Patent Publication Number: US-2012041921-A1

Title: Mechanism for facilitating efficient business rules management and data processing

Description:
CLAIM OF PRIORITY 
     This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/374,116, entitled “Business Processor Startup and Maintenance” by Matthew Canaday, et al., filed Aug. 16, 2010 (Attorney Docket No. 8956P038Z), the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference and priority is claimed thereof. 
    
    
     COPYRIGHT NOTICE 
     A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. 
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     One or more implementations relate generally to business rules and, more specifically, to a mechanism for facilitating efficient business rules management and data processing. 
     BACKGROUND 
     The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions. 
     In today&#39;s business environment, business rules communicated between a Business Rules Engine (BR engine) and an organization (e.g., a business organization or company) are critical to the operations of the business, and must be configurable and verifiable by the users who own the data. For example, various sales lead data transmitted from a form on a website or client application to a business organization over a network may require a team of sales representatives (SRs) to review the sales lead data, including matching the received sales lead data with existing leads, contacts, accounts, and pre-established criteria and rules, to determine whether the received data is acceptable or workable. Typically, this SR-based review process can take up to 20% of SR time. Given the human factor and that various criteria, rules, contact information, etc., can change over time, the aforementioned process is cumbersome, inefficient, and prone to human errors. The business can use a BR Engine with configured business rules to perform the actions taken by SRs to expedite and improve this error-prone process, provided the business has visibility into both the configuration of the business rules and information representing the results of application of the business rules. 
     In conventional database systems, users access their data resources in one logical database. A user of such a conventional system typically retrieves data from and stores data on the system using the user&#39;s own systems. A user system might remotely access one of a plurality of server systems that might in turn access the database system. Data retrieval from the system might include the issuance of a query from the user system to the database system. The database system might process the request for information received in the query and send to the user system information relevant to the request. 
     Unfortunately, conventional database approaches might become inefficient if, for example, the number of queries received by the database system or the number of interested parties is relatively high. 
     SUMMARY 
     In accordance with embodiments, there are provided methods and systems for facilitating efficient business rules management and data processing. A method of embodiments includes generating, at a first computing system, configuration settings to customize business rules to process data transactions. The business rules are processed by a business rules engine at a second computing system. The method includes customizing one or more business rules by applying one or more configuration settings to the one or more business rules, and facilitating the business rules engine residing on the second computing system to process one or more data transactions based on the one or more customized business rules. The one or more customized business rules guide processing of the one or more data transactions and provide information relating to how one or more business rules are matched with the one or more data transactions. 
     While one or more implementation techniques are described with reference to an embodiment in which techniques for facilitating efficient business rules management and data processing are implemented in a system having an application server providing a front end for an on-demand database service capable of supporting multiple tenants, the one or more implementations are not limited to multi-tenant databases nor deployment on application servers. Embodiments may be practiced using other database architectures, i.e., ORACLE®, DB2® by IBM and the like without departing from the scope of the embodiments claimed. 
     Any of the above embodiments may be used alone or together with one another in any combination. One or more implementations encompassed within this specification may also include embodiments that are only partially mentioned or alluded to or are not mentioned or alluded to at all in this brief summary or in the abstract. Although various embodiments may have been motivated by various deficiencies with the prior art, which may be discussed or alluded to in one or more places in the specification, the embodiments do not necessarily address any of these deficiencies. In other words, different embodiments may address different deficiencies that may be discussed in the specification. Some embodiments may only partially address some deficiencies or just one deficiency that may be discussed in the specification, and some embodiments may not address any of these deficiencies. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       In the following drawings like reference numbers are used to refer to like elements. Although the following figures depict various examples, one or more implementations are not limited to the examples depicted in the figures. 
