Verify drag & drop files into plugin GUI

[sound8]

I was wondering if anyone would be able to verify something for me because I am rather confused.

In Ardour (Linux) I was trying to be able to drag & drop audio files from the “Import” window into a plugins GUI which allow for this. This did not work with the “Import” window, so I tried using the file manager included in my Linux desktop environment, which does not work either.

(A while back I tested this out on Windows OS and the “Import” window was not able to achieve this, but it did work when dragging files from Windows File Explorer.)

Back to Linux, at first I thought this was just Ardour, but I actually tried this out with other applications and noticed that none of them allow for this, even though the plugins I am testing allow for this D&D functionality.

To give some examples, I tried the Linux plugins for “Sitala” & "Speedrum Lite” which both allow for this but do not work for me. Sitala comes with a standalone version, which actually does work when D&D .wav audio files into its GUI.
Here are the links
Sitala
https://decomposer.de/sitala/
Speedrum Lite
https://www.apisoniclabs.com/freeware.html

I was wondering if anyone could explain why this would not be working? Is this functionality just not possible with Linux based VST2, VST3, LV2 plugins, or am I doing something incorrectly?

Thank You

[x42 (Robin Gareus)]

@sound8

I was wondering if anyone could explain why this would not be working? Is this functionality just not possible with Linux based VST2, VST3, LV2 plugins, or am I doing something incorrectly?

It depends on the plugin GUI.

On Linux/X11 plugins there are only a few that respond to Drag/Drop. LinuxDSP ones are known to work. Rui’s vee-one suite (sampler-v1) and a few others.

Note however that DnD usually only works from external apps to Ardour - not from Ardour to itself.

Tech Details for Ardour internal DnD

When Dragging from Ardour (a GTK app) to Ardour (a GDK Window - even if the child is a plugin) a GDK Drag event is sent. This is not received by the plugin window.

An example Linux/X11 Plugin GUI to test Drag/Drop (and scare children with by how complex it is) can be found at https://github.com/x42/debug.lv2/blob/master/gui/dbg_gui.cc

Dragging from Plugins to Ardour is usually fine. e.g. Addictive Drums MIDI patterns (effectively MIDI files) can be dragged to Ardour’s Editor timeline.