REFERENCE ATTRIBUTES FOR RELATED STORED OBJECTS IN A MULTI-TENANT CLOUD SERVICE

• US 20190095516A1
• Filed: 05/29/2018
• Published: 03/28/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: SRINIVASAN, Sudhir Kumar, CHIKKANNA, Shruthi, VAISHNAVI, Nikhil Yograj, XU, Xiaoxiao, WILSON, Gregg, MEDAM, Venkateswara Reddy
• Granted Patent: US 11,308,132 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/211 Schema design and management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/213 with details for schema evolution support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2457 with adaptation to user needs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/288 Entity relationship models
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0815 providing single-sign-on or federations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles

Abstract

A system stores and uses object relationships in a multi-tenant cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) system by: defining a schema for storing related objects, where the schema includes reference attributes indicative of relationships between the related objects in a database, and the schema defines a relationship type and a persistence scope for each reference attribute; constructing an in-memory representation of the related objects and their relationships based on the schema, where the in-memory representation indicates the relationship type and the persistence scope for each reference attribute; and using the in-memory representation of the related objects to perform an IAM service for a client of the multi-tenant cloud-based IAM system.

Claims

1. A method for storing and using object relationships in a multi-tenant cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) system, the method comprising:

defining a schema for storing related objects, wherein the schema includes reference attributes indicative of relationships between the related objects in a database, wherein the schema defines a relationship type and a persistence scope for each reference attribute;

constructing an in-memory representation of the related objects and their relationships based on the schema, wherein the in-memory representation indicates the relationship type and the persistence scope for each reference attribute; and

using the in-memory representation of the related objects to perform an IAM service for a client of the multi-tenant cloud-based IAM system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the relationship type indicates whether a corresponding reference attribute is indicative of a direct relationship, an indirect relationship, or a self-nested relationship, wherein the persistence scope indicates whether a corresponding reference attribute is persisted or non-persisted.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the direct relationship indicates that corresponding referrer and referred objects are directly related.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the indirect relationship indicates that corresponding referrer and referred objects are connected through at least one other object.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the self-nested relationship indicates that corresponding referrer and referred objects are the same object.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein a persisted reference attribute indicates that a corresponding referrer object houses a reference to a corresponding referred object and the reference is persisted in a database record of the corresponding referrer object.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein a non-persisted reference attribute indicates that a reference from a corresponding referrer object to a corresponding referred object is not persisted in a database record of the corresponding referrer object.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the constructing of the in-memory representation of the related objects and their relationships is performed during server start-up.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein a two-pass loading mechanism is implemented during the server start-up, comprising:

in a first pass, building in-memory objects that represent the related objects; and

in a second pass, linking the in-memory objects based on their relationships.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the database is a distributed data grid.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the IAM service is performed by one or more applications that implement IAM functionality provided by components of the multi-tenant cloud-based IAM system.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the components comprise one or more microservices.

13. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform storing and using object relationships in a multi-tenant cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) system, the performing comprising:

defining a schema for storing related objects, wherein the schema includes reference attributes indicative of relationships between the related objects in a database, wherein the schema defines a relationship type and a persistence scope for each reference attribute;

constructing an in-memory representation of the related objects and their relationships based on the schema, wherein the in-memory representation indicates the relationship type and the persistence scope for each reference attribute; and

using the in-memory representation of the related objects to perform an IAM service for a client of the multi-tenant cloud-based IAM system.

14. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform storing and using object relationships in a multi-tenant cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) system, the performing comprising;

defining a schema for storing related objects, wherein the schema includes reference attributes indicative of relationships between the related objects in a database, wherein the schema defines a relationship type and a persistence scope for each reference attribute;

constructing an in-memory representation of the related objects and their relationships based on the schema, wherein the in-memory representation indicates the relationship type and the persistence scope for each reference attribute; and

using the in-memory representation of the related objects to perform an IAM service for a client of the multi-tenant cloud-based IAM system.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the relationship type indicates whether a corresponding reference attribute is indicative of a direct relationship, an indirect relationship, or a self-nested relationship, wherein the persistence scope indicates whether a corresponding reference attribute is persisted or non-persisted.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the direct relationship indicates that corresponding referrer and referred objects are directly related.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the indirect relationship indicates that corresponding referrer and referred objects are connected through at least one other object.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the self-nested relationship indicates that corresponding referrer and referred objects are the same object.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein a persisted reference attribute indicates that a corresponding referrer object houses a reference to a corresponding referred object and the reference is persisted in a database record of the corresponding referrer object.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein a non-persisted reference attribute indicates that a reference from a corresponding referrer object to a corresponding referred object is not persisted in a database record of the corresponding referrer object.