Calendar:Feature Implementations:Emailing Events
Use Cases
- User would like to invite people to an event using our attendees button and their email
- Users will want to accept/send invitations when running Sunbird but will expect that to be done via their usual mail client (i.e. not Thunderbird)
- Users of Lightning will expect to use Thunderbird to accept/send invitations
- Users will want to send email alarm reminders to an email-enabled hand-held or portable.
The Interface
Email capabilities are key in order to allow a calendar user to collaborate with other users by sending and receiving event invitations. Both Sunbird and Lightning need this ability. In Sunbird, the email functionality should be supplied by the user-selected email client on the system (this will usually be the default email client on the system).
Note that email interfaces are not the same as SMS interfaces. While they logically could be grouped together under a common "send" framework, this proposal only addresses email interfaces. For the moment it will be assumed that SMS sending will be addressed in its own interface. But, if people want to make an argument that it should be included here, and this interface should be more generalized, I'd be happy to hear it.
Furthermore, as you can see from the above use cases, there is no need for sending an email without a text/calendar mime-encoded ICS attachment. Therefore, in our calendar Email Interface, the email command includes this parameter. That parameter could be specified as NULL which would cause an email to be sent without any text/calendar attachment.
The email properties will probably be used from a "configuration" screen in preferences. I imagine this will be something that will be needed in Sunbird. I do not see a need for such a UI in Lightning where all of that information can be controlled via Thunderbird's Account Settings panel.