.6 and Chrome for PC (with support for Safari and Chrome on all platforms coming in the next few weeks). Check out the video below and see for yourself how easy it now is to get content into Box:

This solution may be simple, but the technology behind it is incredibly powerful. HTML5 is going to revolutionize the way we engage with web applications. Using HTML5, we can build faster, richer and more interactive features with native browser support. Without getting too geeky, we’re really excited about the new ServerSent and Web Socket APIs, which will allow us to bring a richer, real-time experience to Box. Other new functionalities that are being implemented across the web include support for GeoLocation and native media. These capabilities will generate a new breed of web applications that will blur the line between the desktop and browser.

We’re already exploring more ways to enrich your Box experience using HTML5. Functions like pausing/resuming uploads, offline caching, and multiple file select for uploads are now on our product roadmap. So let us know what you think of “drag and drop,” and get excited for some exciting upcoming features.

Post by Tomas Barreto, Software Engineer

Showing 21 comments

Box.net Adopts HTML5; Adds Drag And Drop Functionality Between The Web And Desktop May 28th, 2010

[...] storage and document sharing startup Box.net is the latest startup to adopt HTML5. The startup is announcing today that it is incorporating a broad implementation of HTML5 drag and drop functionality that supports [...]

S May 28th, 2010

Any plans to support Opera? Opera 10.x HTML5 support!

Joe May 28th, 2010

This would be even cooler if the video showing it was HTML 5 too ;-)

Your text isn’t entirely clear, it says FF & Chrome for the PC, but your video is done on a Mac. Worked like a charm in FF 3.6.3 for the Mac. This is REALLY cool and a killer feature. Well done!

jesper May 28th, 2010

Cool feature, this seems very useful.

Although i like the phrase, “Sharing should be free” more :)

Death By Cucumber May 31st, 2010

[...] into your Box.net tab and let ‘em go! Gotta love the title on the official blog post: “Drag and Drop it Like it’s Hot.” [...]

Mickaël June 1st, 2010

So great !

Sean June 1st, 2010

Hi Joe – thanks for pointing that out. We should have been clearer that drag & drop works on Firefox for Mac and PC. Glad you’re a fan of the feature!

Daniel June 1st, 2010

hey, just to say that filenames with accents or special characters aren’t uploaded. if you change the name for something without accents or special characters it is uploaded. thanks for your time. other than that… awesome feature!

Vikie Philippatou June 2nd, 2010

Great feature, but why is the 25MB limit imposed during HTML5 powered drag and drop when the user is logged in a professional account?

Sean June 2nd, 2010

Hey Daniel – thanks for the feedback! We’ll look into that.

Matt Holmes June 9th, 2010

Same question as Vikie, why the 25 MB cap? And is it limited to only certain types of accounts? Most of our files are videos well over 25 MB. Can’t wait to start using drag and drop, thanks for getting it Mac ready.

Box Metrics: Businesses Use Mix of Cloud and On-Premise Solutions to Collaborate « See whats happening at Box.net June 15th, 2010

[...] engaging with your content on Box. We can track things like the adoption-rate of new features like HTML5-powered drag and drop, usage of our OpenBox platform integrations, and levels of engagement through our mobile apps. [...]

Box.net Adopts HTML5; Adds Drag And Drop Functionality Between The Web And Desktop » technology June 16th, 2010

[...] storage and document sharing startup Box.net is the latest startup to adopt HTML5. The startup is announcing today that it is incorporating a broad implementation of HTML5 drag and drop functionality that supports [...]

Scan to Box with Lexmark – The Cloud is Only a Few Taps Away « Box.net Blog – Learn about Box.net's latest Features, Interviews, and More September 13th, 2010

[...] the past few months we’ve unveiled several new ways to easily upload your files to Box: you can drag and drop files straight from your desktop, send email attachments directly to a Box folder with [...]

Tess Sandvik October 23rd, 2010

Long time reader / first time poster. Really enjoying reading the blog, keep up the good work. Will most definitely start posting more in the future.

Year in Review: Box’s Top Five for 2010 « The Box Blog – Read about new features, interviews and more December 17th, 2010

[...] but not least, we leveraged HTML5 technology, which lets you drag and drop files straight from your desktop right into Box in your browser. It’s the kind of technology that [...]

proxy for games May 23rd, 2011

i like the drag and drop concept you can’t get any easier than that! apparently it works with most browsers except Opera!

Keeping the Lights on: Box Triples Enterprise Revenue in H1 2010 | The Box Blog - Read about new features, interviews and more June 9th, 2011

[...] base, and explore how HTML5 can make the Box experience even richer and more interactive beyond drag and drop. You’ll also see some exciting additions to our mobile platform, as well as big improvements [...]

Box.net online storage service adds drag-and-drop uploads - Liliputing June 21st, 2011

[...] You can check out a brief demo of the drag and drop feature after the break, courtesy of the folks at the Box.net blog. [...]

Dirk February 29th, 2012

Love the drag and drop into box. Will the ability to drag ‘out’ of box onto your desktop also be supported? This two-way drag functionality would practically eliminate the need (or desire) for a Win Explorer style interface.

Pyronal June 12th, 2012

Drag and drop is cool, but I can’t upload an entirely folder, with so many subfolders. It’s tedious to create all subfolders and drag and drop the files….