         FIG. 1  illustrates a host machine employing business rules management mechanism according to one embodiment; 
         FIG. 2A  illustrates business rules management mechanism according to one embodiment; 
         FIG. 2B  illustrates control objects according to one embodiment; 
         FIG. 3  illustrates a method for facilitating efficient business rules management and data processing according to one embodiment; 
         FIG. 4  illustrates a method for facilitating efficient business rules management and data processing according to one embodiment; 
         FIG. 5A  illustrates an exemplary screenshot of Lead Entry Automation Program according to one embodiment; 
         FIG. 5B  illustrates an exemplary screenshot of a business process stage according to one embodiment; 
         FIG. 5C  illustrates an exemplary screenshot of a business process stage rule according to one embodiment; 
         FIG. 5D  illustrates an exemplary screenshot of business process audio log entry details of business process audio log entries of  FIG. 5C ; 
         FIG. 5E  illustrates an exemplary screenshot of an audit log entry report according to one embodiment; 
         FIG. 6  illustrates a computer system according to one embodiment; 
         FIG. 7  illustrates a block diagram of an environment wherein an on-demand database service might be used according to one embodiment; and 
         FIG. 8  illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment of elements of environment of  FIG. 7  and various possible interconnections between these elements according to one embodiment. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Methods and systems are provided for facilitating efficient business rules management and data processing. 
     One or more implementations provide for efficient business rules management and data processing using efficient business processor startup and maintenance. In one embodiment, business rules are configured using custom objects to automatically filter and verify the business rules and other relevant data. For example, custom objects may be provided using a business rules management mechanism and via a business rules Application Programming Interface (API) to access a BR engine and provide, configure, and control rules there that governing how data is processed. Further, the business rules API may be used to access data in a streamline manner and to make updates to the data as dictated by the business rules. The business rules management mechanism is further used to provide feedback as to what is to be done (e.g., update, delete, etc.) to each piece of data (including various data transactions) and to provide detailed information about such decisions. This way, a user (e.g., an employee of the organization, such as a human resources manager, a software developer, an accountant, a project team, etc.) can not only view the data, but also review any issues that might have or are likely to occur while processing the data as well as to understand the current state of the business rules engine without requiring a separate login or a troubleshooting tool. The user may also choose to update and test the business rules as desired or necessitated. 
     A business rules engine includes software to execute various business rules in a runtime environment (e.g., any computing system that runs an operating system (e.g., Microsoft® Windows®, Linux®) that supports a runtime environment, such as JAVA® or the like. These business rules may include any number and variety of rules, such as business rules relating to company policy, employment policy, federal and state laws and regulations, accounting practices, ethics, etc. 
     As used herein, the term multi-tenant database system refers to those systems in which various elements of hardware and software of the database system may be shared by one or more customers. For example, a given application server may simultaneously process requests for a great number of customers, and a given database table may store rows for a potentially much greater number of customers. As used herein, the term query plan refers to a set of steps used to access information in a database system. 
     Next, mechanisms and methods for facilitating efficient business rules management and data processing will be described with reference to example embodiments. 
       FIG. 1  illustrates a host machine  100  employing business rules management mechanism  108  according to one embodiment. Host machine (e.g., server computing system)  100  comprises a computing platform, which may be capable, for example, of working with a standard operating system  106 . Operating system  106  serves as an interface between any hardware or physical resources of the host machine  100  and a user. In some embodiments, base hardware platform may include a memory device  102 , a processor  104 , network devices, drivers, etc. Host machine  100  may include a server computing system or a client computing system and further, terms like “machine”, “device”, “computer”, “computing device”, and “computing system” are used interchangeably and synonymously throughout this document. 
     In one embodiment, the host machine  100  employs business rules management mechanism (management mechanism)  108  to facilitate configuration and customization of business rules to process data and retrieve and report on actions performed on the data by a business rules engine (not shown here, but shown in  FIG. 2 ). Further, the management mechanism  108  allows for new configurations for business rules to be generated, maintained and monitored throughout and for an organization (e.g., a business organization or company, etc.) for processing its data as desired or necessitated. Data may include various business data transactions, such as hiring or terminating an employee, allocating business travel expense to an employee, changing health insurance due to marriage or childbirth relating to an employee, providing free shipping on purchased items to a customer for buying a particular item or spending more than a certain pre-determined amount, processing a bad check written by a client, etc. These data transactions and their relevant data are then matched with the existing or, in one embodiment, customized business rules to determine how a data transaction is to be properly handled. If a business rule matches a data transaction, the transaction is successfully processed and completed and stored in a database or, if none of the business rules matches the data transaction, the data transaction is regarded a failure and certain failure actions are taken. Embodiments of these processes will be further described with reference to the subsequent figures. 
