Methods and apparatus for suppressing network feed activities using an information feed in an on-demand database service environment

• US 9,367,643 B2
• Filed: 04/04/2014
• Issued: 06/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Gradin, William, Davidchuk, Matthew, Ma, Qiu, Zemskov, Leonid, Palke, Amy
• Primary Examiner(s): Ruiz, Angelica
• Application Number:
  US14/245,743
• Publication Number:
  US 20140222814A1
• Time in Patent Office: 802 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/23 Updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/282 Hierarchical databases, e.g. IMS, LDAP data stores or Lotus Notes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90 Details of database functions independent of the retrieved data types
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/903 Querying for retrieval from the web G06F16/953
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9035 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/906 Clustering; Classification

Abstract

Disclosed are systems, apparatus, methods, and computer readable media for suppressing network feed activities using an information feed in an on-demand database service environment. In one embodiment, a message is received, including data indicative of a user action. An entity associated with the user action is identified, where the entity is a type of record stored in a database. A type of the entity is identified. It is determined whether the entity type is a prohibited entity type. When the entity type is not a prohibited entity type, the message data is saved to one or more tables in the database. The tables are configured to store feed items of an information feed capable of being displayed on a device. When the entity type is a prohibited entity type, the saving of the message data, to the one or more tables in the database configured to store the feed items, is prohibited.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a server of a database system from a user device, a message including displayable message data indicative of a user action taken with respect to at least one record stored in at least one database of the database system, the at least one record identified by the message and the user action related to one or more of;

creation of the at least one record, a field update to the at least one record, a post, a file upload, or a link attachment;

identifying, using the database system, a record type of the at least one record identified by the message based on at least one property of the at least one record;

determining, using the database system, that the identified record type of the at least one record is a prohibited record type, the prohibited record type being one of;

a recurring event, a group event, a proposed event, or a recurring task; and

prohibiting, responsive to determining that the identified record type is the prohibited record type, at least one of;

storing or rendering the message data as feed items of a social network feed of a social networking system implemented using the database system, to cause the message data to not be displayed by a user device in a user interface presenting the social network feed.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the record type of the at least one record comprises:

identifying the record type of the at least one record based on one or more properties associated with the at least one record.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more properties include values stored in one or more database tables corresponding to the at least one record.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the record type of the at least one record comprises:

reading one or more fields of the at least one record associated with the user action.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one record is identified by the user action.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one record has a hierarchical relationship with a further record identified by the user action.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one record includes at least one of:

an event, a task, an account, an opportunity, a case, or a contact.

8. A software database system including software instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, the software instructions operable to cause:

processing a message received at a server associated with the database system from a user device, the message including displayable message data indicative of a user action with respect to a record stored in at least one database of the software database system, the record identified by the message and the user action related to one or more of;

creation of the at least one record, a field update to the at least one record, a post, a file upload, or a link attachment;

identifying, using the database system, a record type of the record identified by the message based on at least one property of the record;

determining, using the database system, that the identified record type of the record is a prohibited record type, the prohibited record type being one of;

a recurring event, a group event, a proposed event, or a recurring task; and

prohibiting, responsive to determining that the identified record type is the prohibited record type, at least one of;

storing or rendering the message data as feed items of a social network feed of a social networking system implemented using the database system, to cause the message data to not be displayed by a user device in a user interface presenting the social network feed.

9. The software database system of claim 8, wherein identifying the record type of the record comprises:

identifying the record type of the record based on one or more properties associated with the record.

10. The software database system of claim 9, wherein the one or more properties include values stored in one or more database tables corresponding to the record.

11. The software database system of claim 8, wherein the record type is identified based on the message data.

12. The software database system of claim 8, wherein the record type is identified based on the record.

13. A computer program product comprising program code to be executed by one or more processors when retrieved from a non-transitory storage medium, the program code comprising instructions configured to cause:

processing, at a server of a database system from a user device, a message including displayable message data indicative of a user action taken with respect to at least one record stored in at least one database of the database system, the at least one record identified by the message and the user action related to one or more of;

creation of the at least one record, a field update to the at least one record, a post, a file upload, or a link attachment;

identifying, using the database system, a record type of the at least one record identified by the message based on at least one property of the at least one record;

determining, using the database system, that the identified record type of the at least one record is a prohibited record type, the prohibited record type being one of;

a recurring event, a group event, a proposed event, or a recurring task; and

prohibiting, responsive to determining that the identified record type is the prohibited record type, at least one of;

storing or rendering the message data as feed items of a social network feed of a social networking system implemented using the database system, to cause the message data to not be displayed by a user device in a user interface presenting the social network feed.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, the instructions further configured to cause:

identifying, using the database system, the record type of the at least one record based on one or more properties associated with the at least one record.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, the instructions further configured to cause:

generating, using the database system, an error condition responsive to the message when the record type is the prohibited record type.

16. A system comprising:

a database configured to store feed items of a social network feed capable of being displayed on a device; and

system software stored on a non-transitory data storage medium for execution by at least one server of a database system, the system software operable to cause;

processing, using the database system, a message received at a server associated with the database system from a user device, the message including displayable message data indicative of a user action taken with respect to at least one record stored in at least one database of the database system, the at least one record identified in one or more fields in the message and the user action related to one or more of;

creation of the at least one record, a field update to the at least one record, a post, a file upload, or a link attachment;

identifying, using the database system, a record type of the at least one record identified by the message based on at least one property of the at least one record;

determining, using the database system, that the identified record type of the at least one record is a prohibited record type, the prohibited record type being one of;

a recurring event, a group event, a proposed event, or a recurring task; and

prohibiting, responsive to determining that the identified record type is the prohibited record type, at least one of;

storing or rendering the message data as feed items of a social network feed of a social networking system implemented using the database system, to cause the message data to not be displayed by a user device in a user interface presenting the social network feed.

17. The system of claim 16, the system software further operable to cause:

identifying, using the database system, the record type of the at least one record based on one or more properties associated with the at least one record.