Methods and apparatus for discontinuing the following of records in an on-demand database service environment

• US 8,903,770 B2
• Filed: 02/10/2011
• Issued: 12/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Kucera, John
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, ANHTAI V
• Application Number:
  US13/025,076
• Publication Number:
  US 20120096046A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,391 Days
• US Class Current: 707/631
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24568 Data stream processing; Continuous queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/01 Customer relationship services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

Disclosed are systems, apparatus, methods, and computer readable media for discontinuing the following of records in an on-demand database service environment. In one embodiment, one or more records are identified according to one or more designated criteria. The records are stored in a database. The records are being followed by one or more users in an on-demand database service environment such that updates to the records are capable of being stored as feed items in one or more feed tables in the database. The feed items are capable of being published in an information feed displayed on one or more devices associated with the one or more users. The following of the identified one or more records by the one or more users is discontinued.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying, by a computing device, one or more records as satisfying one or more designated criteria, the records being editable objects stored in a database, the records storing customer information related to sales of an organization, the designated criteria indicating a characteristic of an interaction with a customer of the organization, the one or more records being subscribed to by one or more users to define a following relationship of the one or more users to the one or more records, the following relationship allowing an information feed accessible to the one or more users to receive and publish updates to the records as feed items, the information feed including the feed items capable of being displayed on one or more devices associated with the one or more users;

determining, by the computing device, responsive to the identified one or more records satisfying the characteristic of the customer interaction indicated by the designated one or more criteria, to discontinue the following relationship between the identified one or more records and the one or more users; and

discontinuing, by the computing device, the following relationship between the identified one or more records and the one or more users, the discontinuation terminating at least one of the receipt and publication by the information feed of the updates to the identified one or more records.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

executing one or more rules to cause the computing device to identify the one or more records, wherein the one or more rules indicates the one or more designated criteria.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each one of a plurality of rules indicates a respective one of the designated criteria.

4. The method of claim 3, the executed rules being active rules.

5. The method of claim 1, the records including one or more items selected from the group consisting of:

a case, an opportunity, a lead, an account, a contact, a task, and an event.

6. The method of claim 1, the records including a user profile.

7. The method of claim 1, the one or more designated criteria including a value of an attribute of a record.

8. The method of claim 7, the one or more designated criteria further including an operator associated with the attribute value of the record.

9. The method of claim 7, the attribute value stored as a field of the identified one or more records.

10. A computer-implemented method comprising:

at a first time frame;

identifying one or more rules, the rules configured to identify records as satisfying one or more designated criteria, the records being editable objects stored in a database, the records storing customer information related to sales of an organization, the designated criteria indicating a characteristic of an interaction with a customer of the organization, the one or more records being followed by one or more users in an on-demand database service environment to define following relationships between records and the one or more users, the following relationship allowing an information feed accessible to the one or more users to receive and publish updates to the records as feed items, the information feed including the feed items capable of being displayed on one or more devices associated with the one or more users;

defining, by one or more computing devices, one or more jobs to include one or more of the rules; and

executing, by the one or more computing devices, a number of the one or more jobs to identify one or more of the records according to one or more of the designated criteria;

determining, by the one or more computing devices, responsive to the identified one or more records satisfying the characteristic of the customer interaction indicated by the designated one or more criteria, to discontinue the following relationship between the identified one or more records and the one or more users; and

discontinuing, by the one or more computing devices, the following relationship between the identified records and the one or more users, the discontinuation terminating at least one of the receipt and publication by the information feed of the updates to the identified one or more records.

11. The method of claim 10, the one or more rules identified as having no associated delay.

12. The method of claim 10, the jobs defined according to a designated delay associated with the identified records.

13. The method of claim 10, the jobs defined according to one or more designated types of the identified records.

14. The method of claim 10, the number being less than or equal to a designated threshold.

15. The method of claim 10, the first timeframe repeating at a designated interval.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

at a second time frame;

executing a further number of the one or more jobs to identify a further one or more of the records according to the one or more designated criteria;

determining, by the one or more computing devices, based on the further one or more executed jobs, to discontinue the following relationship between the further identified one or more records and the one or more users; and

discontinuing the following relationship between the further identified records and the one or more users.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

determining that the further number of the one or more jobs has not been executed.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

identifying one or more further rules as having a first associated delay;

defining one or more further jobs to include one or more of the further rules; and

executing a number of the one or more further jobs to identify further records according to the one or more designated criteria, the number being less than or equal to a designated threshold,

determining, by the one or more computing devices, based on the one or more further executed jobs, to discontinue the following relationship between the further identified one or more records and the one or more users, and

discontinuing the following relationship between the further identified records and the one or more users.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

at a second time frame;

executing a further number of the one or more further jobs to identify records according to the one or more designated criteria, the number being less than or equal to the designated threshold,

determining, by the one or more computing devices, based on the further number of the one or more further executed jobs, to discontinue the following relationship between the one or more records identified at the second time frame and the one or more users, and

discontinuing the following relationship between the records identified at the second time frame and the one or more users.

20. A system comprising:

a database storing a plurality of records; and

one or more servers having one or more processors capable of executing one or more instructions configured to cause;

executing one or more rules to identify one or more of the records as satisfying one or more designated criteria, the records being editable objects, the records storing customer information related to sales of an organization, the designated criteria indicating a characteristic of an interaction with a customer of the organization, the one or more records being subscribed to by one or more users to define a following relationship of the one or more users to the one or more records, the following relationship allowing an information feed accessible to the one or more users to receive and publish updates to the records as feed items, the information feed including the feed items capable of being displayed on one or more devices associated with the one or more users,

determining responsive to the identified one or more records satisfying the characteristic of the customer interaction indicated by the designated one or more criteria, to discontinue the following relationship between the identified one or more records and the one or more users, and

discontinuing the following relationship between the identified one or more records and the one or more users, the discontinuation terminating at least one of the receipt and publication by the information feed of the updates to the identified one or more records.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the one or more rules indicates the one or more designated criteria.

22. The system of claim 21, the one or more designated criteria including a value of an attribute of a record and an operator associated with the attribute value.

23. The system of claim 22, the attribute value stored as a field of the identified one or more records.

24. A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions executable by a processor to cause a computing device to:

identify one or more records as satisfying one or more designated criteria, the records being editable objects stored in a database, the records storing customer information related to sales of an organization, the designated criteria indicating a characteristic of an interaction with a customer of the organization, the one or more records being subscribed to by one or more users to define a following relationship of the one or more users to the one or more records, the following relationship allowing an information feed accessible to the one or more users to receive and publish updates to the records as feed items, the information feed including the feed items capable of being displayed on one or more devices associated with the one or more users;

determine, responsive to the identified one or more records satisfying the characteristic of the customer interaction indicated by the designated one or more criteria, to discontinue the following relationship between the identified one or more records and the one or more users; and

discontinue the following relationship between the identified one or more records and the one or more users, the discontinuation terminating at least one of the receipt and publication by the information feed of the updates to the identified one or more records.

25. The computer readable medium of claim 24, wherein one or more rules indicates the one or more designated criteria.

26. The computer readable medium of claim 25, the one or more designated criteria including a value of an attribute of a record and an operator associated with the attribute value.

27. The computer readable medium of claim 26, the attribute value stored as a field of the identified one or more records.