IMPLEMENTING FORMULAS FOR CUSTOM FIELDS IN AN ON-DEMAND DATABASE

• US 20100332447A1
• Filed: 09/08/2010
• Published: 12/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Wong, Simon, Chasman, Doug, Bezar, Eric, Jacobs, Dean
• Granted Patent: US 8,108,339 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/610
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2282 Tablespace storage structures; Management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/275 Synchronous replication
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/954 Relational

Abstract

The efficiency and versatility for the implementation of formulas in an on-demand database is improved. Formulas are categorized. Based at least partly on the categorization, formulas are evaluated synchronously or asynchronously. An asynchronous evaluation may be performed if a certain set of criteria is not satisfied. Asynchronous evaluations may be performed using a queue. During an asynchronous update of an object, a counter field and/or an estimate field may be used respectively for indicating the consistency of values of the object and a time when the values were consistent. The versatility of formulas is enhanced by using a formula to create a default value for a custom field when it is created and to determine whether an action is to be performed, and is enhanced by having an action define when a formula is to be updated.

Claims

1. A method of updating a result of a formula stored in a database system, the method comprising:

receiving a request to compute an updated result of a first formula, wherein the first formula operates on input data stored in one or more tables of the database system to obtain the updated result;

submitting a query to at least one database of the database system, wherein the query includes a set of criteria;

analyzing results of the query to determine whether the set of criteria are satisfied;

updating the first formula synchronously to obtain the updated result when the criteria are satisfied; and

updating the first formula asynchronously to obtain the updated result when the criteria are not satisfied.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of criteria includes only one criterion.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the criteria includes an amount of input data to the first formula.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the criteria includes a current performance load on the database system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the criteria includes a number of synchronous evaluations during a given time period by a given user or tenant.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the criteria includes an amount of input data for the first formula, a current load on the database system, and a number of synchronous evaluations for a given time period by a given user or tenant.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the criteria includes a number of rows in which the input data resides.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein all of the respective criterion of the set are required to be satisfied for the set to be considered satisfied.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the first formula asynchronously includes:

adding the update request as a first item to a queue;

evaluating formulas associated with any other items previously added to the queue; and

subsequent to the evaluation of the other items, evaluating the first item to obtain the updated result.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising blocking additional update requests for the first formula until the first item is evaluated.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising indicating an inconsistency between input data of the first formula and a custom field value associated with a result of the first formula.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

providing a counter field of an object having a custom field associated with the first formula;

incrementing the counter field when requests to update the first formula are added to the queue; and

decrementing the counter field when the first formula is evaluated for an item in the queue.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein indicating an inconsistency between input data of the first formula and a custom field value comprises using a staleness flag.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising displaying for an object if any custom field value of that object has an inconsistency.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

providing an estimate field having an estimated time of when the custom field values of the object were last consistent with the input data of the formulas associated with the custom field values.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the estimate field is computed by:

storing a first time associated with the first item;

adding additional items to the queue, wherein a time is associated with each item; and

when the first item is dequeued, copying the first time into the estimate field.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the associated time for each item signifies a time when all or a portion of the input data of the first formula was changed.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to create a custom field for one of the tables of the database system, the custom field having one or more custom field values;

evaluating one or more default formulas to obtain one or more results; and

populating the custom field values with the results.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request for an action associated with a field of one of the tables of the database system;

evaluating a second formula associated with the field, wherein the second formula returns a Boolean result;

performing the requested action when the Boolean result is a first value; and

refraining from performing the requested action when the Boolean result is a second value.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the second formula is composed of a plurality of expressions, wherein the first value is returned even though not all of the expressions are valid.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the second formula is associated with a plurality of database records.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising using a merge field in the second formula to provide record specific functionality.

23. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

displaying an error message if the Boolean result is the second value.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein the user request is a request to save the field in the database.

25. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an action as part of a workflow;

based on the receipt of the action, updating a second formula to obtain the custom field value of a custom field of one of the tables of the database system; and

preventing a subsequent update of the second formula when input values for the second formula change.

26. A computer readable medium storing program code for controlling a processor to perform an operation for updating a result of a formula stored in a database system, the program code comprising code for:

receiving a request to compute an updated result of a first formula, wherein the first formula operates on input data stored in one or more tables of the database system to obtain the updated result;

submitting a query to at least one database of the database system, wherein the query includes a set of criteria;

analyzing results of the query to determine whether the set of criteria are satisfied;

updating the first formula synchronously to obtain the updated result when the criteria are satisfied; and

updating the first formula asynchronously to obtain the updated result when the criteria are not satisfied.

27. A system comprising:

a database;

at least one processor coupled with the database, the processor configured to;

receive a request to compute an updated result of a first formula, wherein the first formula operates on input data stored in one or more tables of the database system to obtain the updated result;

submit a query to at least one database of the database system, wherein the query includes a set of criteria;

analyze results of the query to determine whether the set of criteria are satisfied;

update the first formula synchronously to obtain the updated result when the criteria are satisfied; and

update the first formula asynchronously to obtain the updated result when the criteria are not satisfied.