       FIG. 2A  illustrates business rules management mechanism  108  according to one embodiment. In one embodiment, business rules management mechanism  100  is hosted by machine B  100  to perform management of business rules including customizing business rules by performing monitoring, configuring, retrieving, and reporting of business rules. As illustrated, machine A  230  (e.g., a third-party computing system that supports JAVA and runs Windows or Linux, etc., as described earlier) hosts a business rules engine  238  retrieving and consuming business rules  236  (stored at and retrieved from a database associated with machine B  100 ), a processor server  232  (fetches the configurations from machine B  100 ), and a processor manager  234  (fetches data from machine B  100 , processes the data through business rules  236 , updates the data on machine B  100 , and creates audit log entries on machine B). Machine A  230  is in communication with machine B over a network, such as the Internet, and similarly, machine B  100  is shown as in communication with machine C  242  (e.g., a remote client computing system) over a network  240  (e.g., the Internet). For example, machine B  100  may be part of several machines of a cloud computing network and a user (as defined earlier as including, but not limited to, an employee of the organization, such as a human resources manager, a software developer, an accountant, a project team, etc.) of machine C  242  can access the relevant information about business rules  236  and their implementation to the data at a database via a website (e.g., salesforce.com) and further via a client-based business rules user application or API  244  and view it through a display device. 
     In one embodiment, the management mechanism  108  includes a business rules configuration framework (framework)  214  including custom objects  216  (e.g., salesforces.com custom objects). The management mechanism  108  further includes a business rules API  212  and an audit log custom object  220 . Further, machine B  100  is in communication with the database  250  that holds data as defined earlier as well as configuration settings (including new configuration settings, changes to existing configuration settings, etc., relating to the business rules  236 ). In one embodiment, a user, using machine C  242  and its business rules user application/API  244 , generates a particular set of configuration to be applied to the business rules  236 . This generation of a configuration set may include new configuration settings proposed by the user to be applied to the business rules  236 , changes to or deletion of one or more existing configuration settings, control commands (such as starting, stopping, or testing the configuration), etc. This is so the business rules  236  can be properly configured and customized and appropriately applied to various data transactions through the framework by any valid user of Machine B with access to the framework. As aforementioned, the data, the data transactions, and configuration settings may be stored at the database  250 . 
     In one embodiment, a processor server  232  of the business rules engine  238  contacts the management mechanism  108  via the business rules API  212  to extract configuration settings from the database  250 . These configuration settings are generated using the custom objects  216  as provided by the framework  214 . These custom objects  216  will be further described with reference to  FIG. 2B . For each set of the business rules  236  received and the extracted or fetched configuration settings, the processor server  232  launches a processor manager  234  of the business rules engine  238 . The processor manager  234  analyzes data transactions as defined by the business rules  236  and then applies the relevant business rules  236  to the relevant data transactions. The business rules  236  are used to define data transactions (e.g., data input) as they go through various stages and processes, and what to do with one or more data transactions if a match with one or more business rules is found or not found. In one embodiment, the business rules API  212  facilitates access to data stored and configuration settings stored at the database  250 . As aforementioned, these configuration settings are generated using the custom objects  216  and used to process one or more data transactions provided by the data. Further, the database  250  may be, local or remotely, a part of the organization hosting machine B  100 , allowing secured access to any data and configuration settings at the database  250  as well as to any business rules  236  and audit log custom object  220  stored at the database  250 . It is contemplated some or all of the business rules  236  (or their duplicates) and the audit log custom object  220  may be stored at the database  250 . 
     The framework  214 , in one embodiment, provides customization and management of the business rules  236  using configuration settings to facilitate processing of business data transactions so that the data may be created, updated, and/or deleted within and as desired and/or necessitated by the home organization (e.g., a business organization, such as salesforce.com, as described previously). The framework  214  defines custom objects  216  to control processing of data transactions such that each set of custom objects  216  defines each stage of the data transaction processing as well as any number of business rules  236  governing the data transaction processing (e.g., how the processing proceeds with what process actions or whether it ought to be stopped, etc.). 
