Collaborative drafting of a message

摘要

Users of a message management service can collaborate to draft a message to a designated recipient. One user can create a draft message and identify one or more other users to collaborate on the draft. The users become authors of the draft, and the draft becomes available to each user through a drafts folder maintained for that user by the service. The users can each edit the draft. The message management service can send the draft as a message to the recipient when one or more of the collaborating users indicates that the draft should be sent. The message can include an indication that it is a collaborative message from all of the authors.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
receiving, at a server, a request from a first client of a creating user to create a collaborative draft of a message, the request including an identifier of a message recipient, an identifier of a collaborating user, and message content; storing, by the server, a draft message in association with an author list identifying a plurality of authors for the message, the authors including the creating user and the collaborating user, the draft message including the received message content; generating and sending, by the server, an invitation to the collaborating user at a second client; in response to the collaborating user accepting the invitation, adding, by the server, the draft message to a drafts folder maintained by the server for the collaborating user; receiving, by the server, one or more updates to the draft message from one or more of the authors; storing, by the server, an updated draft message based on the received one or more updates; propagating, by the server, the updated draft message to at least one of the authors; and in response to a send instruction from one or more of the authors, sending the updated draft message as a message to the message recipient, the message including an author-identifying field that identifies each of the authors.