CreateDraft

CreateDraft refers to the operation of creating an unfinished version of a document or object that is not yet finalized for publication or release. It is commonly used in content management systems, email clients, collaboration platforms, and issue trackers to support editing workflows.

A draft is kept separate from the published item, allowing authors to refine content, metadata, and structure. The createDraft function or process may accept initial content and metadata and may optionally clone an existing published item to preserve structure or history. It typically assigns a draft id, tracks the author and timestamps, and marks the item as "draft" rather than "published".

Lifecycle and data model: A draft object often includes fields such as id, draft_of_id or parent_id, title, body/content, metadata, author, created_at, updated_at, and status. The typical workflow is create draft, update draft, periodically autosave, then publish to produce or replace the published item, or discard to remove the draft.

Implementation considerations: storage location (local vs server), synchronization, and permissions. Drafts may be autosaved to prevent data loss, and systems may implement versioning to track changes. Concurrency controls, such as optimistic locking, help prevent conflicting edits when multiple users work on the same draft.

Usage examples: In pseudocode, createDraft({ title, content, author }) returns draftId; updateDraft(draftId, changes); publishDraft(draftId) creates/updates the published version; deleteDraft(draftId) removes the draft.

Benefits and trade-offs: Draft workflows reduce the risk of premature publication and support collaboration, but they add complexity and require additional storage and synchronization logic to keep drafts consistent with published content.