METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING INFORMATION TO A MOBILE HANDHELD DEVICE FROM A DATABASE SYSTEM

• US 20120209948A1
• Filed: 08/17/2011
• Published: 08/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Koosel, Marko, Sola, Thomas, Chasman, Doug, Tenenblat, Leo, Ku, Siuling, Tran, Andrew, Song, Ning
• Granted Patent: US 9,465,885 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0847 Transmission error
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications

Abstract

A method for providing information to a mobile handheld device from a database system is provided. The method embodiment includes receiving by a node hosting an information management service a request for data. The request is received from a network enabled mobile handheld device that has intermittent network connectivity. The information management service is configured for identifying unrequested anticipated data based on the requested data. In an embodiment, the anticipated data is identified based on a data request pattern associated with the requested data. Once identified, the requested data and the anticipated data is retrieved from a database system. The requested data and at least a portion of the anticipated data is sent to the network enabled mobile handheld device via a network. By providing anticipated data along with requested data, a mobile user has direct access to unrequested anticipated data when network connectivity is interrupted.

Claims

1. A method for providing information to a mobile handheld device from a database system, the method comprising:

receiving by a node hosting an information management service a request for data, the request received from a network enabled mobile handheld device, wherein the mobile handheld device has intermittent network connectivity;

identifying by the information management service unrequested anticipated data based on the requested data, wherein the anticipated data is identified based on a data request pattern associated with the requested data;

retrieving by the information management service the requested data and the anticipated data from a database system; and

sending by the information management service the requested data and at least a portion of the anticipated data to the network enabled mobile handheld device via a network, wherein by providing anticipated data along with requested data, a mobile user has direct access to unrequested anticipated data when network connectivity is interrupted.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the request for data comprises receiving the request over a network, wherein the network is at least one of a public and a private network, and wherein the database system is a multi-tenant on-demand database system.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

monitoring by a request monitoring component hosted by the node a plurality of subsequent data requests associated with the requested data;

analyzing by the request monitoring component the plurality of subsequent data requests to determine a data request pattern, wherein the data request pattern ranks follow up data requests based on a ranking criteria;

generating an association by the request monitoring component between the data request pattern and the requested data; and

storing the association between the data request pattern and the requested data in the database system.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein identifying anticipated data comprises retrieving the data request pattern based on the association between the data request pattern and the requested data, and selecting at least one of the follow up data requests in the data request pattern.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

monitoring by a request monitoring component hosted by the node a plurality of a user'"'"'s subsequent data requests associated with the requested data;

analyzing by the request monitoring component the plurality of the user'"'"'s subsequent data requests to determine a user specific data request pattern, wherein the user specific data request pattern ranks subsequent data requests based on the user'"'"'s request history;

generating an association by the request monitoring component between the user, the user specific data request pattern, and the requested data; and

storing the association between the user, the user specific data request pattern, and the requested data in the database system.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein sending the requested data and at least a portion of the anticipated data comprises:

determining by the information management service an available storage of the network enabled mobile device;

determining a total storage requirement by summing a storage requirement of the requested data and a storage requirement the anticipated data;

sending the requested data and the anticipated data when the total storage requirement is less than the available storage of the network enabled mobile device; and

sending the requested data and a portion of the anticipated data when the total storage requirement exceeds the available storage of the network enabled mobile device, wherein a sum of the storage requirements of the requested data and of the portion of the anticipated data is less than the available storage of the network enabled mobile device.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving by the information management service an indication updating at least one of the requested data and the anticipated data; and

sending by the information management service a notification including at least one of the updated requested data and the updated anticipated data to the network enabled mobile handheld device via the network.

8. A machine-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for providing information to a mobile handheld device from a database system, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:

receiving by an information management service a request for data, the request received from a network enabled mobile handheld device, wherein the mobile handheld device has intermittent network connectivity;

identifying by the information management service unrequested anticipated data based on the requested data, wherein the anticipated data is identified based on a data request pattern associated with the requested data;

retrieving by the information management service the requested data and the anticipated data from a database system; and

sending by the information management service the requested data and at least a portion of the anticipated data to the network enabled mobile handheld device via a network, wherein by providing anticipated data along with requested data, a mobile user has direct access to unrequested anticipated data when network connectivity is interrupted.

9. An apparatus for providing information to a mobile handheld device from a database system, the apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

one or more stored sequences of instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to carry out the steps of;

receiving by an information management service a request for data, the request received from a network enabled mobile handheld device, wherein the mobile handheld device has intermittent network connectivity;

identifying by the information management service unrequested anticipated data based on the requested data, wherein the anticipated data is identified based on a data request pattern associated with the requested data;

retrieving by the information management service the requested data and the anticipated data from a database system; and

sending by the information management service the requested data and at least a portion of the anticipated data to the network enabled mobile handheld device via a network, wherein by providing anticipated data along with requested data, a mobile user has direct access to unrequested anticipated data when network connectivity is interrupted.

