System and methods for declaration-based extension management for multi-tenant environments

• US 10,296,321 B2
• Filed: 06/01/2015
• Issued: 05/21/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetSuite Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NetSuite Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Liu, Alan S., Grisso, Ryan
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen, Li B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kabir, Mohammad H
• Application Number:
  US14/727,669
• Publication Number:
  US 20150261523A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,450 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A system and associated methods for enabling a tenant user of a multi-tenant computing platform to introduce an extension to the platform'"'"'s functions and capabilities. A computing system, such as a distributed computing service platform, may manage independent customizations and/or extensions (collectively, “extensions”) of the service platform by multiple tenants in a manner that avoids undesirable behavior that may be caused by incompatible extensions. The service may accomplish this by requiring that a proposed extension provided by a tenant or extension vendor be accompanied by a formal declaration with respect to service platform component functionality and/or service platform data objects (collectively, “service platform resources”) that are utilized and/or modified by the extension. The service may further require that the extension be accompanied by validation code (e.g., one or more modules) that is capable of verifying that particular code modules or data objects of the extension are functioning as expected.

Claims

1. A method for improving the performance of a computing system, the method comprising:

receiving an extension package at a multi-tenant computing service platform and receiving a request to install the extension package as part of the multi-tenant computing service platform;

parsing the request and the extension package to identify whether a declaration is included, wherein the declaration identifies one or more resources of the multi-tenant computing service platform to be utilized by the extension package;

if the declaration is not identified by the parsing, then rejecting the request to install the extension package to avoid installing an incompatible extension;

if the declaration is identified by the parsing, then proceeding with the installation comprising;

identifying validation instructions included with the extension package, wherein the validation instructions are executable by an electronic processor to validate operation of the extension package with regard to service platform resources on the multi-tenant computing service platform;

determining the one or more resources identified in the declaration;

operating the electronic processor to execute the validation instructions to validate operation of the extension package with regard to service platform resources on the multi-tenant computing service platform;

determining if execution of the validation instructions results in a condition with respect to a characteristic of the extension package; and

installing the extension package as part of the multi-tenant computing service platform if execution of the validation instructions results in the condition.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining if execution of the set of instructions results in a condition with respect to a characteristic of the extension package further comprises determining if execution of the set of instructions results in meeting or exceeding a threshold ratio of coverage of the code that would be executed by a use of the extension package.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining if execution of the set of instructions results in a condition with respect to a characteristic of the extension package further comprises determining if execution of the set of instructions results in meeting or remaining less than a threshold value with respect to coverage of resources defined by the extension package.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to access the extension package;

determining if the request conforms to the terms of the extension package; and

processing the request if the request conforms to the terms of the extension package.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the extension package provides additional functionality for one or more of a user interface layer, an application layer, or a data storage layer of the multi-tenant computing service platform.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the additional functionality includes one or more of an extension to a login process, a caching process, an external system communication process, or a payment processing process.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the multi-tenant computing service platform includes or more of an enterprise-resource planning (ERP) data processing application, a customer-relationship management (CRM) data processing application, and an eCommerce data processing application.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions that, when executed in a computing environment by one or more electronic processors, facilitate introduction of an extension package to one or more of functions of the multi-tenant computing service platform, the instructions when executed cause the one or more electronic processors to:

receive an extension package at a multi-tenant computing service platform and receive a request to install the extension package as part of the multi-tenant computing service platform;

parse the request and the extension package to identify whether a declaration is included, wherein the declaration identifies one or more resources of the multi-tenant computing service platform to be utilized by the extension package;

if the declaration is not identified by the parsing, then reject the request to install the extension package to avoid installing an incompatible extension;

if the declaration is identified by the parsing, then proceed with the installation comprising;

identify validation instructions included with the extension package, wherein the validation instructions are executable by an electronic processor to validate operation of the extension package with regard to service platform resources on the multi-tenant computing service platform;