     The audit log custom object  220 , in one embodiment, provides an audit trail of various actions taken during the processing of each data transaction. For example, an instance of the audit log custom object  220  may provide sufficient information to tie or link or map a specific process action taken during a particular data transaction processing stage of a particular data transaction to a business rule  236  matching with or responsible for governing that particular processing stage. This way, a user can generate extensively detailed reports relating to each processing stage and the relevant entities (e.g., one or more business rules  236  and/or one or more applicable configuration settings) to provide a comprehensive feedback on how the data relating to the data transactions were updated. 
       FIG. 2B  illustrates control objects  216  according to one embodiment. In one embodiment, the custom objects  216  are used by the framework  214  to define and control data transactions processing using the business rules  236 . For example, custom objects  216  can be used by the framework  214  to introduce a new configuration setting to customize one of the application business rules of the business rules  236  as it applies to a particular data transaction. Then, using the processor server  232  and the processor manager  234  at the business rules engine  238 , the data transaction is processed using the customized business rule of the business rules  236 . Various actions taken during the data transaction process as well as the results (e.g., success or failure) of the data transaction process are then recorded as instances of the audit log custom object  220 . 
     In one embodiment, the custom objects  216  may be particular to an organization, such as salesforce.com custom objects, and include: (1) a business process (BP) process control custom object  272  to provide basic control and status for the processor manager  234  and tie together various data transaction processing stages, business rules  236 , and process actions that define a business rule configuration; (2) a BP control attribute custom object  274  to describe attributes that can be used when processing data transactions (e.g., “recentActivity=30” days); (3) a BP stage custom object  276  to define a single suite of the business rules  236  applied to data or data transactions, such as performing a set of logically related steps; (4) a BP stage rule custom object  278  to define a single step of a data transaction process, including the definition of success and failure of a data transaction process, what actions to be taken in case of the success or failure, and what is the next stage in the data transaction process (e.g., next business rule to be applied, next stage, whether to terminate the data transaction process, etc.); and (5) a BP rule action custom object  280  to define a process action taken on the data transaction, such as creating new data, updating existing data, deleting existing data. The BP rule action  280  also informs the engine whether an audit log entry should be created when the action is taken. Note that this mechanism can be self-annealing in that it may modify any BP configuration component noted in  FIG. 2B , as these configuration components are also accessible as data through the Business Rules Management Mechanism  108 . For example, an action might be taken to start or stop the processing of business rules  236  by updating the BP process control custom object  272 , or the way data are processed might be altered by modifying a BP control attribute custom object  274  or other component. 
     The custom objects  216  further include: (6) a BP object relation custom object  282  to define where a custom object definition is used in the data transaction process and provide a context in which the definition is applied, such as how a custom object  216  is initialized and/or filtered using information already gathered during the data transaction process; (7) a BP object definition custom object  284  to describe how to retrieve, build, or update a custom object  216  for use in a process action, business rules  236 , and BP processor control custom object  272 ; (8) a BP object field custom object  286  provides a description of how an individual field is created or populated, which can be used in API searches, fields copied or derived from other custom objects accessible to the business rules  236 , fields whose values are fixed, or field whose values are derived from a formula or function; (9) a BP audit log entry custom object  288  is used to define a structure for audit log entries, such as associating a log entry with the BP processor control custom object  272 , process stage, business rules  236  and action responsible for the process actions taken, if applicable; and (10) a BP processor status custom object  290  that defines various attributes governing a status report for various data transaction processes, process stages, and/or business rules  236  running on each process control server  232 . Further, error and warning log entries created by the business rules engine  238 , while processing data transactions, are attached to the BP processor status custom object  290  for review by a user at the organization. 
       FIG. 3  illustrates a method  300  for facilitating efficient business rules management and data processing according to one embodiment. Method  300  may be performed by hardware, software, or a combination thereof. In one embodiment, method  300  is performed by business rules management mechanism  108  of  FIG. 1 . 
