Messaging (Email-Style Communication)

Purpose - Lets users write formal messages to individuals or groups, similar to email. Each message has a subject, a body, one or more recipients, optional attachments, and a delivery status. Messages can be part of a thread (a conversation with replies) or forwarded from an earlier message. 

Who Can Use It 

• Organization users 
• Authority users 
• School / School Admin users 
• Employees (teaching and non-teaching; school, DHE, or department employees) 
• Students 
• Parents 

The system recognizes the sender type when composing a message (Organization, Employee, School, Student, or Authority) and stamps it on the message so recipients know where it came from. 

Key Capabilities 

• Compose a new message with subject, body, and optional attachments.
• Send to Primary (To), CC, and BCC recipients across multiple audience types (employees, schools, students, parents). 
• Save messages as drafts and continue editing them later. 
• Send an existing draft when it is ready. 
• Reply to a message within a thread, forward a message, or start a new thread.
• View a full message with its recipients and attachments. 
• Mark a message as read. 
• Archive a message so it is set aside from the main list. 
• Delete a message. 
• View the recipients of a message along with their read status. 
• View all messages that belong to the same thread. 

How to use it

• Open the messaging area of the application. 
• Choose Compose to start a new message. 
• Fill in the subject and body. Both are required. 
• Pick recipients by category — teaching employees, non-teaching employees, schools, students, or parents — and assign them to Primary, CC, or BCC. 
• Optionally attach one or more files. 
• Choose to Save as Draft or Send. 
• Sent messages appear in your Sent folder. 
• Drafts appear in your Drafts folder and can be edited and sent later. 
• To read a message, open it from your Inbox. The system will mark it as read. 8. To reply, forward, archive, or delete, use the corresponding action from the message view. 

Rules & Restrictions 

• Both subject and body are required. A message cannot be sent with an empty body.
• Every message must have at least one recipient before it can be sent. Drafts may be saved without recipients. 
• The sender type is validated. It must be one of: Organization, Employee, School, Student, or Authority. 
• Message status follows a defined lifecycle: Draft → Sent → Delivered → Read, and messages can also be Archived or Deleted.
• Only the original author of a draft can update it. Attempting to edit someone else's draft is rejected. 
• Message sending is processed asynchronously — the platform confirms acceptance of the message and completes delivery in the background.