Resolving information in a multitenant database environment

• US 8,904,011 B2
• Filed: 02/07/2013
• Issued: 12/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Jensen-Horne, Nathan, Burki, Dileep, Harley, Walter Sims, Small, Matthew, Scott, Kenneth Douglas, Brooks, David Andrew, Peddada, Prasad, Patel, Hemang, Chawla, Gaurav, Vietvu, Theresa, Gurram, Shriman
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Quang N
• Application Number:
  US13/762,045
• Publication Number:
  US 20140047117A1
• Time in Patent Office: 663 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/217, 709/223, 709/224, 709/226, 707/101, 707/808, 715/255
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5061 Partitioning or combining of resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5054 Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/783 Distributed allocation of resources, e.g. bandwidth brokers
• 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

Abstract

Disclosed herein are techniques for creating a representation of dependency relationships between computing resources within a computing environment. In some implementations, one or more sources for dependency analysis may be identified. Each source may be capable of being accessed to provide computing functionality via the computing environment. Each source may include one or more references to a respective one or more computing resources. Each computing resource may define a unit of the computing functionality available within the computing environment. A plurality of dependency relationships may be identified based on the one or more sources. A dependency relationship representation may be created based on the identified dependency relationships.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying at least one source of dependency information;

determining from the at least one source of dependency information at least one dependency relationship between at least two computing resources, the at least one dependency relationship indicating that a first computing resource can have an activated state only when a second computing resource has an activated state;

generating a canonical representation of the computing resources, the canonical representation allowing dependency relationships between computing resources to be compared, wherein the computing resources are arranged in a hierarchical framework in which a computing resource contains other computing resources; and

providing data for generating, on a display device, a graphical representation indicating the at least one dependency relationship in association with the generated canonical representation;

wherein each computing resource contains at least one setting that defines a variable that specifies at run time whether the computing resource is in the activated state or the deactivated state.

2. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the data for generating the graphical representation indicates an addition of the at least one dependency relationship.

3. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the data for generating the graphical representation indicates an addition of a node representing the first computing resource or the second computing resource.

4. The method recited in claim 1, wherein generating the canonical representation comprises:

generating a canonical identity for at least one of the computing resources.

5. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising:

determining, for the at least one dependency relationship, that the dependency relationship is not already indicated in the graphical representation.

6. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the activated state or the deactivated state is determined according to one or more values of a variable defined by a setting associated with one of the computing resources.

7. The method recited in claim 1, wherein computing functionality is accessible to a first entity when the first computing resource has an activated state for that entity, and wherein the computing functionality is not accessible to the first entity when the first computing resource has a deactivated state for that entity.

8. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the display device is a mobile computing device.

9. The method recited in claim 8, wherein the data for generating the graphical representation is configured to be processed by a processor of the mobile computing device.

10. The method recited in claim 8, wherein the mobile computing device is one of:

a mobile phone, a laptop computer, and a handheld computing device.

11. A computing system comprising:

one or more computing devices configured to;

identify at least one source of dependency information;

determine from the at least one source of dependency information at least one dependency relationship between at least two computing resources, the at least one dependency relationship indicating that a first computing resource can have an activated state only when a second computing resource has an activated state;

generate a canonical representation of the computing resources, the canonical representation allowing dependency relationships between computing resources to be compared, wherein the computing resources are arranged in a hierarchical framework in which a computing resource contains other computing resources; and

provide data for generating, on a display device, a graphical representation indicating the at least one dependency relationship in association with the generated canonical representation;

wherein each computing resource contains at least one setting that defines a variable that specifies at run time whether the computing resource is in the activated state or the deactivated state.

12. The computing system recited in claim 11, wherein the data for generating the graphical representation indicates an addition of the at least one dependency relationship.

13. The computing system recited in claim 11, wherein the data for generating the graphical representation indicates an addition of a node representing the first computing resource or the second computing resource.

14. The computing system recited in claim 11, wherein generating the canonical representation comprises:

generating a canonical identity for at least one of the computing resources.

15. The computing system recited in claim 11, the one or more computing devices being further configured to:

determine, for the at least one dependency relationship, that the dependency relationship is not already indicated in the graphical representation.

16. The computing system recited in claim 11, wherein the activated state or the deactivated state is determined according to one or more values of a variable defined by a setting associated with one of the computing resources.

17. The computing system recited in claim 11, wherein computing functionality is accessible to a first entity when the first computing resource has an activated state for that entity, and wherein the computing functionality is not accessible to the first entity when the first computing resource has a deactivated state for that entity.

18. The computing system recited in claim 11, further comprising:

the display device.

19. The computing system recited in claim 18, wherein the display device is a mobile computing device.

20. The computing system recited in claim 18, wherein the data for generating the graphical representation is configured to be processed by a processor of the mobile computing device.

21. The computing system recited in claim 18, wherein the mobile computing device is one of:

a mobile phone, a laptop computer, and a handheld computing device.

22. One or more non-transitory computer readable media having instructions stored thereon, executed by one or more computing devices, for performing a method comprising:

identifying at least one source of dependency information;

determining from the at least one source of dependency information at least one dependency relationship between at least two computing resources, the at least one dependency relationship indicating that a first computing resource can have an activated state only when a second computing resource has an activated state;

generating a canonical representation of the computing resources, the canonical representation allowing dependency relationships between computing resources to be compared, wherein the computing resources are arranged in a hierarchical framework in which a computing resource contains other computing resources; and

providing data for generating, on a display device, a graphical representation indicating the at least one dependency relationship in association with the generated canonical representation;

wherein each computing resource contains at least one setting that defines a variable that specifies at run time whether the computing resource is in the activated state or the deactivated state.

23. The one or more non-transitory computer readable recited in claim 22, wherein the data for generating the graphical representation indicates an addition of a node representing the first computing resource or the second computing resource.

24. The one or more non-transitory computer readable recited in claim 22, wherein generating the canonical representation comprises:

generating a canonical identity for at least one of the computing resources.

25. The one or more non-transitory computer readable recited in claim 22, wherein the activated state or the deactivated state is determined according to one or more values of a variable defined by a setting associated with one of the computing resources.

26. The one or more non-transitory computer readable recited in claim 22, wherein the display device is a mobile computing device.

27. The one or more non-transitory computer readable recited in claim 26, wherein the data for generating the graphical representation is configured to be processed by a processor of the mobile computing device.