---
title: Supporting Drag and Drop to Receive Final Cut Pro Data
framework: professional-video-applications
role: article
path: professional-video-applications/supporting-drag-and-drop-to-receive-final-cut-pro-data
---

# Supporting Drag and Drop to Receive Final Cut Pro Data

## Supporting Drag and Drop to Receive Final Cut Pro Data

Supporting Drag and Drop to Receive Final Cut Pro Data Add drag and drop support in your app to give users an intuitive way to receive clips, projects, and other items from Final Cut Pro.

Overview

Drag and drop is a good choice for receiving data when your users need to transfer a relatively small number of items from Final Cut Pro to your app. If your users often go back and forth between Final Cut Pro and your app as they receive data from Final Cut Pro, supporting drag and drop in your app could streamline that workflow by letting them drag items directly from the Final Cut Pro sidebar or browser to your app.

> Tip > If you want your users to be able to send rendered media (movies) to your app, set up a custom share destination. (See [Receiving Media and Data Through a Custom Share Destination](/documentation/professional-video-applications/receiving-media-and-data-through-a-custom-share-destination).)

Drag and drop operations use a `pasteboard` as the standardized mechanism for exchanging data between apps.

[IMAGE]: Illustration showing an F C P X M L document moving from Final Cut Pro to your app using the pasteboard.

Once your user selects objects in the Final Cut Pro sidebar or browser and starts dragging them, Final Cut Pro creates a *promise*—a commitment to provide a data representation—in the dragging pasteboard. When your user drops the dragged objects into your app, your app requests the content of the promise. Final Cut Pro fulfills the request by putting the FCPXML for the dragged objects into the pasteboard. Your app retrieves the FCPXML and creates the objects in your app.

For information on versioned pasteboard types, see [Pasteboard Types and Versions](/documentation/professional-video-applications/supporting-drag-and-drop-for-data-sent-to-final-cut-pro#Pasteboard-Types-and-Versions).

> Note >  When your users drag an object from Final Cut Pro to your app, only the metadata in the currently selected metadata view is included in the FCPXML. Users can change the metadata view in Final Cut Pro before they drag data to your app. For more information, see [Intro to metadata in Final Cut Pro](https://support.apple.com/guide/final-cut-pro/intro-to-metadata-verc392f8885/mac).