     Method  300  begins with a first stage of a data transaction process at block  305 . At block  310 , the process attempts to match the input data of a data transaction to a business rule. If the match succeeds, success process actions are taken and an appropriate instance of the audit log custom object  220  is created at block  315 . If the match fails, failure process actions are taken and an appropriate instance of the audit log custom object  220  is created at block  320 . Based on success or failure, a business rule configuration setting then (via a processing module) facilitates the business rules engine to proceed on to the next business rule in the current stage, the next stage, or terminate the data transaction process. If the process is terminated and/or failure is indicated, the business rules engine applies an appropriate data cleanup stage to ensure the data is properly handled, such as in case no business rules have matched the data transaction, at block  330 . If, at any time, an error occurs, the management mechanism can proceeds to any number of error handling stages and subsequently quit the process, at block  325 , or call through to the data cleanup stages if no appropriate error handling stage exists at block  330 . 
       FIG. 4  illustrates a method  400  for facilitating efficient business rules management and data transaction processing according to one embodiment. Method  400  may be performed by hardware, software, or a combination thereof. In one embodiment, method  400  is performed by business rules management mechanism of  FIG. 1 . 
     Method  400  starts with generating a configuration set to process a data transaction in a particular way as is desired or necessitated by an organization at block  405 . Generating the configuration set includes creating new business rules and adding them to existing business rules, updating or changing one or more of existing business rules, and/or deleting one or more of existing business rules. At block  410 , the configuration set is communicated, via a business rules API, to a processor server of a business rules engine. At block  415 , the business rules are customized (e.g., added, updated, or deleted) according to the communicated configuration set. At block  420 , data, including data transactions and their relevant input data, is communicated, via the business rules API, to the business rules engine. 
     At block  425 , in one embodiment, processing of the data transactions is initiated based on the customized business rules. In one embodiment, a processing module of the management mechanism triggers a processor manager of the business rules engine to initiate the processing of the data transactions. At block  430 , a determination is made as to whether a business rule matched a data transaction. If a match is made, the data transaction is processed, including performing certain process actions on the data transaction according to the matched customized business rule at block  435 . If a match is not made, the data transaction fails and its processing is not performed at block  440 . Either way, at block  445 , the relevant data about the data transaction and its success or failure is communicated back to the management mechanism where the results of the data transaction as well as the relevant information about each of the process actions (e.g., success or failure actions) performed on the data transaction are logged into an audit log custom object. At  450 , all relevant audit log custom object instances are provided to a user via a user application and/or API, including displaying instances of the audit log custom object using a display device on a client machine. 
       FIG. 5A  illustrates an exemplary screenshot of Lead Entry Automation Program (LEAP)  500  according to one embodiment. One use of the framework  214  of  FIG. 2A  is to implement the LEAP rule set which represents business rules configuration for processing Lead data transactions. LEAP  500  further represents the top-level BP processor control custom object  272  that shows BP process control details  502  of LEAP  500  as well as BP status  508  relating to BP status custom object  290 , BP control attributes  510  relating to BP control attributes custom object  274 , and BP stages  512  relating to BP stage custom object  276  as illustrated in  FIG. 2B . LEAP  500  further illustrates polling and reporting  504  and testing and recovery  506  of various data transactions and their processes. As an example, certain details of scrub bad workingRequests  514  stage of the BP stages  512  are shown in  FIG. 5B . 
       FIG. 5B  illustrates an exemplary screenshot of a BP stage  514  according to one embodiment. BP stage scrub bad workingRequests  514  illustrates certain BP stage details  522  as well as BP stage rules  524  relating to BP stage rule custom object  278  (of  FIG. 2B ) that make up the BP stage  514 . BP stage  514  further illustrates BP audit log entries  526  relating to BP audit log entry custom object  288  of  FIG. 2B . One exemplary BP stage rule of BP stage rules  524  is scrub out bad names  528  which is further illustrated in  FIG. 5C . 
