[uf-discuss] Draggables

[Glenn Jones]

Hi Everyone

I have been working on an idea for the last couple months which looks at
using drag and drop as a way to exchange data between web sites. It's
just a bit of UX research at the moment.

I have created a 7 min video of demos which explains the idea much
better than words. 

http://draggables.com

It currently extracts microformat data from the source pages, but I
would like to take the idea one step forward. So currently on the form
page the JavaScript looks like this:

 addDropZone({
	'dropZone':'dropTarget',
	'formats': ['hcard']
});

addMapping([
 	['name', 'profile.fn'],
 	['jobtitle','profile.title'],
       ['companyname','profile.org[0].organizationName'],
]);

The mapping is in paired sets; on the left hand side is the name of the
form element ie "jobtitle" on the right the hCard structure to find the
correct value ie "profile.title".

Tantek suggested looking at marking up the form with hCard classes and
working out an algorithm to automate the mapping of incoming data.

This approach may also be useful for the new W3C Contacts API which will
allow front-end developers to query contact stores in web browsers.
Although the storage format is PoCo (Portable Contacts)  I am planning
on building a JavaScript PoCo > hCard and hCard > PoCo exchange library.


Mozilla Labs is doing work in this area: 

http://mozillalabs.com/blog/2010/03/contacts-in-the-browser/
http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/WD-contacts-api-20100121/


Would really like to hear your thoughts on this idea

Glenn Jones