SYSTEM, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR USING A DATABASE TO ACCESS CONTENT STORED OUTSIDE OF THE DATABASE

• US 20110213816A1
• Filed: 02/28/2011
• Published: 09/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Baker, Gary, Agrawal, Sonali, Macklem, Walter, Ghosh, Sandip, Wong, Simon, Bhatt, Chaitanya, Doshi, Kedar
• Granted Patent: US 9,251,164 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/827
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/122 using management policies backup systems G06F11/1446; file migration policies for HSM systems G06F16/185
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/14 Details of searching files based on file metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1748 De-duplication implemented within the file system, e.g. based on file segments de-duplication techniques in storage systems for the management of data blocks G06F3/0641
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/176 Support for shared access to files; File sharing support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems

Abstract

In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for using a database to access content stored outside of the database. These mechanisms and methods for using a database to access content stored outside of the database can enable embodiments to provide a database system which can be used to access content when the content is incapable of being stored in the database system, or is otherwise not stored in the database system. The ability of embodiments to provide access to such data via the database system can improve the usability of the database system.

Claims

1. A computer program product, comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for using a database to access content stored outside of the database, the method comprising:

receiving content;

storing the content in a file server;

storing, in a database, metadata referencing a location of the content in the file server; and

accessing the content using the metadata.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the content includes a file.

3. The computer program product of claim 2, wherein the file includes an image file,

4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the content includes rich text.

5. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the content is received by a multi-tenant on-demand database system from a tenant of the multi-tenant on-demand database system.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the content is received using a graphical user interface used for configuring a webpage.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the database is separate from the file server,

8. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein storing, in the database, metadata referencing a location of the content in the file server includes storing an identifier of the location of the content in a reference table of the database.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the identifier of the location of the content is stored in association with a content identifier.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the content identifier is stored in a field data table in association with a reference identifier.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the reference identifier is stored in a field of a record of an entity table, for referencing the content.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the field is configured to store a type of the content.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the entity table stores information associated with an entity including the content.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the entity includes a webpage.

15. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein an indicator of a number of different reference identifiers associated with the content identifier is stored in the reference table in association with the content identifier.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the indicator of the number of different reference identifiers associated with the content identifier is used for determining whether to delete the content from the file server.

17. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein accessing the content includes retrieving the content for inclusion in an entity provided to a user requesting the entity.

18. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the content is stored in the file server in response to a determination that the content does not include malicious content.

19. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising storing additional metadata associated with the content and retrieving or filtering the additional metadata using a query,

20. A method, comprising:

receiving content;

storing the content in a file server;

storing, in a database, metadata referencing a ;

location of the content in the file server; and

accessing the content using the metadata,

21. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor for;

receiving content;

storing the content in a file server;

storing, in a database, metadata referencing a location of the content in the file server; and

accessing the content using the metadata.

22. A method for transmitting code, comprising:

transmitting code to receive content,

transmitting code to store the content in a file server;

transmitting code to store, in a database, metadata referencing a location of the content in the file server; and

transmitting code to access the content using the metadata.