System, method and computer program product for applying a public tag to information

• US 10,198,496 B2
• Filed: 03/22/2013
• Issued: 02/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Blixt, Emily Alane, Gusev, Andrey D., Kimberlin, Susan Marie, Bergan, Jeffrey M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Perveen, Rehana
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wong, Huen
• Application Number:
  US13/849,434
• Publication Number:
  US 20130218874A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,146 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24573 using data annotations, e.g. user-defined metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases

Abstract

In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for applying a public tag to information. These mechanisms and methods for applying a public tag to information may enable embodiments to allow a user to apply a public tag to the information once. Further, applying a public tag to information may enable users with access to the information an ability to view the public tag applied to the information by the user.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium having computer instructions stored therein that are adapted to be executed by a computer system to cause the computer system to perform operations comprising:

storing content in a multi-tenant database for each of a plurality of tenants, the content of each tenant being stored in a corresponding logically separated storage area for that tenant, wherein the plurality of tenants includes a particular tenant associated with a plurality of users;

maintaining, for a first user of the plurality of users associated with the particular tenant, an indication that the first user has subscribed to a particular tag such that the first user is to be alerted when at least a portion of the stored content is associated with the particular tag;

receiving, from a second user of the plurality of users associated with the particular tenant, tag information to be associated with a specified portion of the content stored for the particular tenant in the multi-tenant database, wherein the tag information specifies the particular tag;

after determining that the second user has permission to edit tags, modifying the received tag information according to a standard to create standardized tag information;

after the modifying, associating the standardized tag information with the specified portion of the content for the particular tenant of the multi-tenant database, such that ones of the plurality of users are allowed to view the standardized tag information applied to the specified portion of the content of the particular tenant, wherein associating the standardized tag information with the specified portion includes utilizing a separate data object to store a first reference value for looking up the standardized tag information and a second reference value for looking up the specified portion of the content, and wherein the viewed standardized tag information is selectable by ones of the plurality of users to view other content portions of the particular tenant that are also associated with that tag information;

based on determining that a number of tags applied to portions of the stored content for the particular tenant satisfies a threshold value, preventing ones of the plurality of users from causing additional tags to be applied to the stored content; and

based on the indication that the first user has subscribed to the particular tag, alerting the first user about the specified portion in response to the specified portion being associated with the particular tag.

2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the standardized tag information includes a standardized tag name.

3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the content for the particular tenant includes a subset of records stored by the multi-tenant database.

4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein a number of tags are limited for each of the plurality of users associated with the particular tenant.

7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein a tag application programming interface (API) allows the plurality of users to access tags.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise disallowing conflicting tag information that describes one or more data characteristics of the specified portion of the content from being applied to the specified portion of the content.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise determining whether the first user has tag modification permissions for the specified portion of the content prior to allowing the first user to modify a standardized tag name included in the standardized tag information.

5. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

storing content in a multi-tenant database for each of a plurality of tenants, the content of each tenant being stored in a corresponding logically separated storage area for that tenant, wherein the plurality of tenants includes a particular tenant associated with a plurality of users;

maintaining, for a first user of the plurality of users associated with the particular tenant, an indication that the first user has subscribed to a particular tag such that the first user is to be alerted when at least a portion of the stored content is associated with the particular tag;

receiving, from a second user of the plurality of users associated with the particular tenant, tag information to be associated with a specified portion of the content stored for the particular tenant in the multi-tenant database, wherein the tag information specifies the particular tag;

modifying the received tag information according to a standard to create standardized tag information;

after the modifying, associating the standardized tag information with the specified portion of the content for the particular tenant of the multi-tenant database, such that ones of the plurality of users are allowed to view the standardized tag information applied to the specified portion of the content of the particular tenant, wherein associating the standardized tag information with the specified portion includes utilizing a separate data object to store a key value usable to look up the standardized tag information and another key value usable to look up the specified portion of the content, and wherein the viewed standardized tag information is selectable by ones of the plurality of users to view other content portions of the particular tenant that are also associated with that tag information;

based on determining that a number of tags applied to portions of the stored content for the particular tenant satisfies a threshold value, preventing ones of the plurality of users from causing additional tags to be applied to the stored content; and

based on the indication that the first user has subscribed to the particular tag, alerting the first user about the specified portion in response to the specified portion being associated with the particular tag.

10. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the operations further comprise determining whether the second user has tag modification permissions for the specified portion of the content prior to allowing the second user to modify a standardized tag name included in the standardized tag information.

11. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the particular tenant has a limited number of tags available for use within the multi-tenant database.

6. A method, comprising:

storing content in a multi-tenant database for each of a plurality of tenants, the content of each tenant being stored in a corresponding logically separated storage area for that tenant, wherein the plurality of tenants includes a particular tenant associated with a plurality of users;

maintaining, for a first user of the plurality of users associated with the particular tenant, an indication that the first user has subscribed to a particular tag such that the first user is to be alerted when at least a portion of the stored content is associated with the particular tag;

receiving, from a second user of the plurality of users associated with the particular tenant, tag information to be associated with a specified portion of the content stored for the particular tenant in the multi-tenant database, wherein the tag information specifies the particular tag;

modifying the received tag information according to a standard to create standardized tag information;

after the modifying, associating the standardized tag information with the specified portion of the content for the particular tenant of the multi-tenant database, such that ones of the plurality of users are allowed to view the standardized tag information applied to the specified portion of the content of the particular tenant, wherein associating the standardized tag information with the specified portion includes utilizing a separate data object having a tag field storing a reference to the standardized tag information and a content field storing a reference to the specified portion of the content, and wherein the viewed standardized tag information is selectable by ones of the plurality of users to view other content portions of the particular tenant that are also associated with that tag information;

based on determining that a number of tags applied to portions of the stored content for the particular tenant satisfies a threshold value, preventing ones of the plurality of users from causing additional tags to be applied to the stored content; and

based on the indication that the first user has subscribed to the particular tag, alerting the first user about the specified portion in response to the specified portion being associated with the particular tag.

12. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving, at a tag data input interface, tag merge information for merging tags, wherein the tag merge information indicates a modification of a first tag name to a second tag name; and

in response to receiving the tag merge information, associating records of the first tag name with the second tag name.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein merging tags is based on permission information for the second user.

14. The method of claim 6, wherein the particular tenant has a limited number of tags available for use within the multi-tenant database.

15. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving, from a third user of the plurality of users associated with the particular tenant, a search query for information in the multi-tenant database corresponding to one or more tags specified by one or more search terms in the search query;

normalizing at least one of the one or more search terms;

performing a search that is based on the at least one normalized search term; and

returning information from the multi-tenant database responsive to the search.

16. The method of claim 6, wherein the standardized tag information indicates a number of records in the content corresponding to a standardized tag name.