Performing an upgrade in a multi-tenant database system environment

• US 9,275,160 B2
• Filed: 11/18/2010
• Issued: 03/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Ahuja, Neeraj
• Primary Examiner(s): Spieler, William
• Application Number:
  US12/949,452
• Publication Number:
  US 20110289047A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,930 Days
• Field of Search: 707/769
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/211 Schema design and management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2358 Change logging, detection, and notification replication G06F16/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• 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: G06Q 30/00 Commerce

Abstract

A system and method for providing features in a database system. In one embodiment, a method includes receiving, from a user, a request for a feature, where the feature is a functionality of the database system. The method further includes upgrading the database system, where the upgrading includes one or more provisioning steps that are based on the request from the user.

Claims

1. A method for providing features in a multi-tenant database system, the method comprising:

providing, by the multi-tenant database system, a user interface to enable making a request for enabling a new feature that a user wishes to use, wherein the new feature is a business entity used to perform business actions in a release of the multi-tenant database system and the new feature requires a database of the multi-tenant database system to be upgraded to support the business entity for the user;

receiving, from the user, the request for the new feature, wherein the user belongs to an organization that is a tenant of the multi-tenant database system; and

upgrading the multi-tenant database system to support the new feature immediately upon receiving the request, wherein the upgrading includes one or more provisioning steps to upgrade a schema layout for how the business entity is viewed on a page that are based on the request from the user and depend on the user making the request, the one or more provisioning steps comprising;

providing information about a layout of the page that displays the business entity; and

populating one or more tables of the database with a standard profile including permissions associated with the user so that a default layout of the business entity can be presented once the business entity is enabled by the multi-tenant database system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the upgrading is performed on a per-user basis for each user from which a request is received.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more provisioning steps comprise running database scripts.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more provisioning steps comprise updating database scripts.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein upgrading the multi-tenant database system to support the new feature does not affect upgrades associated with requests from other users.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more provisioning steps comprise updating existing database schema.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the multi-tenant database system includes tenant data storage where tenant data is arranged such that data of one tenant of multiple tenants supported by the multi-tenant database system is kept logically separate from that of other tenants of the multiple tenants so that one tenant does not have access to another tenant'"'"'s data.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining permissions for the user, wherein the provisioning steps depend on the permissions associated with the user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the information is associated with how the business entity is to be viewed on the page.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the layout needs the database to be pre-populated so that at least one of the business actions can be automatically performed once the business entity is enabled.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more provisioning steps depend on permissions associated with the user.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the permissions indicate what the user may do with the business entity.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein upgrading the multi-tenant database system comprises updating one or more permissions tables associated with the user.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more provisioning steps comprise generating a template and populating the template for an end user.

15. A computer-readable storage medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions thereon for providing features in a multi-tenant database system, the instructions when executed by a processor cause the processor to:

provide a user interface to enable making a request for enabling a new feature that a user wishes to use, wherein the new feature is a business entity used to perform business actions in a release of the multi-tenant database system and the new feature requires a database of the multi-tenant database system to be upgraded to support the business entity for the user;

receive, from the user, a request for the new feature, wherein the user belongs to an organization that is a tenant of the multi-tenant database system; and

upgrade the multi-tenant database system to support the new feature immediately upon receiving the request, wherein the upgrading includes one or more provisioning steps to upgrade a schema layout for how the business entity is viewed on a page that are based on the request from the user and depend on the user making the request, the one or more provisioning steps comprising providing information about a layout of the page that displays the business entity and populating one or more tables of the database with a standard profile including permissions associated with the user so that the business entity can be presented once the business entity is enabled by the multi-tenant database system.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the upgrading is performed on a per-user basis for each user from which a request is received.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more provisioning steps comprise running database scripts.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more provisioning steps comprise updating database scripts.

19. An apparatus for providing features in a multi-tenant database system, the apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a storage device storing one or more stored sequences of instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to;

provide a user interface to enable making a request for enabling a new feature that a user wishes to use, wherein the new feature is a business entity used to perform business actions in a release of the multi-tenant database system and the new feature requires a database of the multi-tenant database system to be upgraded to support the business entity for the user;

receive, from the user, the request for the new feature, wherein the user represents an organization that is a tenant of the multi-tenant database system; and

upgrade the multi-tenant database system to support the new feature immediately upon receiving the request, wherein the upgrading includes one or more provisioning steps to upgrade a schema layout for how the business entity is viewed on a page that are based on the request from the user and depend on the user making the request, the one or more provisioning steps comprising providing information about a layout of the page that displays the business entity and populating one or more tables of the database with a standard profile including permissions associated with the user so that the business entity can be presented once the business entity is enabled by the multi-tenant database system.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the upgrading is performed on a per-user basis for each user from which a request is received.