Session table framework

• US 9,456,038 B2
• Filed: 02/03/2014
• Issued: 09/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Duff, John, Gurudatha, Manu, Uzzaman, Ashik
• Primary Examiner(s): Fleurantin, Jean B
• Application Number:
  US14/171,561
• Publication Number:
  US 20140143285A1
• Time in Patent Office: 967 Days
• Field of Search: 707/756, 707/769, 707/770, 707/791, 707/792, 707/793, 707/802, 707/807, 709/227, 717/168, 717/169, 717/170
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/211 Schema design and management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/215 Improving data quality; Data cleansing, e.g. de-duplication, removing invalid entries or correcting typographical errors
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70

Abstract

In accordance with embodiments disclosed herein, there are provided methods, systems, and apparatuses for implementing a session table framework including, for example, receiving a request at a host organization from a client device, in which such a request specifies an application available via the host organization; generating a user session unique to the client device in a memory of the host organization; creating a user session data table within the user session; processing the request via the application specified by the request on behalf of the client device; updating the user session data table based on the processing of the request; and transmitting a response to the client device responsive to the request.

Claims

1. A method in a host organization, the method comprising:

receiving a request at the host organization from a client device, the request specifying an application available via the host organization, wherein the application comprises a stateless application which maintains no state specific information regarding the client device between interactions with the client device;

generating, via an application extender, a user session unique to the client device in a memory of the host organization;

creating, via the application extender, a user session data table within the user session of the memory to maintain the state specific information regarding the client device between a plurality of interactions with the client device on behalf of the stateless application, the user session data table defining one or more cells within the user session data table which are updateable or non-updatable;

wherein creating the user session data table comprises creating the user session data table based on metadata associated with the application specified by the request; and

wherein the metadata defines a structure for the user session data table based upon which the user session data table is created;

processing update data from the client device via the application specified by the request on behalf of the client device;

updating the user session data table based on the processing by validating the update data against the one or more cells within the user session data table according to which are updateable or non-updatable; and

transmitting a response to the client device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

populating data into the user session data table based on metadata associated with the application specified by the request, wherein the metadata specifies a generic set of columns or data fields for use with the application specified by the request and further wherein the metadata specifies a subset of the generic set of columns or data fields to be used for handling the request.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein populating the data into the user session data table based on the metadata associated with the application comprises one of:

retrieving the metadata from a repository separate from the application specified by the request, the repository having previously stored the metadata for later retrieval;

soliciting the metadata from the application by referencing an Application Programming Interface (API) of the application to request the metadata;

deriving the metadata from the received request by systematically parsing a plurality of quantifiable data elements, data fields, columns, and/or name=value pairs from the received request; and

probing the application specified by the request to yield application information to parse for quantifiable data elements, data fields, columns, and/or name=value pairs from output from the application responsive to the probe.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the response to the client device responsive to the request comprises:

generating a renderable User Interface (UI) based on the updated user session data table; and

transmitting the renderable UI to the client device for display, responsive to receiving the request.

5. The method of claim 1:

wherein the application specified by the request comprises a legacy application executing within the host organization, the legacy application having source code which is unavailable for modification or unsupported for modification or wherein the application specified by the request comprises a third party application for which source code is proprietary and unavailable for modification or for which the source code is restricted from modification due to licensing terms for the application.

6. The method of claim 1:

wherein the application supports a first data set on behalf of the client device, and wherein the application extender implements support for a second data set on behalf of the client device, different than and complementary to the first data set; and

wherein the application lacks support for the second data set.

7. The method of claim 1:

wherein the application comprises a proprietary black box application supporting an enumerated set of inputs and yielding an enumerated set of outputs responsive to the enumerated set of inputs;

wherein the implementing logic of the proprietary black box application to yield the enumerated set of outputs is not available for modification; and

wherein the method further comprises the application extender applying further processing to the enumerated set of outputs yielded from the proprietary black box application.

8. The method of claim 1:

wherein processing the update data via the application specified by the request on behalf of the client device comprises the application extender to perform one of the following operations;

a) submitting the received request in an unmodified form to the application on behalf of the client device and receiving output from the application responsive to the submitted request;

b) generating an intermediate request based on the received request, submitting the intermediate request to the application on behalf of the client device, and capturing output from the application responsive to the submitted intermediate request;

c) submitting a plurality of Application Programming Interface (API) requests to the application on behalf of the client device to fulfill operations solicited by the request received from the client device, and capturing output from the application responsive to the plurality of API requests;

wherein the client device and the application operate agnostic to existence of the application extender.

9. The method of claim 1:

wherein the metadata defines a mapping between a plurality of data elements and a plurality of corresponding target locations within the structure defined by the metadata; and

wherein the method further comprises populating data into the user session data table by storing each of the plurality of data elements into one or more rows of the user session data table based on the mapping defined by the metadata.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a mapping of the metadata defines data persistence between one or more cells in the user session data table and a corresponding one or more data persistence locations in a database of the host organization;

and

wherein the method further comprises a data persistence program extension synchronizing data within the one or more cells in the user session data table with the corresponding one or more data persistence locations in the database system of the host organization based on the mapping to persist the data in the one or more cells beyond the existence of the generated user session unique to the client device in the memory of the host organization on behalf of the client device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein a table population program extension operates to populate the user session data table by storing each of the plurality of data elements into the one or more rows of the user session data table based on a mapping defined by the metadata.

