Methods and systems for sharing email in a multitenant database system

• US 9,473,443 B2
• Filed: 04/20/2015
• Issued: 10/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Arora, Pratima, Walters, Jeanine
• Primary Examiner(s): Woo, Isaac M
• Application Number:
  US14/691,111
• Publication Number:
  US 20150229599A1
• Time in Patent Office: 547 Days
• Field of Search: 707600-899
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/48 Message addressing, e.g. address format or anonymous messages, aliases

Abstract

A method for sharing an email in a multi-tenant database system is provided. The method receives, at one or more computer systems associated with the multi-tenant database system, the email from a first user; determines, at the one or more computer systems, a database object associated with the email; maps, at the one or more computer systems, the email to the associated database object; and provides viewing access to the email to a second user with access rights to the database object.

Claims

1. A method for sharing an email in a database system, the method comprising:

receiving, at one or more computer systems associated with the database system, the email from a first user;

determining, at the one or more computer systems, a database object associated with the email, by;

identifying an email address associated with the email;

querying a plurality of contact objects of an organization to determine if there is a match between the email address and one of the plurality of contact objects; and

when a match has been determined, mapping, at the one or more computer systems, the email to the associated database object, by associating the one of the plurality of contact objects with the email; and

providing viewing access to the email to a second user with access rights to the database object.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying an email address associated with the email;

determining if the email address belongs to an organization user; and

when the email address belongs to an organization user, associate the organization user with the email.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the identifying step further comprises:

analyzing header information of the email to determine a sender email address and a recipient email address.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the identifying step further comprises:

analyzing a message body of the email to identify an email address.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying tagged data in the email, wherein the tagged data comprises sender data, recipient data, and data associated with rich content of the email; and

parsing the email to extract the tagged data.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when a match has been determined,

querying a plurality of opportunity objects of the organization to determine whether the one of the plurality of contact objects is listed as a role on one of the plurality of opportunity objects, wherein the plurality of opportunity objects comprises a plurality of entities that serve particular roles; and

when the one of the plurality of contact objects is listed as a role on one of the plurality of opportunity objects, associating the one of the plurality of contact objects with the email.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying an email address associated with the email;

querying a directory service of an organization to determine if there is a match between the email address and a contact entry of the directory service; and

when a match has been determined, associating the contact entry of the directory service with the email.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying an email address associated with the email;

querying a plurality of lead objects of an organization to determine if there is a match between the email address and one of the plurality of lead objects; and

when a match has been determined, associating the one of the plurality of lead objects with the email.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying an email address associated with the email;

querying a plurality of account objects of an organization to determine if there is a match between the email address and one of the plurality of account objects; and

when a match has been determined, associating the one of the plurality of account objects with the email.

10. A method for providing access to emails within a database system, the method comprising:

in response to a received email at a computer system associated with the database system,

identifying a database system storage object associated with the received email;

identifying an email address associated with the received email;

querying a plurality of objects of an organization to determine if there is a match between the email address and one of the plurality of objects; and

when a match has not been determined, mapping the received email to the identified database system storage object, by establishing a default creation policy for the email address; and

granting permission to a pre-determined group of users to view the received email, wherein the pre-determined group of users have permission to view the identified database system storage object.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the mapping step further comprises:

analyzing the received email to identify a sender of the email; and

associating the sender of the received email to one of a plurality of objects represented for storage within the database system.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the mapping step further comprises:

analyzing the received email to identify a recipient of the email; and

associating the recipient of the email to one of a plurality of objects represented for storage within the database system.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

identifying an email address associated with the received email;

determining if the email address belongs to an organization user; and

when the email address belongs to an organization user, associate the organization user with the received email.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

identifying tagged data in the received email, wherein the tagged data comprises sender data, recipient data, and data associated with rich content of the received email; and

parsing the received email to extract the tagged data.

15. A non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium containing instructions thereon for sharing electronic messages in an on-demand database system, wherein, when the instructions are executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive an email from a first user;

determine a database object associated with the email;

identify an email address associated with the email;

query a plurality of objects of an organization to determine if there is a match between the email address and one of the plurality of objects; and

when a match has not been determined, mapping the email to the associated database object, by establishing a default creation policy for the email address; and

providing access to the email to a second user with access rights to the database object.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the default creation policy comprises creating a lead object for the email address.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the default creation policy comprises creating a contact object for the email address.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the default creation policy comprises:

generating an associations queue item (AQI) for the email address, wherein the associations queue (AQ) receives items for resolution, and wherein the resolution comprises further rules processing or manual associations; and

receiving input from a user to asynchronously resolve the email address.