Angular 7 Drag and Drop - Dynamically Create Drop Zones

After a full day of research, I found this pull request on Angular CDK repository on Github. Now, since I did not know how to integrate cdkDropListGroup into my example, I decited to create an array of IDs which will be added to [cdkDropListConnectedTo].

Each instance of my second list will have generated ID, and that ID will be added to array with suitable prefix (in my second list, on cdkDropList):

<div cdkDropList
      [attr.id]="addId(i, j)"
      [cdkDropListData]="appointment.lessons"
      [cdkDropListConnectedTo]="[subjectList]"
      (cdkDropListDropped)="drop($event)"
>

addId method:

addId(i, j) {
    this.LIST_IDS.push('cdk-drop-list-' + i + '' + j);
    return i + '' + j;
}

(cdk-drop-list- is an ID prefix. CDK places this prefix on every element with cdkDropList attribute)

So, my array will look like:

• cdk-drop-list-00
• cdk-drop-list-01
• cdk-drop-list-02
• etc.

Now, I pass that array to [cdkDropListConnectedTo] in my first list:

<div class="subj-container" 
    cdkDropListOrientation="horizontal"
    cdkDropList 
    #subjectList="cdkDropList"            
    [cdkDropListData]="subjects" 
    [cdkDropListConnectedTo]="LIST_IDS"
    (cdkDropListDropped)="drop($event)"
>

And it works flawlessly!

Hope this will help anybody with the same problem. Also, take a look at the pull request I mentioned, my solution is only a workaround, there is probably a better solution with cdkDropListGroup

With cdkDropListGroup you can now do:

<div cdkDropListGroup>

  <div cdkDropList
    [cdkDropListData]="data"
    (cdkDropListDropped)="drop($event)">
    <div class="row m-2">
        <div *ngFor="let i of data" cdkDrag>{{i}}</div>          
    </div>
  </div>

  <div class="subj-container" 
    cdkDropListOrientation="horizontal"
    cdkDropList 
    #subjectList="cdkDropList"            
    [cdkDropListData]="subjects" 
    (cdkDropListDropped)="drop($event)"> 
  </div>

</div>

No longer a need for cdkDropListConnectedTo in this case. See https://github.com/angular/material2/blob/master/src/cdk/drag-drop/drag-drop.md

Source Link

Demo Link

For Dynamic Drag n Drop Lists, we can use ID instead of # Template variables

app.component.html

<div class="col-md-3" *ngFor="let week of weeks">
  <div class="drag-container">
    <div class="section-heading">Week {{week.id}}</div>

    <div cdkDropList id="{{week.id}}" [cdkDropListData]="week.weeklist"
      [cdkDropListConnectedTo]="connectedTo" class="item-list" (cdkDropListDropped)="drop($event)">
      <div class="item-box" *ngFor="let weekItem of week.weeklist" cdkDrag>Week {{week.id}} {{weekItem}}</div>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

app.component.ts

import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { CdkDragDrop, moveItemInArray, transferArrayItem } from '@angular/cdk/drag-drop';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-root',
  templateUrl: './app.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['./app.component.css']
})
export class AppComponent {

  weeks = [];
  connectedTo = [];


  constructor() {
    this.weeks = [
      {
        id: 'week-1',
        weeklist: [
          "item 1",
          "item 2",
          "item 3",
          "item 4",
          "item 5"
        ]
      }, {
        id: 'week-2',
        weeklist: [
          "item 1",
          "item 2",
          "item 3",
          "item 4",
          "item 5"
        ]
      }, {
        id: 'week-3',
        weeklist: [
          "item 1",
          "item 2",
          "item 3",
          "item 4",
          "item 5"
        ]
      }, {
        id: 'week-4',
        weeklist: [
          "item 1",
          "item 2",
          "item 3",
          "item 4",
          "item 5"
        ]
      },
    ];
    for (let week of this.weeks) {
      this.connectedTo.push(week.id);
    };
  }

  drop(event: CdkDragDrop<string[]>) {
    if (event.previousContainer === event.container) {
      moveItemInArray(event.container.data, event.previousIndex, event.currentIndex);
    } else {
      transferArrayItem(event.previousContainer.data,
        event.container.data,
        event.previousIndex,
        event.currentIndex);
    }
  }
}