Systems and methods for making visual data representations actionable

• US 10,089,368 B2
• Filed: 10/06/2015
• Issued: 10/02/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Pominville, Patrice, Prophete, Didier, Thom, Dylan
• Primary Examiner(s): Uddin, Md I
• Application Number:
  US14/876,427
• Publication Number:
  US 20170083589A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,092 Days
• Field of Search: 707602, 707736, 707737, 707722
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/254 Extract, transform and load [ETL] procedures, e.g. ETL data flows in data warehouses
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/26 Visual data mining; Browsing structured data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90328 using search space presentation or visualization, e.g. category or range presentation and selection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

The disclosed technology includes systems and methods for making visual representations actionable. This technology makes it possible to drill into data, identify records and take action directly, enhancing customized data visualization representations. The technology disclosed relates to a platform for ultra-fast, ad-hoc data exploration and faceted navigation on integrated, heterogeneous data sets. The disclosed systems and methods for adding and customizing quick actions make it possible for developers, admins, and ISVs to provide customized actionable visual data representations with direct linking for accessing data in a company'"'"'s records and for linking to third party sites, without saving a new state on a server when dashboard elements are updated. The disclosed systems and methods for making data visualizations actionable in an analytics environment also make it possible to target multiple platforms—generating lenses and dashboards that let users take advantage and access data in a company'"'"'s records and link to other websites.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of making visual data representations actionable, including:

storing definitions of one or more display fields paired with unique ID fields, wherein the unique ID fields hold unique ID keys to be associated with quantified items represented within a data context by visual objects in a data visualization, wherein the data visualization is generated by a multi-tenant system for managing digital data for a plurality of tenants, each tenant of the plurality of tenants comprising a group of users who share a common access with a specific set of privileges to a software instance of at least one application, further including causing display of an action menu that includes an administrator configurable URL link to a subsystem of the multi-tenant system, and receiving data indicating selection of the subsystem with the unique ID key;

receiving a query within a query data context and creating a set of quantified items responsive to the query;

causing display of the multiple visual objects that represent the quantified items, wherein the quantified items are visually associated with selectable triggers in the data visualization;

receiving data indicating user selection of a trigger control of a selected quantified item, the data accompanied by at least one unique ID key for the selected quantified item;

launching from the data visualization an action using the unique ID key and an applicable data context selected from at least the query data context and an external data context by stored definitions; and

wherein launching the action includes creating a record in a database using the unique ID key having automatic relationships to other records in the database for the applicable data context, wherein the applicable data context is the query data context and default usage of the query data context is not overridden by the stored definitions.

2. The method of claim 1, further including causing display of an action menu with multiple action choices available for the selected quantified item, and receiving data indicating a selected action with the unique ID key.

3. The method of claim 2, further including creating a record of the action using the unique ID key and the selected action.

4. The method of claim 2, further including associating a record of the action with preexisting records in a database, using the unique ID key and the selected action.

5. The method of claim 2, further including creating a record, using the unique ID key, wherein the multiple action choices in the action menu include a log-a-call action, a create-new-case action, a create-new-contact action, a create-new-event action, create-new-lead action, create-new-opportunity action, and create-new-task action.

6. A computer implemented method of making visual data table representations actionable, including:

storing definitions of one or more display fields paired with unique ID fields, wherein the unique ID fields hold unique ID keys to be associated with data rows in a table within a data context, wherein the displayed table is generated by a multi-tenant system for managing digital data for a plurality of tenants, each tenant of the plurality of tenants comprising a group of users who share a common access with a specific set of privileges to a software instance of at least one application, further including causing display of an action menu that includes an administrator configurable URL link to a subsystem of the multi-tenant system, and receiving data indicating selection of the subsystem with the unique ID key;

receiving a query within a query data context and creating a set of quantified items responsive to the query;

causing display of the multiple data rows in the table, wherein each of the rows is visually associated with a selectable trigger control;

receiving data indicating user selection of a trigger control associated with a selected data row, the data accompanied by at least one unique ID key for the selected data row; and

launching an action using the unique ID key and an applicable data context selected from at least the query data context and an external data context by stored definitions; and

wherein launching the action includes creating a record in a database using the unique ID key having automatic relationships to other records in the database for the applicable data context, wherein the applicable data context is the query data context and default usage of the query data context is not overridden by the stored definitions.

