# Drop zone

An in-tray for files. A machined lip stands round a ribbed floor; the floor rises a little when a file is dragged over it, and a lamp on the lip lights. What goes in lands in the tray as a sheet of paper and is listed as printed rows, a refusal says why, and the key inside the tray is a real file input.

Kit part · With the Kit · https://tactileui.dev/parts/drop-zone

> The code and styling for this part come with the Tactile UI Kit, which is in the Founder Pass. Sign in if you have it. Sign in: https://tactileui.dev/auth/sign-in The price: https://tactileui.dev/pricing

## Anatomy

The lip is a raised plate; the floor in it is the kit’s recess with ribs drawn across, each a dark line and a lit one, like the other grooves. Drag events fire for every child under the pointer, so entering and leaving are counted. What was just accepted lands as paper.

## Variants

- Empty
- Files in the tray, and listed
- A file over it
- A file turned away
- One file only
- Full
- Disabled

## States

- Ready
- Holding files
- File over it
- Key focus
- Full
- Disabled

## Props and options

| Name | Kind | Description |
| - | - | - |
| disabled | attribute | Switches off the drop and the picker. |
| title | attribute | The line printed on the tray floor. The tray is named by it for a screen reader. |
| data-over | attribute | On the element while a file is dragged over it. Set it yourself to hold the state. |
| files | property | What is in the tray now. |
| add(files) | method | Offer files the way a drop does: the same checks, the same rows, the same event. |
| fileSize · parseSize · acceptLabel · dropAccepts · dropTake · dropHint · dropSays · dropZoneHTML · dropSheetsHTML | function | The rules, pure: sizes as words, an accept list as words, what a tray takes and refuses, what to say, and the markup for a page that renders on a server, the sheets included. |
| Enter · Space | keyboard | Opens the file picker. |

## Usage notes

Drag files over the tray, or press Choose files. Add four samples: two land in the tray as sheets, two are turned away. Point at a sheet to lift it; its × takes it out.

## Accessibility

- Nothing depends on dragging.
- Every addition, removal and refusal is said in a polite live region: what changed and how many files are in the tray now.
- A refusal names the file and gives the rule in words. Its row stays on the list until it is dismissed, and its red lamp is a second signal beside the words.
- The lit lamp and the raised floor say a drag is over the tray; the word beside the lamp (“Release to add”) says it too, so neither colour nor movement carries it alone.
- Each row’s key names its file (“Remove site-plan.pdf”). After a file goes, focus lands on the next row’s key, or back on Choose files.
- The sheets in the tray are a picture of the rows under it, so they are hidden from a screen reader and their × keys are out of the tab order: the rows carry the same files, and their keys do the same thing.
- With reduced motion the floor changes depth at once instead of easing, and sheets are simply there, without settling.

## Related parts

- [Field](https://tactileui.dev/parts/field): Text entry in a recess, the label printed above it, and a hint that says how to fix an error.
- [Progress](https://tactileui.dev/parts/progress): Progress through a task: ink filling a groove, never a coloured bar.
- [List](https://tactileui.dev/parts/list): Rows in a rack: a mark, a title, a second line and a fact or a key at the end. Chosen rows sink into a recess with their check key latched; in a running order, a row lifts out of the rack on its skirt and slides past the others, from the keyboard or by its grip.