A drag and drop operation is started using the wl_data_device.start_drag request. This requests causes a pointer grab that will generate enter, motion and leave events on the data device. A data source is supplied as argument to start_drag, and data offers associated with it are supplied to clients surfaces under the pointer in the wl_data_device.enter event. The data offer is introduced to the client prior to the enter event with the wl_data_device.data_offer event.

Clients are expected to provide feedback to the data sending client by calling the wl_data_offer.accept request with a mime type it accepts. If none of the advertised mime types is supported by the receiving client, it should supply NULL to the accept request. The accept request causes the sending client to receive a wl_data_source.target event with the chosen mime type.

When the drag ends, the receiving client receives a wl_data_device.drop event at which it is expect to trasnfer the data using the wl_data_offer.receive request.