7. The method of claim 6, further including causing display of an action menu with multiple action choices available for the selected data row, and receiving data indicating a selected action with the unique ID key.

8. The method of claim 7, further including creating a record, using the unique ID key, wherein the multiple action choices in the action menu include a log-a-call action, a create-new-case action, a create-new-contact action, a create-new-event action, create-new-lead action, create-new-opportunity action, and create-new-task action.

9. A system of making visual data representations actionable, the system including:

a processor, memory coupled to the processor, and computer instructions loaded into the memory that, when executed, cause the processor to implement a process that includes;

storing definitions of one or more display fields paired with unique ID fields, wherein the unique ID fields hold unique ID keys to be associated with quantified items represented by visual objects in a data visualization within a data context, wherein the data visualization is generated by a multi-tenant system for managing digital data for a plurality of tenants, each tenant of the plurality of tenants comprising a group of users who share a common access with a specific set of privileges to a software instance of at least one application, further including causing display of an action menu that includes an administrator configurable URL link to a subsystem of the multi-tenant system, and receiving data indicating selection of the subsystem with the unique ID key;

receiving a query within a query data context and creating a set of quantified items responsive to the query;

causing display of the multiple visual objects that represent the quantified items, wherein the quantified items are visually associated with selectable triggers in the data visualization;

receiving data indicating user selection of a trigger control of a selected quantified item, the data accompanied by at least one unique ID key for the selected quantified item; and

launching an action using the unique ID key and an applicable data context selected from at least the query data context and an external data context by stored definitions; and

wherein launching the action includes creating a record in a database using the unique ID key having automatic relationships to other records in the database for the applicable data context, wherein the applicable data context is the query data context and default usage of the query data context is not overridden by the stored definitions.

10. The system of claim 9, further including causing display of an action menu with multiple action choices available for the selected quantified item, and receiving data indicating a selected action with the unique ID key.

11. The system of claim 10, further including creating a record of the action using the unique ID key and the selected action.

12. The system of claim 10, further including associating a record of the action with preexisting records in a database, using the unique ID key and the selected action.

13. The system of claim 11, further including creating a record, using the unique ID key, wherein the multiple action choices in the action menu include a log-a-call action, a create-new-case action, a create-new-contact action, a create-new-event action, create-new-lead action, create-new-opportunity action, and create-new-task action.

14. A tangible computer readable storage medium loaded with computer instructions that, when executed, cause a computer system to perform actions that make visual data representations actionable, the actions including:

storing definitions of one or more display fields paired with unique ID fields, wherein the unique ID fields hold unique ID keys to be associated with quantified items represented by visual objects in a data visualization within a data context, wherein the data visualization is generated by a multi-tenant system for managing digital data for a plurality of tenants, each tenant of the plurality of tenants comprising a group of users who share a common access with a specific set of privileges to a software instance of at least one application, further including causing display of an action menu that includes an administrator configurable URL link to a subsystem of the multi-tenant system, and receiving data indicating selection of the subsystem with the unique ID key;

receiving a query within a query data context and creating a set of quantified items responsive to the query;

causing display of the multiple visual objects that represent the quantified items, wherein the quantified items are visually associated with selectable triggers in the data visualization;

receiving data indicating user selection of a trigger control of a selected quantified item, the data accompanied by at least one unique ID key for the selected quantified item; and

launching an action using the unique ID key and an applicable data context selected from at least the query data context and an external data context by stored definitions; and

wherein launching the action includes creating a record in a database using the unique ID key having automatic relationships to other records in the database for the applicable data context, wherein the applicable data context is the query data context and default usage of the query data context is not overridden by the stored definitions.

15. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 14, further including causing display of an action menu with multiple action choices available for the selected quantified item, and receiving data indicating a selected action with the unique ID key.

16. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 14, further including creating a record of the action using the unique ID key and the selected action.