Methods and systems for providing enhancements to a business networking feed

• US 9,817,637 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2011
• Issued: 11/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Hersh, Jonathan, Rocha, Helder
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Jr., Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): BROMELL, ALEXANDRIA Y
• Application Number:
  US13/172,756
• Publication Number:
  US 20120059795A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,330 Days
• Field of Search: 707628
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 7/78 for changing the order of data flow, e.g. matrix transposition or LIFO buffers; Overflow or underflow handling therefor

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus facilitate social and business networking in a multi-tenant database. An application can provide each user with the ability view targeted data of interest. The data of interest can be supplied in a feed associated with the user created list, which compiles the feed items, e.g., comments, posts, stories, etc., of the object feeds subscribed to by the list. Lists can include entity feeds of objects, on the database well as child records associated with those objects. Accordingly, a user can create tailored feeds and can organize related information into feed for that list. In further embodiments, applications are provided which allow users are able to view filtered selections of other users and objects on the database system. In one embodiments, a connector application allows users to modify subscriptions to other users and objects, a dashboard application allows users to view user profiles and analytics regarding the user profile, and a search application allows users to perform field based searches on the records of the users and objects. Additional applications which allow users to navigate and view records on the database system are also provided.

Claims

1. A system for providing an enterprise social network feed containing feed items associated with a configurable list of customer relationship management (CRM) records, the system comprising:

a database system implemented using a server system, the database system configurable to cause;

processing, using the database system, data identifying a subset of a plurality of CRM records stored as data objects in the database system, each CRM record being related to a respective business task and/or business relationship, the subset of CRM records selected by a first user of an enterprise social networking system associated with the database system, the CRM records being independent of user profiles of users of the enterprise social networking system, each CRM record associated with a respective one of a plurality of record feeds of the enterprise social networking system, each record feed configured to share CRM record-specific feed items related to the CRM record associated with the record feed, each CRM record capable of being independently subscribed to by users of the enterprise social networking system to cause the CRM record-specific feed items related to the CRM record to be shared in news feeds of the users subscribed to the CRM record;

providing, using the database system, a list stored as or identified using data objects in the database system, the list defined by the user-selected subset of CRM records, the list being an entity independent of the CRM records, the list capable of being independently subscribed to by users of the enterprise social networking system to cause list-specific feed items related to the user-selected subset of CRM records to be shared in news feeds of users subscribed to the list, the list-specific feed items comprising CRM record-specific feed items of the subset of CRM records;

storing, in a database of the database system, identifications of users subscribed to the list;

processing a request, from a second user of the enterprise social networking system, to initiate a following relationship with a first CRM record in the subset of CRM records, the initiation of the following relationship automatically triggering a subscription of the second user to the list;

processing a selection of the list when the list is identified in a user interface on a device associated with the second user;

displaying, responsive to the selection of the list, an enterprise social network feed dynamically populated to contain the list-specific feed items;

processing a further request, from a third user of the enterprise social networking system, to initiate a following relationship with a second CRM record, the second CRM record not being in the subset of CRM records, the third user not being a subscriber to the list;

determining, responsive to processing the further request, that the second CRM record has a parent-child relationship with the first CRM record;

automatically subscribing, responsive to determining that the second CRM record has a parent-child relationship with the first CRM record, the third user to the list;

processing a comment by the third user, the comment relating to a third CRM record, the third CRM record not being in the subset of CRM records; and

displaying, on a device of a fourth user of the enterprise social networking system, the comment, the fourth user being a subscriber to the list, the fourth user not having a following relationship with the third user.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the subset of CRM records is associated with one or more of the user profiles.

3. The system of claim 1, the database system further configurable to cause:

associating the subset of CRM records with a second list.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein:

users capable of subscribing to the list comprise an owner of the list, and

the list is a private list.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein users capable of subscribing to the list have received an invitation to subscribe to the list from the owner of the list.

6. The system of claim 1, the database system further configurable to cause:

identifying one or more users subscribed to the first CRM record; and

automatically subscribing the identified one or more users to the list.

7. The system of claim 1, the database system further configurable to cause:

processing one or more identifiers for the list; and

storing the one or more identifiers in the database system.

8. The system of claim 1, the database system further configurable to cause:

processing an update to the list;

generating a story for the update; and

posting the story to a feed associated with a subscriber to the list.

9. The system of claim 1, the database system further configurable to cause:

processing comments on the list-specific feed items.

10. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer-readable program code capable of being executed by one or more processors to cause operations for providing an enterprise social network feed containing feed items associated with a configurable list of CRM records, the program code comprising instructions configurable to cause:

processing, using a database system, data identifying a subset of a plurality of CRM records stored as data objects in a database system, each CRM record being related to a respective business task and/or business relationship, the subset of CRM records selected by a first user of an enterprise social networking system associated with the database system, the CRM records being independent of user profiles of users of the enterprise social networking system, each CRM record associated with a respective one of a plurality of record feeds of the enterprise social networking system, each record feed configured to share CRM record-specific feed items related to the CRM record associated with the record feed, each CRM record capable of being independently subscribed to by users of the enterprise social networking system to cause the CRM record-specific feed items related to the CRM record to be shared in news feeds of the users subscribed to the CRM record;

providing, using the database system, a list stored as or identified using data objects in the database system, the list defined by the user-selected subset of CRM records, the list being an entity independent of the CRM records, the list capable of being independently subscribed to by users of the enterprise social networking system to cause list-specific feed items related to the user-selected subset of CRM records to be shared in news feeds of users subscribed to the list, the list-specific feed items comprising CRM record-specific feed items of the subset of CRM records;

storing, in a database of the database system, identifications of users subscribed to the list;

processing a request, from a second user of the enterprise social networking system, to initiate a following relationship with a first CRM record in the subset of CRM records, the initiation of the following relationship automatically triggering a subscription of the second user to the list;

processing a selection of the list when the list is identified in a user interface on a device associated with the second user;

displaying, responsive to the selection of the list, an enterprise social network feed dynamically populated to contain the list-specific feed items;

processing a further request, from a third user of the enterprise social networking system, to initiate a following relationship with a second CRM record, the second CRM record not being in the subset of CRM records, the third user not being a subscriber to the list;

determining, responsive to processing the further request, that the second CRM record has a parent-child relationship with the first CRM record;

automatically subscribing, responsive to determining that the second CRM record has a parent-child relationship with the first CRM record, the third user to the list;

processing a comment by the third user, the comment relating to a third CRM record, the third CRM record not being in the subset of CRM records; and

displaying, on a device of a fourth user of the enterprise social networking system, the comment, the fourth user being a subscriber to the list, the fourth user not having a following relationship with the third user.

11. A method implemented using a database system for providing an enterprise social network feed containing feed items associated with a configurable list of customer relationship management (CRM) records, the method comprising:

processing, using the database system, data identifying a subset of a plurality of CRM records stored as data objects in the database system, each CRM record being related to a respective business task and/or business relationship, the subset of CRM records selected by a first user of an enterprise social networking system associated with the database system, the CRM records being independent of user profiles of users of the enterprise social networking system, each CRM record associated with a respective one of a plurality of record feeds of the enterprise social networking system, each record feed configured to share CRM record-specific feed items related to the CRM record associated with the record feed, each CRM record capable of being independently subscribed to by users of the enterprise social networking system to cause the CRM record-specific feed items related to the CRM record to be shared in news feeds of the users subscribed to the CRM record;

providing, using the database system, a list stored as or identified using data objects in the database system, the list defined by the user-selected subset of CRM records, the list being an entity independent of the CRM records, the list capable of being independently subscribed to by users of the enterprise social networking system to cause list-specific feed items related to the user-selected subset of CRM records to be shared in news feeds of users subscribed to the list, the list-specific feed items comprising CRM record-specific feed items of the subset of CRM records;

storing, in a database of the database system, identifications of users subscribed to the list;

processing a request, from a second user of the enterprise social networking system, to initiate a following relationship with a first CRM record in the subset of CRM records, the initiation of the following relationship automatically triggering a subscription of the second user to the list;

processing a selection of the list when the list is identified in a user interface on a device associated with the second user; and

causing display of, responsive to the selection of the list, an enterprise social network feed dynamically populated to contain the list-specific feed items;

receiving criteria for searching a plurality of lists;

causing the plurality of lists to be searched based on the criteria;

processing a further request, from a third user of the enterprise social networking system, to initiate a following relationship with a second CRM record, the second CRM record not being in the subset of CRM records, the third user not being a subscriber to the list;

determining, responsive to processing the further request, that the second CRM record has a parent-child relationship with the first CRM record;

causing, responsive to determining that the second CRM record has a parent-child relationship with the first CRM record, the third user to subscribe to the list;

processing a comment by the third user, the comment relating to a third CRM record, the third CRM record not being in the subset of CRM records; and

causing display of, on a device of a fourth user of the enterprise social networking system, the comment, the fourth user being a subscriber to the list, the fourth user not having a following relationship with the third user.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the criteria is associated with a designated group of users.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the criteria is associated with a specified user.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the criteria comprises one or more alphanumeric strings.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the criteria comprises a numerical quantity.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the numerical quantity is a number of lists to be displayed in a user interface.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the numerical quantity is a number of subscribers to the list.