10. A method for transmitting code for providing information to a mobile handheld device from a database system on a transmission medium, the method comprising:

transmitting code to receive by an information management service a request for data, the request received from a network enabled mobile handheld device, wherein the mobile handheld device has intermittent network connectivity;

transmitting code to identify by the information management service unrequested anticipated data based on the requested data, wherein the anticipated data is identified based on a data request pattern associated with the requested data;

transmitting code to retrieve by the information management service the requested data and the anticipated data from a database system; and

transmitting code to send by the information management service the requested data and at least a portion of the anticipated data to the network enabled mobile handheld device via a network, wherein by providing anticipated data along with requested data, a mobile user has direct access to unrequested anticipated data when network connectivity is interrupted.

11. A method for accessing information from a database system by a mobile handheld device having intermittent network connectivity, the method comprising:

receiving by an information manager component hosted by a mobile handheld device a request for data;

sending by the information manager component the request for data to a node hosting an information management service configured for retrieving the requested data and retrieving unrequested anticipated data from a database system, wherein the anticipated data is retrieved based on a data request pattern associated with the requested data;

receiving by the information manager component the requested data and at least a portion of the anticipated data; and

storing the requested data and the at least a portion of anticipated data in available storage of the mobile handheld device, wherein by providing anticipated data along with requested data, a user of the mobile handheld device has direct access to unrequested anticipated data when network connectivity is interrupted.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein sending the request for data to the node comprises sending the request over a network, wherein the network is at least one of a public and a private network, and wherein the database system is a multi-tenant on-demand database system.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein receiving the request for data includes displaying a plurality of icons associated with at least one of files, records, and objects, and receiving an indication selecting an icon associated with the requested data.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the requested data corresponds to a report and wherein the method further includes:

retrieving by a rendering engine component hosted by the mobile handheld device the requested data;

rendering the report from the requested data; and

displaying the report.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the rendered report includes a link to a related report and wherein the method further includes:

receiving an indication selecting the link to the related report;

determining that the related report corresponds to anticipated data stored in the available storage of the mobile handheld device;

retrieving by the rendering engine component the anticipated data corresponding to the related report;

rendering the related report from the anticipated data; and

displaying the related report.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein receiving the request for data includes:

receiving by the information manager component at least one search criteria relating to the requested data;

generating a search query based on the at least one search criteria; and

generating the request for data including the search query.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein receiving the request for data further includes:

displaying by the information manager component a plurality of filters;

receiving an indication selecting a filter;

displaying a plurality of icons corresponding to at least one of files, records, and objects that satisfy the selected filter; and

receiving an indication selecting an icon associated with the requested data.

18. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

receiving by the information manager component a notification including at least one of updated requested data and updated anticipated data; and

storing at least one of the updated requested data and the updated anticipated data in the available storage of the mobile handheld device.

19. A machine-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for accessing information from a database system by a mobile handheld device having intermittent network connectivity, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:

receiving by an information manager component hosted by a mobile handheld device a request for data;

sending by the information manager component the request for data to a node hosting an information management service configured for retrieving the requested data and retrieving unrequested anticipated data from a database system, wherein the anticipated data is retrieved based on a data request pattern associated with the requested data;

receiving by the information manager component the requested data and at least a portion of the anticipated data; and

storing the requested data and the at least a portion of anticipated data in available storage of the mobile handheld device, wherein by providing anticipated data along with requested data, a user of the mobile handheld device has direct access to unrequested anticipated data when network connectivity is interrupted.

20. An apparatus for accessing information from a database system by a mobile handheld device having intermittent network connectivity, the apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

one or more stored sequences of instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to carry out the steps of;

receiving by an information manager component hosted by a mobile handheld device a request for data;

sending by the information manager component the request for data to a node hosting an information management service configured for retrieving the requested data and retrieving unrequested anticipated data from a database system, wherein the anticipated data is retrieved based on a data request pattern associated with the requested data;

receiving by the information manager component the requested data and at least a portion of the anticipated data; and

storing the requested data and the at least a portion of anticipated data in available storage of the mobile handheld device, wherein by providing anticipated data along with requested data, a user of the mobile handheld device has direct access to unrequested anticipated data when network connectivity is interrupted.

21. A method for transmitting code for accessing information from a database system by a mobile handheld device having intermittent network connectivity on a transmission medium, the method comprising:

transmitting code to receive by an information manager component hosted by a mobile handheld device a request for data;

transmitting code to send by the information manager component the request for data to a node hosting an information management service configured for retrieving the requested data and retrieving unrequested anticipated data from a database system, wherein the anticipated data is retrieved based on a data request pattern associated with the requested data;

transmitting code to receive by the information manager component the requested data and at least a portion of the anticipated data; and

transmitting code to store the requested data and the at least a portion of anticipated data in available storage of the mobile handheld device, wherein by providing anticipated data along with requested data, a user of the mobile handheld device has direct access to unrequested anticipated data when network connectivity is interrupted.