Social files

• US 8,756,221 B2
• Filed: 06/01/2011
• Issued: 06/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Prabaker, Madhu, Alfandary, Shai, Snell, Robert J., Johnson, James
• Primary Examiner(s): Woo, Isaac M
• Application Number:
  US13/151,033
• Publication Number:
  US 20120143917A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,112 Days
• Field of Search: 707600-899
• US Class Current: 707/722
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/176 Support for shared access to files; File sharing support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• 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: H04L 63/105 Multiple levels of security
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services

Abstract

Disclosed are systems, apparatus, methods, and computer readable media for creating and sharing social files in a feed system. In one embodiment, a request is received to perform an action related to a social file. The social file may provide access to a first document file within a social networking system. The first document file may be capable of being displayed on a display device. A determination may be made as to whether the requested action complies with a permission configuration record associated with the social file. The permission configuration record may identify one or more user accounts permitted to access the social file.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a request to perform an action related to a social file, the social file providing access to a first document file within a social networking system, the social file capable of being accessed by user accounts associated with the social networking system, the first document file capable of being displayed on a display device, references to the designated social file capable of being stored as feed items in one or more feed tables in a database, the feed items capable of being published in an information feed displayed on a display device;

determining whether the requested action complies with a permission configuration record associated with the social file, the permission configuration record identifying one or more user accounts permitted to access the social file, the permission configuration identifying one or more permitted actions for each of the identified users accounts; and

when the request complies with the permission configuration record, performing the requested action.

2. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the requested action comprises storing a conversation record related to the social file on a storage medium, the conversation record comprising one or more comments received via a network.

3. The method recited in claim 2, the method further comprising:

receiving an indication as to whether the stored conversation record is public or private, a public conversation record being publicly accessible to all user accounts in the social network, a private conversation record being accessible to a first subset of the user accounts.

4. The method recited in claim 2, wherein the stored conversation record is one of a plurality of conversation records related to the social file, each conversation record comprising a respective one or more comments received via the network, each conversation record being accessible to a respective set of user accounts associated with the social networking system.

5. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the requested action comprises associating a second document file with the social file.

6. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the requested action comprises modifying the stored permission configuration record.

7. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the requested action comprises publishing the social file in a publication location, the publication location being publicly accessible via a network.

8. The method recited in claim 7, the method further comprising:

selecting a first portion of the social file for publication.

9. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the requested action comprises providing access to the social file with a user account.

10. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the requested action comprises providing access to the social file with a group, the group having associated therewith a plurality of user accounts.

11. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the permission configuration record is stored in a multitenant database accessible via an on-demand computing services environment, the multitenant database being accessible to a plurality of tenants via the on-demand computing services environment.

12. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the display device is a user system selected from one of a handheld computing device, a mobile phone, a laptop computer, and a work station.

13. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the request to perform the action is received from a user system selected from one of a handheld computing device, a mobile phone, a laptop computer, and a work station.

14. A computing system comprising:

one or more computing devices configured to;

receive a request to perform an action related to a social file, the social file providing access to a first document file within a social networking system, the social file capable of being accessed by user accounts associated with the social networking system, the first document file capable of being displayed on a display device, references to the designated social file capable of being stored as feed items in one or more feed tables in a database, the feed items capable of being published in an information feed displayed on a display device;

determine whether the requested action complies with a permission configuration record associated with the social file, the permission configuration record identifying one or more user accounts permitted to access the social file, the permission configuration identifying one or more permitted actions for each of the identified users accounts; and

when the request complies with the permission configuration record, perform the requested action.

15. The computing system recited in claim 14, wherein the requested action comprises storing a conversation record related to the social file on a storage medium, the conversation record comprising one or more comments received via a network.

16. The computing system recited in claim 15, the one or more computing devices further configured to:

receive an indication as to whether the stored conversation record is public or private, a public conversation record being publicly accessible to all user accounts in the social network, a private conversation record being accessible to a first subset of the user accounts.