determine the one or more resources identified in the declaration;

operate the electronic processor to execute the validation instructions to validate operation of the extension package with regard to service platform resources on the multi-tenant computing service platform;

determine if execution of the validation instructions results in a condition with respect to a characteristic of the extension package; and

install the extension package as part of the multi-tenant computing service platform if execution of the validation instructions results in the condition.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions for determining if execution of the set of instructions results in a condition with respect to a characteristic of the extension package further comprises instructions for determining if execution of the set of instructions results in meeting or exceeding a threshold ratio of coverage of the code that would be executed by a use of the extension package.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions for determining if execution of the set of instructions results in a condition with respect to a characteristic of the extension package further comprises instructions for determining if execution of the set of instructions results in meeting or remaining less than a threshold value with respect to coverage of the resources defined by the extension package.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein determining if execution of the set of instructions results in a condition with respect to a characteristic of the extension package further comprises instructions for:

receiving a request to access the extension package;

determining if the request conforms to the terms of the extension package; and

processing the request if the request conforms to the terms of the extension package.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the extension package provides additional functionality of one or more of a user interface layer, an application layer, or a data storage layer of the multi-tenant computing service platform.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the functionality includes one or more of an extension to a login process, a caching process, an external system communication process, or a payment processing process.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, further comprising instructions for:

prior to installing the extension package, determining if an overlap exists between the one or more resources identified in the declaration and a set of resources identified in declarations associated with previously installed extension packages; and

if an overlap exists, then updating a record containing data related to overlaps between the set of resources identified in declarations associated with previously installed extension packages.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein if an overlap exists between the one or more resources identified in the declaration and a set of resources identified in declarations associated with previously installed extension packages, then the instructions further comprise instructions for:

receiving a request to access the extension package;

accessing the record containing data related to overlaps;

determining from the record a set of validation code associated with the request;

executing the set of validation code associated with the request; and

determining if execution of the set of validation code results in a condition with respect to a characteristic of the extension package.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, further comprising instructions for:

monitoring the resources of the multi-tenant computing service platform accessed when processing the request;

determining if the resources accessed when processing the request conform to those identified in the declaration; and

suspending processing of the request if the resources accessed when processing the request do not conform to those identified in the declaration.

17. A computer system having at least one electronic processor configured to execute instructions from a memory for permitting users of a multi-tenant computing service platform to introduce an extension package to one or more of the functions of the platform, the computer system comprising:

an extension package manager configured to install a proposed extension package, the extension package manager comprising instructions executable by the at least one electronic processor to cause the at least one electronic processor to;

receive the proposed extension package and receive a request to install the proposed extension package as part of the multi-tenant computing service platform;

parse the proposed extension package to identify whether a declaration is included, wherein the declaration identifies one or more resources of the multi-tenant computing service platform to be utilized by the proposed extension package;

if the declaration is not identified by the parsing, then reject the request to install the proposed extension package to avoid installing an incompatible extension;

if the declaration is identified by the parsing, then proceed with the installation comprising;

identify validation code included with the proposed extension package, wherein the validation code is executable by the at least one electronic processor to validate operation of the proposed extension package with regard to service platform resources on the multi-tenant computing service platform;

determine whether execution of the validation code associated with the proposed extension package would result in access of a resource associated with one or more other previously installed extension packages; and

determine whether execution of the validation code associated with the proposed extension package results in access of the resource identified in the declaration associated with the proposed extension package.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the extension package manager is further configured to determine if execution of the validation code associated with the proposed extension package results a condition with respect to coverage of the code that would be executed by a use of the proposed extension package.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the extension package manager is further configured to determine if execution of the validation code associated with the proposed extension package results a condition with respect to coverage of resources defined by the proposed extension package.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the extension package manager is further configured to stop execution of code associated with the proposed extension package if execution of the code results in accessing a resource not in the declaration associated with the proposed extension package.