I'm currently working on a project at work using the HTML5 Drag and Drop API to provide added functionality including dragging items in and out of browsers. I am currently coming across issues which are specific to Chrome (otherwise only tested in Firefox, which works as expected).

The issue is that I cannot use the `event.dataTransfer.getData(type)` method to return the data set on the `dragstart` event in any events except the `drop` event.

I set the event like so, after binding to the `dragstart` event (which DOES fire):

```
event.dataTransfer.setData('text/plain', "some string")

```

Then in the `drop` event, I can get the data fine.

```
event.dataTransfer.getData('text/plain')

```

However I cannot use the same method as above on any other events (such as `dragover`). Even if I try and use the above method on the line after calling `setData()` (i.e., in the `dragstart` callback), then it will still return `undefined`.

So, in Chrome, the issue is that `getData` in Chrome will always return `undefined`, except within the `drop` event callback. (In Firefox, I can successfully get the correct data.)

If you have the reference to the `dataTransfer` object of the same dragging element, then why should you not be able to get the data until it is dropped?

Just wondering:

* Has anyone had this trouble with Chrome before?
* What workarounds are there?
* Or, is it something Chrome needs to fix?

Resources:
[Specification for HTML5 drag and drop.](http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html#dnd)