       FIG. 5C  illustrates an exemplary screenshot of a BP stage rule  528  according to one embodiment. BP stage rule  528  illustrates certain BP stage rule details  530 , BP rule actions  532  relating to BP rule action custom object  280 , BP object relations  534  relating to BP object relations custom object  282 , BP audit log entries  536  relating to audit log entry custom object  288  of  FIG. 2B . Details of BP audit log entries  536  are illustrated in  FIG. 5D . 
       FIG. 5D  illustrates an exemplary screenshot of BP audio log entry details  540  of BP audio log entries  536  of  FIG. 5C . BP audio log entry details  540  provide certain details of BP audio log entries  536 , such as BP audio log entry identification (ID)  542 , log entry description  544 , the applicable BP stage rule  546 , the applicable BP rule action  548 , target object Uniform Resource Locator (URL)  550 , log entry type  552 , log entry state  554 , and the like. 
       FIG. 5E  illustrates an exemplary screenshot of an audit log entry report  570  according to one embodiment. The report  570  is provided by summarizing relevant audit log entries using a reporting mechanism of the host organization (e.g., salesforce.com reporting mechanism). This report  570  provides counts  572  of various data transactions (e.g., sales leads) as processed through the top performing audited actions  574  since the data transaction processing was started by LEAP. Various BP rules actions  574  include convert  576 , merge  578 , scrub  580 , etc. 
       FIG. 6  illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a machine  600  in the exemplary form of a computer system, in accordance with one embodiment, within which a set of instructions, for causing the machine  600  to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, may be executed. In alternative embodiments, the machine may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines in a Local Area Network (LAN), an intranet, an extranet, or the Internet. The machine may operate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in a client-server network environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment or as a server or series of servers within an on-demand service environment, including an on-demand environment providing multi-tenant database storage services. Certain embodiments of the machine may be in the form of a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a web appliance, a server, a network router, switch or bridge, computing system, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. Further, while only a single machine is illustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken to include any collection of machines (e.g., computers) that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. 
     The exemplary computer system  600  includes a processor  602 , a main memory  604  (e.g., read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, dynamic random access memory (DRAM) such as synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) or Rambus DRAM (RDRAM), etc., static memory such as flash memory, static random access memory (SRAM), volatile but high-data rate RAM, etc.), and a secondary memory  618  (e.g., a persistent storage device including hard disk drives and persistent multi-tenant data base implementations), which communicate with each other via a bus  630 . Main memory  604  includes emitted execution data  624  (e.g., data emitted by a logging framework) and one or more trace preferences  623  which operate in conjunction with processing logic  626  and processor  602  to perform the methodologies discussed herein. 
     Processor  602  represents one or more general-purpose processing devices such as a microprocessor, central processing unit, or the like. More particularly, the processor  602  may be a complex instruction set computing (CISC) microprocessor, reduced instruction set computing (RISC) microprocessor, very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor, processor implementing other instruction sets, or processors implementing a combination of instruction sets. Processor  602  may also be one or more special-purpose processing devices such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP), network processor, or the like. Processor  602  is configured to execute the processing logic  626  for performing the operations and functionality of business rules management mechanism  108  as described with reference to  FIG. 1  and other figures discussed herein. 
     The computer system  600  may further include a network interface card  608 . The computer system  600  also may include a user interface  610  (such as a video display unit, a liquid crystal display (LCD), or a cathode ray tube (CRT)), an alphanumeric input device  612  (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor control device  614  (e.g., a mouse), and a signal generation device  616  (e.g., an integrated speaker). The computer system  600  may further include peripheral device  636  (e.g., wireless or wired communication devices, memory devices, storage devices, audio processing devices, video processing devices, etc. The computer system  600  may further include a Hardware based API logging framework  634  capable of executing incoming requests for services and emitting execution data responsive to the fulfillment of such incoming requests. 
     The secondary memory  618  may include a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium (or more specifically a machine-accessible storage medium)  631  on which is stored one or more sets of instructions (e.g., software  622 ) embodying any one or more of the methodologies or functions of business rules management mechanism  108  as described with reference to  FIG. 1  and other figures described herein. The software  622  may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory  604  and/or within the processor  602  during execution thereof by the computer system  600 , the main memory  604  and the processor  602  also constituting machine-readable storage media. The software  622  may further be transmitted or received over a network  620  via the network interface card  608 . 
