Rich Paste

Rich paste and drag-and-drop support for NativeScript text inputs. Handles images, GIFs, files, and text from the clipboard with one shared TypeScript API across iOS and Android.

The plugin supports:

• Pasting images, GIFs, and static images from the clipboard
• Pasting files (PDF, RTF, HTML) from the clipboard
• Drag-and-drop of images and files into text inputs
• MIME-based accept filtering (all, image/*, text/plain, etc.)
• Drop-in replacements for TextField and TextView
• Automatic temp file management for pasted binary content

Installation

npm install @nstudio/nativescript-rich-paste

Usage

NativeScript Core

Drop-in replacements for TextField and TextView which work identically but with enhanced rich paste features. Just append RichPaste to the end of the element name.

<Page xmlns:rp="@nstudio/nativescript-rich-paste">
  <StackLayout class="p-20">
    <rp:TextFieldRichPaste accept="all" hint="Paste rich data..." paste="{{ onPaste }}" />
    <rp:TextViewRichPaste accept="image/*" hint="Drop images here..." enableDragDrop="true" paste="{{ onPaste }}" drop="{{ onDrop }}" />
  </StackLayout>
</Page>

import { EventData, Page } from '@nativescript/core';
import { PasteEventData } from '@nstudio/nativescript-rich-paste';

export function navigatingTo(args: EventData) {
  const page = args.object as Page;
  page.bindingContext = new DemoModel();
}

class DemoModel {
  onPaste(args: PasteEventData) {
    const payload = args.data;
    switch (payload.type) {
      case 'text':
        console.log('Text:', payload.value);
        break;
      case 'images':
        payload.items.forEach((img) => {
          console.log(img.uri, img.mimeType, img.animated);
        });
        break;
      case 'files':
        payload.items.forEach((file) => {
          console.log(file.name, file.mimeType, file.size);
        });
        break;
    }
  }

  onDrop(args: PasteEventData) {
    console.log('Dropped:', args.data);
  }
}

Angular

import { registerElement } from '@nativescript/angular';
import { TextFieldRichPaste, TextViewRichPaste } from '@nstudio/nativescript-rich-paste';

registerElement('TextFieldRichPaste', () => TextFieldRichPaste);
registerElement('TextViewRichPaste', () => TextViewRichPaste);

<TextFieldRichPaste
  accept="all"
  hint="Paste rich data..."
  (paste)="onPaste($event)"
></TextFieldRichPaste>

<TextViewRichPaste
  accept="image/*"
  hint="Drop images here..."
  enableDragDrop="true"
  (paste)="onPaste($event)"
  (drop)="onDrop($event)"
></TextViewRichPaste>

Other Flavors

import { TextFieldRichPaste, TextViewRichPaste } from '@nstudio/nativescript-rich-paste';

// Vue
registerElement('TextFieldRichPaste', () => TextFieldRichPaste);
registerElement('TextViewRichPaste', () => TextViewRichPaste);

// React
registerElement('textFieldRichPaste', () => TextFieldRichPaste);
registerElement('textViewRichPaste', () => TextViewRichPaste);

// Svelte
registerNativeViewElement('textFieldRichPaste', () => TextFieldRichPaste);
registerNativeViewElement('textViewRichPaste', () => TextViewRichPaste);

// Solid
registerElement('textFieldRichPaste', TextFieldRichPaste);
registerElement('textViewRichPaste', TextViewRichPaste);

Paste Payload

The paste and drop events emit a PasteEventData object whose data property is a discriminated union:

Text

interface PasteTextPayload {
  type: 'text';
  value: string;
}

Images

interface PasteImagesPayload {
  type: 'images';
  items: PasteImageItem[];
}

interface PasteImageItem {
  uri: string;        // file:// URI to a temp file
  mimeType: string;   // e.g. 'image/png', 'image/gif'
  width?: number;
  height?: number;
  animated: boolean;   // true for GIFs
}

Files

interface PasteFilesPayload {
  type: 'files';
  items: PasteFileItem[];
}

interface PasteFileItem {
  uri: string;        // file:// URI to a temp file
  mimeType: string;   // e.g. 'application/pdf'
  name?: string;
  size?: number;
}

Unsupported

Returned when the clipboard contains data that does not match the accept filter.

interface PasteUnsupportedPayload {
  type: 'unsupported';
  availableTypes: string[];
}

Events

paste

Emitted when rich content is pasted from the clipboard.

import { PasteEventData } from '@nstudio/nativescript-rich-paste';

function onPaste(args: PasteEventData) {
  const payload = args.data;
  console.log('Paste type:', payload.type);
}

For text pastes, the default TextField/TextView behavior still applies (the text is inserted into the field) and the paste event is also fired.

drop

Emitted when content is dragged and dropped onto the input. Requires enableDragDrop="true".

import { DropEventData } from '@nstudio/nativescript-rich-paste';

function onDrop(args: DropEventData) {
  const payload = args.data;
  console.log('Drop type:', payload.type);
}

Properties

Property	Type	Default	Description
accept	string	'all'	MIME filter for accepted paste content
enableDragDrop	boolean	false	Enable drag-and-drop support

accept filter

The accept property controls which content types are processed. Supported values:

• 'all' — accept everything (default)
• 'image/*' — accept all image types
• 'image/png' — accept only PNG images
• 'image/gif' — accept only GIF images
• 'text/plain' — accept only plain text
• 'application/pdf' — accept only PDF files
• Comma-separated — e.g. 'image/*,application/pdf'

Classes

• TextFieldRichPaste — extends NativeScript TextField
• TextViewRichPaste — extends NativeScript TextView

Both classes expose the same accept, enableDragDrop properties and emit paste and drop events.

Temp File Management

Pasted binary content (images, files) is written to temporary files under the app's temp directory. You can clean up temp files at any time:

import { PasteInputTempFiles } from '@nstudio/nativescript-rich-paste';

// Remove all temp files created by rich paste
PasteInputTempFiles.cleanupAll();

Platform Notes

iOS

• Uses custom UITextField/UITextView subclasses that intercept the native paste: action
• Reads from UIPasteboard.generalPasteboard with support for images, GIFs, file URLs, and UTI-based document types
• Drag-and-drop uses UIDropInteraction with a native delegate
• GIF animation is preserved by detecting com.compuserve.gif UTI and writing raw data to temp files
• Supports file reference URL resolution including Finder bookmark data

Android

• Uses OnReceiveContentListener on API 31+ for unified paste and drag-and-drop handling
• Falls back to onTextContextMenuItem interception on older API levels
• Resolves MIME types via ContentResolver, file extension mapping, and ClipDescription
• Validates GIF files by checking the file header magic bytes
• Images are decoded via BitmapFactory and compressed to JPEG temp files

License

Apache License Version 2.0