Membranophonist’s Ramblings

It should be possible to drag a music file link from a browser window to iTunes to add it to your Library. The iTunes Library window shows the content border highlight that normally indicates that it can accept the dragged link, but it does not work. Not only does it not work, iTunes violates Apple’s HIG for drag and drop feedback in two ways:

1. “Destination feedback should not occur simply because your application is “drag-aware”; rather, it should depend on the destination’s ability to accept the type of data contained in the dragged item.”

2. “If a user attempts to drop an item on a destination that does not accept it, the item zooms from its mouse-up location back to its source location (a “zoomback”). The zoomback behavior should also occur when a drop inside a valid destination does not result in a successful operation.”

Providing this drag and drop functionality would eliminate the multistep task of downloading the file through your browser, finding the file in the Finder and then manually adding it to iTunes. I assume iTunes could handle the actual downloading of the file in a manner similar to that which it transfers files from the Music Store, showing a progress bar and the name grayed out while the file is transferring. A dialog to notify users when they have attempted to drag a linked sound file which iTunes cannot read (WMA, RealAudio) would probably be needed for clarity’s sake.

If this isn’t implemented, iTunes should at least be fixed to comply with the drag and drop guidelines.