System, method and computer program product for messaging in an on-demand database service

• US 9,436,837 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2013
• Issued: 09/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Shanabrook, Susan Carol, Stevens, Richard Alan, Kimble, Ron H., Cadden, Michael P., Corson, Travis D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chaki, Kakali
• Assistant Examiner(s): Seck, Ababacar
• Application Number:
  US13/802,338
• Publication Number:
  US 20130198870A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,273 Days
• Field of Search: 706/47
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/606 by securing the transmission between two devices or processes
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/022 Knowledge engineering; Knowledge acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/025 Extracting rules from data
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases

Abstract

In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for messaging in an on-demand database service. These mechanisms and methods for messaging in an on-demand database service can enable embodiments to more flexibly message in on-demand database environments. The ability of embodiments to provide such feature may lead to enhanced messaging features which may be used for providing more effective ways of messaging in the context of on-demand databases.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer instructions stored thereon that are capable of causing operations comprising:

receiving, from a user, a request for an email address managed by an on-demand database service;

associating a user alias with the user;

generating the email address for the user, wherein the email address includes an encrypted sequence of characters that identify the user alias and that identify an organization of the user, and wherein the email address includes a top level email domain representing a domain of a provider of the on-demand database service;

providing, to the user, an indication of the email address;

receiving, from the user, a first set of information specifying one or more security criteria to be applied, on behalf of the user, to messages sent to the email address; and

receiving, from the user, a second set of information specifying one or more rules to be used to process the messages sent to the email address in response to the messages meeting the one or more security criteria.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise, limiting processing resources used to process the messages sent to the email address by applying a rate limit to a resource count tracked on behalf of processing the message.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising installing the rule for processing the message from an application exchange platform.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the message is received at the on-demand database service.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the on-demand database service is a multi-tenant on-demand database service.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the one or more security criteria to be applied to the to the messages sent to the email address include an anti-spam verification.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the rule is configured to only be invoked in response to validation of an address of a sender of a message sent to the email address.

8. A method, comprising:

receiving, from a user, a request for an email address managed by an on-demand database service;

associating a user alias with the user;

generating the email address for the user, wherein the email address includes an encrypted sequence of characters that identify the user alias and that identify an organization of the user, and wherein the email address includes a top level email domain representing a domain of a provider of the on-demand database service;

providing, to the user, an indication of the email address;

receiving, from the user, a first set of information specifying one or more security criteria to be applied, on behalf of the user, to messages sent to the email address; and

receiving, from the user, a second set of information specifying one or more rules to be used to process the messages sent to the email address in response to the messages meeting the one or more security criteria.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the encrypted sequence of characters includes an encrypted user identifier, wherein the user identifier is different from the user alias.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein a particular rule of the one or more rules specifies that the particular rule is to be invoked for messages including one or more particular sender addresses.

11. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that includes one or more stored sequences of instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to carry out the steps of;

receiving, from a user, a request for an email address managed by an on-demand database service;

receiving, from a user, a request for an email address managed by an on-demand database service;

associating a user alias with the user;

generating the email address for the user, wherein the email address includes an encrypted sequence of characters that identify the user alias and that identify an organization of the user, and wherein the email address includes a top level email domain representing a domain of a provider of the on-demand database service;

providing, to the user, an indication of the email address;

receiving, from the user, a first set of information specifying one or more security criteria to be applied, on behalf of the user, to messages sent to the email address; and

receiving, from the user, a second set of information specifying one or more rules to be used to process the messages sent to the email address in response to the messages meeting the one or more security criteria.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein at least a portion of the encrypted sequence of characters is a sequence of pseudorandomly generated characters.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the steps further comprise:

receiving, from the user, a request for a different domain; and

generating, for the user, a new email address that includes a different sequence of pseudorandomly generated characters.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the steps further comprise:

receiving, from an administrator of the on-demand database service, one or more additional security criteria to be applied, on behalf of the user, to messages sent to the email address; and

adding the one or more additional security criteria to the one or more security criteria received from the user.