       FIG. 7  illustrates a block diagram of an environment  710  wherein an on-demand database service might be used. Environment  710  may include user systems  712 , network  714 , system  716 , processor system  717 , application platform  718 , network interface  720 , tenant data storage  722 , system data storage  724 , program code  726 , and process space  728 . In other embodiments, environment  710  may not have all of the components listed and/or may have other elements instead of, or in addition to, those listed above. 
     Environment  710  is an environment in which an on-demand database service exists. User system  712  may be any machine or system that is used by a user to access a database user system. For example, any of user systems  712  can be a handheld computing device, a mobile phone, a laptop computer, a work station, and/or a network of computing devices. As illustrated in herein  FIG. 7  (and in more detail in  FIG. 8 ) user systems  712  might interact via a network  714  with an on-demand database service, which is system  716 . 
     An on-demand database service, such as system  716 , is a database system that is made available to outside users that do not need to necessarily be concerned with building and/or maintaining the database system, but instead may be available for their use when the users need the database system (e.g., on the demand of the users). Some on-demand database services may store information from one or more tenants stored into tables of a common database image to form a multi-tenant database system (MTS). Accordingly, “on-demand database service  716 ” and “system  716 ” will be used interchangeably herein. A database image may include one or more database objects. A relational database management system (RDMS) or the equivalent may execute storage and retrieval of information against the database object(s). Application platform  718  may be a framework that allows the applications of system  716  to run, such as the hardware and/or software, e.g., the operating system. In an embodiment, on-demand database service  716  may include an application platform  718  that enables creation, managing and executing one or more applications developed by the provider of the on-demand database service, users accessing the on-demand database service via user systems  712 , or third party application developers accessing the on-demand database service via user systems  712 . 
     The users of user systems  712  may differ in their respective capacities, and the capacity of a particular user system  712  might be entirely determined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user. For example, where a salesperson is using a particular user system  712  to interact with system  716 , that user system has the capacities allotted to that salesperson. However, while an administrator is using that user system to interact with system  716 , that user system has the capacities allotted to that administrator. In systems with a hierarchical role model, users at one permission level may have access to applications, data, and database information accessible by a lower permission level user, but may not have access to certain applications, database information, and data accessible by a user at a higher permission level. Thus, different users will have different capabilities with regard to accessing and modifying application and database information, depending on a user&#39;s security or permission level. 
     Network  714  is any network or combination of networks of devices that communicate with one another. For example, network  714  can be any one or any combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network), telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network, star network, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriate configuration. As the most common type of computer network in current use is a TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol) network, such as the global internetwork of networks often referred to as the “Internet” with a capital “I,” that network will be used in many of the examples herein. However, it should be understood that the networks that one or more implementations might use are not so limited, although TCP/IP is a frequently implemented protocol. 
     User systems  712  might communicate with system  716  using TCP/IP and, at a higher network level, use other common Internet protocols to communicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTP is used, user system  712  might include an HTTP client commonly referred to as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP messages to and from an HTTP server at system  716 . Such an HTTP server might be implemented as the sole network interface between system  716  and network  714 , but other techniques might be used as well or instead. In some implementations, the interface between system  716  and network  714  includes load sharing functionality, such as round-robin HTTP request distributors to balance loads and distribute incoming HTTP requests evenly over a plurality of servers. At least as for the users that are accessing that server, each of the plurality of servers has access to the MTS&#39; data; however, other alternative configurations may be used instead. 
