SYSTEM, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR QUERYING DATA RELATIONSHIPS OVER A NETWORK

• US 20080077566A1
• Filed: 09/22/2006
• Published: 03/27/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Weissman, Craig, Fell, Simon Z., Jasik, Benji H., Mawson, Sven E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,734,608 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation

Abstract

In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for querying data relationships over a network. These mechanisms and methods for querying data relationships over a network can enable embodiments to provide the capability to query for more than a single entity at a time. The ability of embodiments to query for more than a single entity at a time can enable improved network throughput, faster response time and more efficient utilization of resources.

Claims

1. A method for querying data relationships over a network, comprising:

receiving a query including at least one relationship between a first entity and a second entity over a network;

retrieving, from at least one database, only that amount of data related to the first entity and the second entity that is able to be efficiently returned responsive to the query; and

transmitting data related to the first entity and the second entity over the network in response to the query.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a query including at least one relationship between a first entity and a second entity over a network includes:

receiving the query utilizing a web services protocol.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the web services protocol is selected from the group consisting of simple object access protocol (SOAP) and extensible markup language (XML).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a query including at least one relationship between a first entity and a second entity over a network includes:

receiving the query over a network that is asynchronous and latent.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting data related to the first entity and the second entity over the network in response to the query includes:

transmitting data related to the first entity and the second entity in response to a single query.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first entity and the second entity includes a custom entity.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a query including at least one relationship between a first entity and a second entity over a network includes:

receiving a query including at least one hierarchical relationship between a first entity and a second entity.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a query including at least one relationship between a first entity and a second entity over a network includes:

receiving the query utilizing a server.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving, from at least one database, only that amount of data related to the first entity and the second entity that is able to be efficiently returned responsive to the query includes:

interfacing with a multi-tenant database system.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first entity includes an account and the second entity includes at least one contact.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving, from at least one database, only that amount of data related to the first entity and the second entity that is able to be efficiently returned responsive to the query responsive to the query includes:

cursoring over the first entity and the second entity.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising tracking a total number of the entities.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining whether the total number of the entities exceeds a threshold.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising deleting at least one of the entities when the threshold is exceeded.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the relationship has a unique label.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein a first label is assigned to the first entity for identifying the relationship and a second label is assigned to the second entity for identifying the relationship.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first label and the second label are different.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the query is constructed utilizing a query language.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein a pointer exists between the first entity and the second entity.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the query includes a describe call that identifies the relationship.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving, from at least one database, only that amount of data related to the first entity and the second entity that is able to be efficiently returned responsive to the query responsive to the query includes:

generating at least one database query based on the query for querying a database for the data.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein generating at least one database query based on the query for querying a database for the data includes:

generating the at least one database query to include join conditions.

23. A computer program product embodied on a computer readable medium, comprising:

computer code for receiving a query including at least one relationship between a first entity and a second entity over a network;

computer code for retrieving, from at least one database, only that amount of data related to the first entity and the second entity that is able to be efficiently returned responsive to the query responsive to the query; and

computer code for transmitting data related to the first entity and the second entity over the network, in response to the query.

24. A system, comprising:

a multi-tenant database;

an application program interface (API) for interfacing a client with the multi-tenant database over a network;

wherein, in response to a query including at least one relationship between a first entity and a second entity, the API retrieves, from the multi-tenant database, only that amount of data related to the first entity and the second entity and able to efficiently returned responsive to the query and transmits data related to the first entity and the second entity from the multi-tenant database over the network.

25. A computer program product embodied on a computer readable medium, comprising:

computer code for transmitting a query including at least one relationship between a first entity and a second entity over a network; and

computer code for receiving data related to the first entity and the second entity over the network, the data retrieved from at least one database such that only that amount of data able to be efficiently returned responsive to the query is retrieved.

26. A data structure embodied on a computer readable medium, comprising:

a plurality of entities including a first entity having a relationship with a second entity;

a first label associated with the first entity for identifying the relationship; and

a second label associated with the second entity for identifying the relationship;

wherein the first label and the second label are different.

27. A method for transmitting code for querying data relationships over a network on a transmission medium, the method comprising:

transmitting code to receive a query including at least one relationship between a first entity and a second entity over a network;

transmitting code to retrieve, from at least one database, only that amount of data related to the first entity and the second entity that is able to be efficiently returned responsive to the query; and

transmitting code to transmit data related to the first entity and the second entity over the network in response to the query.