It seems like a general purpose need on the web that a page can copy something to the user’s clipboard if the request is initiated by the user (not just by some script). A classic example is something like https://bitly.com/ that wants to provide you with a shortcut link on your clipboard that you can paste somewhere else.
I’m using the Flash-based ZeroClipboard now to solve this problem (as is bitly too), but would like to get rid of Flash in my pages for a variety of reasons (mobile, performance, security, standards, viewer hassle). Since ZeroClipboard requires that it is initiated with an actual mouse click by the user, it seems like it has proven to be relatively safe (aside from the general Flash vulnerabilities).
I have several pages that users come to in order to get stuff that they want on their clipboard so they can paste it elsewhere (snippets of JS or CSS). It’s obviously easier for the end-user if they don’t have to manually select the correct piece of text and then manually copy it to the clipboard.
So … I’m wondering if this is being discussed anywhere in the standards organizations now? Right now, it’s the only reason left that I have flash in my pages.
For any standards efforts that are being discussed, is there any support coming or available in any of the browsers for it?
There is a W3C working draft on that subject.