Systems and methods for generating tenant-specific properties for use in a provider-tenant environment

• US 20070156700A1
• Filed: 12/30/2005
• Published: 07/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Becker, Wolfgang
• Granted Patent: US 7,680,825 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

Exemplary methods and systems may designate a data structure as tenant-specific or shared. By reviewing a plurality of data structures at the provider corresponding to a plurality of tenants, the provider may determine which of the plurality of data structures are specific to a first tenant of the plurality of tenants, and generate a tenant specific designation to identify a data structure as specific to the first tenant. Further, the provider may associate a data structure determined to be specific to the first tenant with the generated tenant specific designation. With this capability a provider-tenant system may separately store each tenants data.

Claims

1. A method for designating, at a provider, a data structure as a tenant-specific data structure, the method comprising:

reviewing, at the provider, a plurality of data structures corresponding to a plurality of tenants;

determining which of the plurality of data structures are specific to a first tenant of the plurality of tenants;

generating a tenant-specific designation to identify a data structure as specific to the first tenant; and

associating a data structure determined to be specific to the first tenant with the generated tenant-specific designation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the tenant specific designation is one of a string type, a character type, a boolean type, a date type, and a numeric type.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning each data structure associated with the tenant specific designation to a tenant specific data structure schema.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining which of the plurality of data structures are common to the plurality of tenants; and

associating each data structure determined to be common to the plurality of tenants with a shared designation.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the shared designation is one of a string type, a character type, a boolean type, a date type, and a numeric type.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of data structures are in a table-based format.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining which of the plurality of data structures are specific to the first tenant further includes:

analyzing attributes of the plurality of data structures; and

determining, based on the analyzed attributes, which of the plurality of data structures are specific to the first tenant.

8. A method for hosting a software application used by a plurality of tenants,

wherein the software application comprises a plurality of data structures stored at a first network accessible storage location, the method comprising:

determining which of the plurality of data structures are specific to a first tenant of the plurality of tenants based on attributes associated with the plurality of data structures;

designating a data structure determined to be specific to the first tenant as corresponding to the first tenant;

storing the designated data structure at a second network accessible storage location separate from the first storage location; and

hosting the software application for the first tenant by using the data structures stored at the first and second storage locations.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein designating a data structure further includes:

designating the data structure with a tenant specific designation that is one of a string type, a character type, a boolean type, a date type, and a numeric type.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein storing the designated data structure further includes:

assigning the designated data structure to a tenant specific data structure schema.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining which of the plurality of data structures are common to the plurality of tenants; and

associating each data structure determined to be common tenant with a shared designation.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the shared designation is one of a string type, a character type, a boolean type, a date type, and a numeric type.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of data structures are in a table-based format.

14. A system for designating, at a provider, a data structure as a tenant-specific data structure, the system comprising:

means for reviewing, at the provider, a plurality of data structures corresponding to a plurality of tenants;

means for determining which of the plurality of data structures are specific to a first tenant of the plurality of tenants;

means for generating a tenant specific designation to identify a data structure as specific to the first tenant; and

means for associating a data structure determined to be specific to the first tenant with the generated tenant specific designation.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the tenant specific designation is one of a string type, a character type, a boolean type, a date type, and a numeric type.

16. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

means for assigning each data structure associated with the tenant specific designation to tenant specific data structure schema.

17. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

means for determining which of the plurality of data structures are common to the plurality of tenants; and

means for associating each data structure determined to be common to the plurality of tenants with a shared designation.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the shared designation is one of a string type, a character type, a boolean type, a date type, and a numeric type.