Method and system for on-demand communities

• US 8,706,696 B2
• Filed: 05/05/2008
• Issued: 04/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Yoshida, Norimasa, Grenney, Jamie Veere Coleman, Lin, Likuo, Lin, Justin
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoang, Son T
• Application Number:
  US12/151,302
• Publication Number:
  US 20080275884A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,178 Days
• Field of Search: 707/661, 707/681
• US Class Current: 707/661
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/437 Administration of user profiles, e.g. generation, initialisation, adaptation, distribution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0483 Interaction with page-structured environments, e.g. book metaphor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 2230/00 Voting or election arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

In an embodiment, communities are generated on demand. In this specification a community is a group of webpages in which users share ideas with one another by posting ideas and sending messages for one another to read. An on-demand community is a community that may be created via tools specialized for creating communities, with just a few keys strokes and/or mouse clicks and by adding information (e.g., about the members and/or the topic or set of topics that the community is focused upon), such that a community maybe established within a short amount of time, such as a few minutes or a few hours. Optionally, the communities may be initially populated with ideas related to a particular topic or set of topics. Optionally, each member may be provided with tools for establishing one or more profile page and/or one or more friend pages.

Claims

1. A machine-implemented method for enabling on-demand communities by a tenant of a multi-tenant database, comprising:

sending a tenant-webpage from the multi-tenant database to a user machine associated with the tenant of the multi-tenant database, wherein the multi-tenant database resides in a host system, the tenant being an online merchant;

sending software tools, in association with the tenant-webpage, from the multi-tenant database to the user machine, the tools being used

for creating community webpages including information about a subject, and

for users of the community webpages, which are associated with the tenant, to leave messages in posting locations of the community webpages, each of the users having a storage location for messages specific to that user; and

enabling a representative of a tenant to create the community webpages that enable a community, the representative being a customer of the tenant or an employee of the tenant, wherein;

the information about the subject including a webpage listing an existing set of ideas posted for the users associated with the tenant to view, each of the users receiving tools for adding ideas to the webpage having the existing set of ideas and for voting on ideas of the existing set of ideas;

the storage location specific to the user including at least one or more webpages containing at least a collection of personal data of the user.

2. The method of claim 1, the user machine being a machine associated with the employee of the tenant and the representative being the employee of the tenant.

3. The method of claim 1, the user machine being a machine associated with the customer of the tenant and the representative being the customer of the tenant.

4. The method of claim 1, the user machine being a machine associated with an administrator that administrates a portion of the multi-tenant database associated with the tenant.

5. The method of claim 1, the software tools including a drop down menu, which when selected creates one or more of the community webpages for the tenant.

6. The method of claim 1, the tenant webpages including one or more webpages having one or more code snippets in a format appropriate for copying the one or more code snippets, the method further comprising:

after the sending of the tenant webpage, having the one or more code snippets, to the tenant, receiving a copy of the one or more code snippets from the tenant on another webpage copied by the representative to the other webpage;

adding the one or more code snippets to the community webpage, the one or more code snippets being for creating a widget that performs a function when a user of the community webpage interacts with the widget.

7. The method of claim 1, the tenant webpages including at least one widget-building webpage having an address bar having a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the widget building webpage in the address bar and one or more URL fields that are not in the address bar, the one or more URL fields having only one or more URLs located therein, the one or more URL fields being at least an address of at least one code-snippet-webpage having one or more code snippets for including one or more widgets on the community webpages being created.

8. A machine-implemented method of adding an idea to a profile page in a community having an idea page, the community being associated with a tenant of a multi-tenant database, the method comprising:

sending an idea webpage, from a host system of a multi-tenant database to a user associated with a tenant of the multi-tenant database, the webpage having existing ideas posted thereon and having tools for receiving votes from the user for the existing ideas posted, the tenant being an online merchant;

receiving a request, from the user, to post an idea on a profile page of the user, wherein the profile page includes at least a collection of personal data of the user; and

in response to receiving the request, posting the idea on the profile page;

linking the posted idea on the profile page to the idea webpage, and allowing other users associated with the tenant to access the posted idea of the user;

sending the profile page, from the host system of the multi-tenant database to the user associated with the tenant, the profile page being sent with the idea posted on the profile page.

9. A non-transitory machine-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for a method for implementing on-demand communities in a multi-tenant database system, which when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the method, the method comprising:

sending a tenant-webpage from the multi-tenant database, residing on a host system, to a user machine associated with the tenant of the multi-tenant database, the tenant being an online merchant;

sending software tools, in association with the tenant-webpage, from the multi-tenant database to the user machine, the tools being used for creating community webpages including at least

a webpage listing an existing set of ideas posted for members of the tenant to view, each tenant member receiving tools for adding ideas to the webpage having the existing set of ideas and voting on any idea of the existing set of ideas;

tools for users associated with the tenant to leave messages in posting locations of the community webpages, each user having a storage location for messages specific to that user, wherein the storage location specific to the user including at least one or more webpages containing at least a collection of personal data of the user; and

enabling a representative of a tenant to create the community webpages that enable a community, the representative being a customer of the tenant or an employee of the tenant.

10. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, the user machine being a machine associated with the employee of the tenant and the representative being the employee of the tenant.

11. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, the user machine being a machine associated with the customer of the tenant and the representative being the customer of the tenant.

12. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, the user machine being a machine associated with an administrator that administrates a portion of multi-tenant database associated with the tenant.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, the software tools including a drop down menu, which when selected creates one or more of the community webpages.

14. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, the tenant webpages including one or more webpages having one or more code snippets in a format appropriate for copying the one or more code snippets, the method further comprising:

after the sending of the tenant webpage, having the one or more code snippets, to the tenant, receiving a copy of the one or more code snippets from the tenant on another webpage copied by the representative to the other webpage;

adding the one or more code snippets to the community webpage, the one or more code snippets being for creating a widget that performs a function when a user of the community webpage interacts with the widget.

15. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, the tenant webpages including at least one widget-building webpage having an address bar having a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the widget building webpage in the address bar and one or more URL fields that are not in the address bar, the one or more URL fields having at least one URL therein, the at least one URL of the one or more URL fields being an address of at least one code snippet for including one or more widgets on the community webpages being created.

16. A non-transitory machine-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for a method for implementing on-demand communities in a multi-tenant database system, which when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the method, the method comprising:

sending an idea webpage, from a host system of the multi-tenant database to a user associated with a tenant of the multi-tenant database, the webpage having existing ideas posted thereon and having tools for receiving votes from the user for the existing ideas posted, the tenant being an online merchant;

receiving a request, at the host system of the multi-tenant database, from the user, to post an idea on a profile page of the user, the profile page includes at least a collection of personal data of the user and the profile page being accessible to other users associated with the tenant; and

in response to receiving the request, posting the idea on the profile page;

linking the posted idea on the profile page to the idea webpage, and allowing other users associated with the tenant to access the posted idea of the user;

sending the profile page, from the host system of the multi-tenant database to the user with the idea posted on the profile page, wherein the profile page includes tools for users associated with the tenant to vote on ideas.

17. A host system comprising:

a database system having at least one or more processors and a memory having at least a non-transitory machine-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for a method for implementing on-demand communities in a multi-tenant database system, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the method comprising;

sending a tenant-webpage from a multi-tenant database, residing on the host system, to a user machine associated with a tenant of the multi-tenant database, the tenant being an online merchant;

sending software tools, in association with the tenant-webpage, from the multi-tenant database to the user machine, the tools being used for creating community webpages, the community webpages created including

a webpage listing an existing set of ideas posted for users of the community webpage associated with the tenant to view, each of the users receiving tools for adding new ideas to the webpage having the existing set of ideas and voting on ideas of the existing set of ideas, and

tools for the users to leave messages in locations of the community webpages, each user having a storage location for messages specific to that user, wherein the posting location specific to the user including at least one or more webpages containing at least a collection of personal data of the user; and

enabling a representative of a tenant to create the community webpages that enable a community, the representative being a customer of the tenant or an employee of the tenant.

18. The host system of claim 17, the user machine being a machine associated with the employee of the tenant and the representative being the employee of the tenant.

19. The host system of claim 17, the user machine being a machine associated with the customer of the tenant and the representative being the customer of the tenant.

20. The host system of claim 17, the user machine being a machine associated with an administrator that administrates a portion of the multi-tenant database associated with the tenant.

21. The host system of claim 17, the software tools including a dropdown menu, which when selected creates one or more of the community webpages.

22. The host system of claim 17, the tenant webpages including one or more webpages having one or more code snippets in a format appropriate for copying the one or more code snippets, the method further comprising:

after the sending of the tenant webpage, having the one or more code snippets, to the tenant, receiving a copy of the one or more code snippets from the tenant on another webpage copied by the representative to the other webpage;

adding the one or more code snippets to the community webpage, the one or more code snippets being for creating a widget that performs a function when a user of the community webpage interacts with the widget.

23. The host system of claim 17, the tenant webpages including at least one widget-building webpage having an address bar having a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the widget building webpage in the address bar and one or more URL fields that are not in the address bar, the one or more URL fields having at least one URL located therein, the at least one URL of the one or more URL fields being an address of at least one code-snippet for including one or more widgets on the community webpages being created.

24. A non-transitory machine-readable medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for a method for implementing on-demand communities in a multi-tenant database system, which when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the method, the method comprising:

sending an idea webpage, from a host system to a user, having existing ideas posted thereon and having tools for receiving votes from the user for the existing ideas posted;

receiving a request, from a client machine of the user, to post an idea on a profile page of the user, the profile page including one or more webpages comprising;

a list of friends, communities, and ideas of the user;

information related to votes for ideas related to the user;

a facility for sending messages from the user to other users;

a discussion in which the user currently participates; and

at least a watch list including lists of links to ideas which the user would like to receive updates; and

in response to receiving the request, sending the profile page from the host system to the client machine of the user with the idea posted on the profile page.