ON-DEMAND DATABASE SERVICE SYSTEM, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR CONDITIONALLY ALLOWING AN APPLICATION OF AN ENTITY ACCESS TO DATA OF ANOTHER ENTITY

• US 20150134701A1
• Filed: 01/23/2015
• Published: 05/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Viripaeff, Alexis, Mehra, Vinod, Warshavsky, Alex, Horne, Nate, Dapkus, Peter J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,268,963 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/783
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24573 using data annotations, e.g. user-defined metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2105 Dual mode as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2147 Locking files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for conditionally allowing an application of an entity access to data of another entity in an on-demand database service. These mechanisms and methods for conditionally allowing an application of an entity access to data of another entity in an on-demand database service can enable embodiments to limit such access to the data, as desired. Furthermore, embodiments of such mechanisms and methods may provide additional security when sharing data among different subscribers to an on-demand database service.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the steps of:

receiving a request from an application created by a first entity of an on-demand database service, the request including a request to access data of a second entity associated with a database of the on-demand database service;

determining whether the application is authorized to access the data of the second entity associated with the database of the on-demand database service using a plurality of data access limitations associated with the application and indicated in a profile;

conditionally allowing the access to the data of the second entity associated with the database of the on-demand database service, based on the determination;

receiving an update associated with the application; and

presenting the update to the second entity for acceptance by the second entity, and conditionally allowing the access to the data of the second entity associated with the database of the on-demand database service utilizing the update, based on the acceptance.

2. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first entity and the second entity include different organizations.

3. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first entity and the second entity include different divisions of a single organization.

4. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, and further comprising presenting the data access limitations to the second entity for acceptance by the second entity, and conditionally allowing the access to the data of the second entity stored in the database of the on-demand database service, based on the acceptance.

5. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the data access limitations are determined by the second entity.

6. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the data access limitations include a plurality of data access levels.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the data access limitations include limitations on at least one type of the data of the second entity stored in the database of the on-demand database service that can be accessed.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the data access limitations include limitations on at least one action that may be performed on the data of the second entity stored in the database of the on-demand database service.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the application includes business logic.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, and further comprising authenticating the application, and conditionally installing the application based on the authentication.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the application is served by the on-demand database service.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the on-demand database service includes multi-tenant on-demand database service.

13. An 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 a request from an application created by a first entity of an on-demand database service, the request including a request to access data of a second entity associated with a database of the on-demand database service;

determining whether the application is authorized to access the data of the second entity associated with the database of the on-demand database service using a plurality of data access limitations associated with the application and indicated in a profile;

conditionally allowing the access to the data of the second entity associated with the database of the on-demand database service, based on the determination;

receiving an update associated with the application; and

presenting the update to the second entity for acceptance by the second entity, and conditionally allowing the access to the data of the second entity associated with the database of the on-demand database service utilizing the update, based on the acceptance.

14. A method for transmitting code for use in a multi-tenant database system on a transmission medium, the method comprising:

transmitting code for receiving a request from an application created by a first entity of an on-demand database service, the request including a request to access data of a second entity associated with a database of the on-demand database service;

transmitting code for determining whether the application is authorized to access the data of the second entity associated with the database of the on-demand database service using a plurality of data access limitations associated with the application and indicated in a profile;

transmitting code for conditionally allowing the access to the data of the second entity associated with the database of the on-demand database service, based on the determination;

transmitting code for receiving an update associated with the application; and

transmitting code for presenting the update to the second entity for acceptance by the second entity, and conditionally allowing the access to the data of the second entity associated with the database of the on-demand database service utilizing the update, based on the acceptance.