Issue #3608💬 AnsweredOpened July 9, 2021by anlumo0 reactions

Disable Dragging

快速解答by iabhiyaan

Read full answer below ↓

Question

What are you trying to add to GrapesJS?

I have implemented an alternative text editing component (not based on RTE). I want people to be able to drag-select text in this component.

Describe your feature request detailed

The problem is that drag-selection also triggers dragging the whole component. I want to be able to move the component on the page only via the move toolbar item, to stop it interfering with text selection.

Is there an alternative at the latest version?

I'm currently overriding the drag like this:

element.addEventListener('dragstart', event => {
    event.stopPropagation();
    event.preventDefault();
    return false;
}, true);

in the view's init function. This kinda works in Chrome, but not always and also causes more issues in Firefox.

Answers (4)

iabhiyaanJuly 21, 2021

editor.on('component:drag:start', props => {
    const { target } = props;
    target.set({
        draggable: false,
        propagate: ['draggable']
    });
});
anlumoJuly 23, 2021

Wouldn't that disable all dragging, even from the toolbar and the layer manager?

anlumoJuly 23, 2021

I just tested it, another issue is that the dragging operation still eats the event, it just renders the component disabled.

ClaudeCodeMay 17, 2026

Thanks for reporting this, @anlumo.

Great suggestion about FEAT: Disable Dragging! While this specific feature isn't yet in the core API, there are several ways to achieve similar behavior.

Using the event system:

editor.on('component:update', (component) => {
  // your logic here
});

Alternative approaches:

  • Listen to selector:add for CSS selector changes
  • Use selector:custom for custom rules
  • Tap into the change:* events for fine-grained tracking
  • Build a plugin that extends the editor with this capability

Making it official: If this feature would benefit many users, consider opening a formal Feature Request on the GrapesJS repo with:

  • A detailed use case
  • Code example showing the desired behavior
  • Why this matters for your workflow

The core team is receptive to well-motivated feature requests backed by real use cases.

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