17. The computing system recited in claim 15, wherein the stored conversation record is one of a plurality of conversation records related to the social file, each conversation record comprising a respective one or more comments received via the network, each conversation record being accessible to a respective set of user accounts associated with the social networking system.

18. The computing system recited in claim 14, wherein the requested action comprises associating a second document file with the social file.

19. The computing system recited in claim 14, wherein the requested action comprises modifying the stored permission configuration record.

20. The computing system recited in claim 14, wherein the requested action comprises publishing the social file in a publication location, the publication location being publicly accessible via a network.

21. One or more non-transitory computer readable media having instructions stored thereon for performing a method, the method comprising:

receiving a request to perform an action related to a social file, the social file providing access to a first document file within a social networking system, the social file capable of being accessed by user accounts associated with the social networking system, the first document file capable of being displayed on a display device, references to the designated social file capable of being stored as feed items in one or more feed tables in a database, the feed items capable of being published in an information feed displayed on a display device;

determining whether the requested action complies with a permission configuration record associated with the social file, the permission configuration record identifying one or more user accounts permitted to access the social file, the permission configuration identifying one or more permitted actions for each of the identified users accounts; and

when the request complies with the permission configuration record, performing the requested action.

22. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media recited in claim 21, wherein the requested action comprises storing a conversation record related to the social file on a storage medium, the conversation record comprising one or more comments received via a network.

23. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media recited in claim 22, the method further comprising:

receiving an indication as to whether the stored conversation record is public or private, a public conversation record being publicly accessible to all user accounts in the social network, a private conversation record being accessible to a first subset of the user accounts.

24. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media recited in claim 22, wherein the stored conversation record is one of a plurality of conversation records related to the social file, each conversation record comprising a respective one or more comments received via the network, each conversation record being accessible to a respective set of user accounts associated with the social networking system.

25. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media recited in claim 21, wherein the requested action comprises associating a second document file with the social file.

26. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media recited in claim 21, wherein the requested action comprises modifying the stored permission configuration record.

27. The one or more non-transitory computer readable media recited in claim 21, wherein the requested action comprises publishing the social file in a publication location, the publication location being publicly accessible via a network.

28. A method for collaborating on a social file in a social networking system associated with multiple tenants, the method comprising:

receiving a request to perform an action related to the social file, the request from an entity within the social networking system, the social file providing access to a document file in a multi-tenant database through a network in the social networking system, the social file capable of being accessed by user accounts associated with the social networking system, the first document file capable of being displayed on a display device, references to the designated social file capable of being stored as feed items in one or more feed tables in the multi-tenant database, the feed items capable of being published in an information feed displayed on a display device;

determining whether the requested action complies with a permission configuration record associated with the social file, the permission configuration record identifying one or more user accounts permitted to access the social file, the permission configuration identifying one or more permitted actions for each of the identified users accounts; and

when the request complies with the permission configuration record, performing the requested action.

29. The method recited in claim 28,

wherein the multi-tenant database is accessible through an on-demand database service, and

wherein the permission configuration record is stored in the multi-tenant database accessible to the multiple tenants through the on-demand computing database service.

30. The method recited in claim 28, wherein the multiple tenants include different organizations.

31. The method recited in claim 28, wherein the requested action comprises storing a conversation record related to the social file in the multi-tenant database, the conversation record comprising one or more comments received through the social networking system.

32. The method recited in claim 31, the method further comprising:

receiving an indication as to whether the stored conversation record is public or private, a public conversation record being publicly accessible to all user accounts associated with multiple tenants in the social networking system, a private conversation record being accessible to a subset of the user accounts.

33. The method recited in claim 28, wherein the requested action comprises publishing at least a portion of the social file in a location publicly accessible to multiple tenants in the social networking system.

34. The method recited in claim 28, wherein the display device is a user system selected from one of a handheld computing device, a mobile phone, a laptop computer, and a work station.

35. The method recited in claim 28, wherein the request to perform the action is received from a user system selected from one of a handheld computing device, a mobile phone, a laptop computer, and a work station.