DeepaMehta

Task description: Inbox

Olaf Müller, 6.2.2001
(C) Staps Magicom



Motivation: Currently, the "Messages" panel is used for messages from
the DeepaMehta Server exclusively. In the future, it should work as a
cental place for all incoming messages which are relevant for the user
-- system messages as well as emails. Thus, the "Messages" panel will
turn into an "Incoming" map.

To get a consistent interface for all messages, there should be a
topic type "Notice". The appearance of such a "Notice" topic in the
"Incoming" map indicates that a new message has arrived. The
NoticeTopic will have the following properties: "Status" (unread,
read), "Type" (email, system notice, ...), "Date", "Message" (text
field for additional informations). Additional topics may be related
to the NoticeTopic: a notice of an incoming email will be associated
to the email message, while a notice about a published map will be
associated with that map. A NoticeContainer will show only the notices
for the current user. The NoticeContainer should offer the facility to
group by properties (Status, Type, Date). 

Specific features of the "Incoming" map are:

* It cannot be deleted.

* There are no permanent topics on this map. When opening this map,
  only "Notice" topics with status "unread" will be shown. (All other
  Notice topics can be revealed from the NoticeContainer).

Hints for realization: As long as there are no custom property editors
for Date's in DM, the property "Date" mentioned above should be
emulated by properties "Year", "Month", "Day", "Time", as in the
AppointmentTopic.