12. The method of claim 1:

wherein the metadata further defines a plurality of controls, each control specifying display logic for one or more of the plurality of data elements; and

wherein transmitting the response to the client device responsive to the request comprises;

generating a renderable User Interface (UI), via a UI rendering program extension, based on the updated user session data table by;

incorporating each of the plurality of controls defined by the metadata into the renderable UI,

incorporating, for each of the plurality of controls, the display logic specified by each control into the renderable UI, and

incorporating each of the plurality of data elements into the renderable UI based on the display logic specified by each control, wherein each of the plurality of data elements are retrieved from the updated user session data table.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the client device displaying the renderable UI via a display device communicatively interfaced with the client device, wherein displaying the renderable UI comprises rendering display elements at the client device corresponding to the plurality of controls incorporated into the renderable UI transmitted to the client device by the host organization and each of the plurality of data elements incorporated into the renderable UI in accordance with the plurality of controls.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein each of the plurality of controls incorporated into the renderable UI define at least one event selected from the group of events comprising:

a read event specifying a source location from which to read data to be displayed via the renderable UI;

a display only event specifying that data displayed is not updateable by the client device via the renderable UI; and

an input text event designating input received from a rendered field at the client device as update data for a UI entry field and further designating a target location in the user session data table in which to store the update data.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a second request from the client device responsive to the response transmitted to the client device, wherein the second request includes the update data from the client device;

validating the update data against one or more cells within the user session data table which are updateable by the client device;

updating the one or more cells within the user session data table with the update data from the client device based on the validation; and

processing the second request via the application on behalf of the client device using the update data in the user session data table.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the user session data table based on the processing of the request comprises one or more of the following operations:

modifying one or more cells in the user session data table based on output received from the application, the one or more cells being modified based on a portion of the output representing a change to existing data cells of the user session data table;

adding one or more columns to the user session data table based on the output received from the application, the one or more columns being added based on a portion of the output corresponding to one or more fields previously unrepresented by the user session data table; and

adding one or more rows to the user session data table based on the output received from the application, the one or more rows being added based on a portion of the output corresponding to one or more elements previously unrepresented by data in one or more existing columns within the user session data table.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the response to the client device responsive to the request comprises generating a renderable UI designating one or more cells within the renderable UI as UI entry fields, each UI entry field corresponding to a cell within the user session data table which is updatable based on input from the client device;

and

wherein the method further comprises;

receiving a second request from the client device having update data therein;

updating one or more cells within the user session data table based on the update data from the client device when the one or more cells are designated as UI entry fields; and

invalidating any update data within the second request from the client device which is outside the one or more designated UI entry fields.

18. A method in a host organization, the method comprising:

receiving a request at the host organization from a client device, the request specifying an application available via the host organization, wherein the application comprises a stateless application which maintains no state specific information regarding the client device between interactions with the client device;

generating, via an application extender, a user session unique to the client device in a memory of the host organization;

creating, via the application extender, a user session data table within the user session of the memory to maintain the state specific information regarding the client device between a plurality of interactions with the client device on behalf of the stateless application, the user session data table defining one or more cells within the user session data table which are updateable or non-updatable;

processing the request from the client device via the application specified by the request on behalf of the client device, wherein processing the request via the application specified by the request on behalf of the client device comprises the application extender to perform one of the following operations;

a) submitting the received request in an unmodified form to the application on behalf of the client device and receiving output from the application responsive to the submitted request;

b) generating an intermediate request based on the received request, submitting the intermediate request to the application on behalf of the client device, and capturing output from the application responsive to the submitted intermediate request;

c) submitting a plurality of Application Programming Interface (API) requests to the application on behalf of the client device to fulfill operations solicited by the request received from the client device, and capturing output from the application responsive to the plurality of API requests;

wherein the client device and the application operate agnostic to existence of the application extender;

the method further comprising;

updating the user session data table based on the processing by validating the update data against the one or more cells within the user session data table according to which are updateable or non-updatable; and

transmitting a response to the client device.

19. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a system in a host organization having a processor and memory therein, the instructions cause the system to perform operations comprising:

receiving a request at the host organization from a client device, the request specifying an application available via the host organization, wherein the application comprises a stateless application which maintains no state specific information regarding the client device between interactions with the client device;

generating, via an application extender, a user session unique to the client device in a memory of the host organization;

creating, via the application extender, a user session data table within the user session of the memory to maintain the state specific information regarding the client device between a plurality of interactions with the client device on behalf of the stateless application, the user session data table defining one or more cells within the user session data table which are updateable or non-updatable;

wherein creating the user session data table comprises creating the user session data table based on metadata associated with the application specified by the request; and

wherein the metadata defines a structure for the user session data table based upon which the user session data table is created;

processing update data from the client device via the application specified by the request on behalf of the client device;

updating the user session data table based on the processing by validating the update data against the one or more cells within the user session data table according to which are updateable or non-updatable; and

transmitting a response to the client device.

20. A system comprising:

a processor to execute instructions;

a request interface to receive a request at the host organization from a client device, the request specifying an application available via the host organization, wherein the application comprises a stateless application which maintains no state specific information regarding the client device between interactions with the client device;

a memory to store a user session unique to the client device on behalf of the client device;

an application extender to generate a user session unique to the client device in a memory of the host organization;

the application extender further to create a user session data table within the user session of the memory, wherein the user session data table is to maintain the state specific information regarding the client device between a plurality of interactions with the client device on behalf of the stateless application and further wherein the user session data table defines one or more cells within the user session data table which are updateable or non-updatable;

wherein the application extender is to create the user session data table based on metadata associated with the application specified by the request; and

wherein the metadata defines a structure for the user session data table based upon which the user session data table is created;

the application extender to process update data from the client device via the application specified by the request on behalf of the client device;

the application extender to update the user session data table based on the processing by validating the update data against the one or more cells within the user session data table according to which are updateable or non-updatable; and

the request interface to transmit a response to the client device.