COMPUTER IMPLEMENTED METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR CONFIGURING AND PERFORMING A CUSTOM RULE TO PROCESS A PREFERENCE INDICATION

• US 20130117353A1
• Filed: 08/20/2012
• Published: 05/09/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Chan, Kim Man, Wong, Matthew
• Granted Patent: US 9,152,725 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/23 Updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/25 Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

Disclosed are systems, apparatus, methods and computer-readable media for processing a preference indication for a feed item of an information feed. In some implementations, a preference indication associated with a feed item is received. In some instances, it is determined whether the feed item is associated with a custom rule, where the custom rule defines one or more actions to modify information associated with feed items of designated one more content types. In some instances, one or more actions are selected to perform based on an identified content type of the feed item in response to the determination that the feed item is associated with the custom rule.

Claims

1. A method of processing a preference indication for a feed item of an information feed, the method comprising:

receiving, at one or more servers, the preference indication for the feed item, the preference indication being an indication that an entity endorses information associated with the feed item;

determining, at the one or more servers, whether the feed item is associated with a custom rule, the custom rule defining one or more actions operative to modify information associated with feed items of designated one or more content types;

selecting, at the one or more servers, one or more actions to perform based on an identified content type of the feed item in response to determining that the feed item is associated with the custom rule; and

performing, at the one or more servers, the selected one or more actions to modify the information associated with the feed item.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the custom rule further defines a custom display component operable to transmit the preference indication for the feed item from a client device to the one or more servers.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the custom display component is a selectable graphical component capable of being displayed on a display of the client device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the one or more actions to perform is further based on status information of the entity.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the one or more actions to perform is further based on profile information of the entity.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the selected one or more actions includes determining a quantitative value to represent the preference indication for the feed item.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the quantitative value is weighted based on status information of the entity.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the selected one or more actions includes:

determining whether a further feed item of the information feed is related to the feed item based on a relevance measure; and

modifying information associated with the further feed item in response to the determination that the further feed item is related to the feed item.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining whether the further feed item is related to the feed item based on the relevance measure includes one or more operations selected from the group consisting of:

determining whether content type of the further feed item is the same as the content type of the feed item, determining whether the entity follows the further feed item, determining whether profile information of the entity includes information related to the further feed item, determining whether the entity indicated a preference for the further feed item, and determining whether historical information related to the entity includes information related to the further feed item.

10. The method recited in claim 1, the one or more servers being situated in an on-demand service environment through which a plurality of organizations can access on-demand computing services.

11. The method recited in claim 10, wherein the feed item is stored in a multi-tenant database accessible to a plurality of tenants in communication with the on-demand service environment.

12. One or more computing devices for processing a preference indication for a feed item of an information feed, the one or more computing devices comprising:

one or more processors capable of executing instructions to;

receive the preference indication for the feed item, the preference indication being an indication that an entity endorses information associated with the feed item;

determine whether the feed item is associated with a custom rule, the custom rule defining one or more actions operative to modify information associated with feed items of designated one or more content types;

select one or more actions to perform based on a content type of the feed item in response to determining that the feed item is associated with the custom rule; and

perform the selected one or more actions to modify the information associated with the feed item.

13. The one or more computing devices of claim 12, wherein selecting the one or more actions to perform is further based on status information of the entity.

14. The one or more computing devices of claim 12, wherein performing the selected one or more actions includes determining a quantitative value to represent the preference indication for the feed item.

15. The one or more computing devices of claim 14, wherein the quantitative value is weighted based on status information of the entity.

16. The one or more computing devices of claim 12, wherein the quantitative value is determined using a multiplier based on profile information of the entity.

17. A non-transitory tangible computer-readable storage medium storing instructions executable by a computing device to perform a method of processing a preference indication for a feed item of an information feed, the method comprising:

receiving, at one or more servers, the preference indication for the feed item, the preference indication being an indication that an entity endorses information associated with the feed item;

determining, at the one or more servers, whether the feed item is associated with a custom rule, the custom rule defining one or more actions operative to modify information associated with feed items of designated one or more content types;

selecting, at the one or more servers, one or more actions to perform based on a content type of the feed item in response to determining that the feed item is associated with the custom rule; and

performing, at the one or more servers, the selected one or more actions to modify the information associated with the feed item.

18. The non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein selecting the one or more actions to perform is further based on status information of the entity.

19. The non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein performing the selected one or more actions includes:

determining whether a further feed item of the information feed is related to the feed item based on a relevance measure; and

modifying information associated with the further feed item in response to the determination that the further feed item is related to the feed item.

20. The non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein determining whether the further feed item is related to the feed item based on the relevance measure includes one or more operations selected from the group consisting of:

determining whether content type of the further feed item is the same as the content type of the feed item, determining whether the entity follows the further feed item, determining whether profile information of the entity includes information related to the further feed item, determining whether the entity indicated a preference for the further feed item, and determining whether historical information related to the entity includes information related to the further feed item.