Conversion service for data dragged on web-sites

A computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to facilitate drag and drop operations in a graphic user interface, said method comprising:

• detecting the start of a drag operation at a first location;
• attaching material in a first format at the first location to be dragged to a second location;
• detecting an indication of a drop operation at the second location;
• determining a second format required at the second location;
• determining if a conversion path exists from the first format to the second format;
• and
• if a conversion path is determined not to exist, triggering a visual indication to the user that a drop operation is not possible.

A computer implemented method, comprising:

• detecting the start of a drag operation at a source location;
• attaching material in a source format at the source location to be dragged;
• receiving the dragged source material in the drag bar and holding the material in the source format;
• detecting the start of a drag operation from the drag bar to a target location;
• detecting an indication of a drop operation at the target location;
• determining a target format required at the target location;
• determining if a conversion path exists from the source format to the target format;
• if a conversion path is determined not to exist, converting the material from the source format to the target format;
• and
• dropping the material converted from the source format to the target format at the target location.

A computer implemented method for use with a drag and drop function, comprising:

• receiving at a conversion service a notification of a pending drop operation of material in a first format to a desired location;
• determining a format accepted at the desired location;
• determining whether a conversion path exists between the first format and the format accepted at the second location;
• and
• converting between the first format and the format accepted by the second location if conversion is necessary.

A computer implemented system for providing a conversion in drag and drop operations, comprising:

• a script library within in a user device;
• a proxy script within a web server;
• and
• a conversion service configured to determine if a conversion path exists between material dragged in a first format and a format accepted by a drop location, the conversion service configured to convert the material in the first format to the format accepted by the drop location during a drop operation.

A computer implemented method of providing information to a user, comprising:

• conversion of a first plurality of information in a first microformat to a second microformat;
• lookup of a second plurality of information;
• compilation of the first and second pluralities of information;
• extraction of information of the compiled information;
• and
• dropping of the extracted information into a receiving area in a microformat the receiving area is configured to accept.