rawClipboardData

Provides low-level access to the contents of the clipboard.

# Metadata

Platforms: desktop OS: mac, windows, linux Introduced: 8.0 Security:

# Syntax

set the rawClipboardData[key] to data

# Examples

lock the clipboard put the keys of the rawClipboardData unlock the clipboard

lock the clipboard set the rawClipboardData["text/plain;charset=utf-8"] \ to textEncode("Hello, World!", "UTF-8" ) -- Linux set the rawClipboardData["CF_UNICODETEXT"] \ to textEncode("Hello, World!", "UTF-16" ) -- Windows set the rawClipboardData["public.utf8-plain-text"] \ to textEncode("Hello, World!", "UTF-8" ) -- OSX unlock the clipboard

# Description

Use the rawClipboardData to gain low-level access to the system clipboard. The keys for the rawClipboardData are platform-specific. You can query the keys of the rawClipboardData to determine what types of data are on the clipboard.

>*Note:* The rawClipboardData cannot be accessed outside of a lock clipboard/unlock clipboard pair. This is to ensure the clipboard contents do not change during access.

If the contents of the clipboard were placed there by another app, the clipboard will have to be cleared before being used: ``set the rawClipboardData to empty``. Attempting to overwrite externally-provided data without clearing the clipboard will throw an error.

This property should only be used if you require low-level access; the fullClipboardData property is more appropriate for most uses.

As a low-level feature, platform differences are not hidden. In particular, the form of the keys of the rawClipboardData are platform-specific, but can be summarized as:

- Windows: arbitrary strings but keys of the form CF_xxx correspond to the clipboard formats defined by Windows itself - OSX: Uniform Type Identifiers (UTIs) with an extension. OSTypes/MIME-types can be used by prefixing the key with com.apple.ostype:/public.mime-type: - Linux: arbitrary strings (X11 atoms) but, by convention, MIME types are used

>*Tip:* All contents of the rawClipboardData are binary - use the textEncode/textDecode functions to convert to/from the appropriate encoding.

>*Tip:* It is good practice to clear the clipboard before use: ``set the rawClipboardData to empty``

# Tags

ui, clipboard,

# See

- **property:** clipboardData, fullClipboardData, rawDragData - **command:** lock clipboard, unlock clipboard - **function:** clipboard, textEncode, textDecode - **glossary:** clipboard, property