     In one embodiment, system  716 , shown in  FIG. 7 , implements a web-based customer relationship management (CRM) system. For example, in one embodiment, system  716  includes application servers configured to implement and execute CRM software applications as well as provide related data, code, forms, webpages and other information to and from user systems  712  and to store to, and retrieve from, a database system related data, objects, and Webpage content. With a multi-tenant system, data for multiple tenants may be stored in the same physical database object, however, tenant data typically is arranged so that data of one tenant is kept logically separate from that of other tenants so that one tenant does not have access to another tenant&#39;s data, unless such data is expressly shared. In certain embodiments, system  716  implements applications other than, or in addition to, a CRM application. For example, system  716  may provide tenant access to multiple hosted (standard and custom) applications, including a CRM application. User (or third party developer) applications, which may or may not include CRM, may be supported by the application platform  718 , which manages creation, storage of the applications into one or more database objects and executing of the applications in a virtual machine in the process space of the system  716 . 
     One arrangement for elements of system  716  is shown in  FIG. 7 , including a network interface  720 , application platform  718 , tenant data storage  722  for tenant data  723 , system data storage  724  for system data  725  accessible to system  716  and possibly multiple tenants, program code  726  for implementing various functions of system  716 , and a process space  728  for executing MTS system processes and tenant-specific processes, such as running applications as part of an application hosting service. Additional processes that may execute on system  716  include database indexing processes. 
     Several elements in the system shown in  FIG. 7  include conventional, well-known elements that are explained only briefly here. For example, each user system  712  could include a desktop personal computer, workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any wireless access protocol (WAP) enabled device or any other computing device capable of interfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other network connection. User system  712  typically runs an HTTP client, e.g., a browsing program, such as Microsoft&#39;s Internet Explorer browser, Netscape&#39;s Navigator browser, Opera&#39;s browser, or a WAP-enabled browser in the case of a cell phone, PDA or other wireless device, or the like, allowing a user (e.g., subscriber of the multi-tenant database system) of user system  712  to access, process and view information, pages and applications available to it from system  716  over network  714 . Each user system  712  also typically includes one or more user interface devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, trackball, touch pad, touch screen, pen or the like, for interacting with a graphical user interface (GUI) provided by the browser on a display (e.g., a monitor screen, LCD display, etc.) in conjunction with pages, forms, applications and other information provided by system  716  or other systems or servers. For example, the user interface device can be used to access data and applications hosted by system  716 , and to perform searches on stored data, and otherwise allow a user to interact with various GUI pages that may be presented to a user. As discussed above, embodiments are suitable for use with the Internet, which refers to a specific global internetwork of networks. However, it should be understood that other networks can be used instead of the Internet, such as an intranet, an extranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network, any LAN or WAN or the like. 
     According to one embodiment, each user system  712  and all of its components are operator configurable using applications, such as a browser, including computer code run using a central processing unit such as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, system  716  (and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) and all of their components might be operator configurable using application(s) including computer code to run using a central processing unit such as processor system  717 , which may include an Intel Pentium® processor or the like, and/or multiple processor units. A computer program product embodiment includes a machine-readable storage medium (media) having instructions stored thereon/in which can be used to program a computer to perform any of the processes of the embodiments described herein. Computer code for operating and configuring system  716  to intercommunicate and to process webpages, applications and other data and media content as described herein are preferably downloaded and stored on a hard disk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof, may also be stored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory medium or device as is well known, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on any media capable of storing program code, such as any type of rotating media including floppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk (DVD), compact disk (CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, and magnetic or optical cards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), or any type of media or device suitable for storing instructions and/or data. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof, may be transmitted and downloaded from a software source over a transmission medium, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server, as is well known, or transmitted over any other conventional network connection as is well known (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using any communication medium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet, etc.) as are well known. It will also be appreciated that computer code for implementing embodiments can be implemented in any programming language that can be executed on a client system and/or server or server system such as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any other markup language, Java™, JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language, such as VBScript, and many other programming languages as are well known may be used. (Java™ is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.). 
     According to one embodiment, each system  716  is configured to provide webpages, forms, applications, data and media content to user (client) systems  712  to support the access by user systems  712  as tenants of system  716 . As such, system  716  provides security mechanisms to keep each tenant&#39;s data separate unless the data is shared. If more than one MTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another (e.g., in a server farm located in a single building or campus), or they may be distributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one or more servers located in city A and one or more servers located in city B). As used herein, each MTS could include one or more logically and/or physically connected servers distributed locally or across one or more geographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant to include a computer system, including processing hardware and process space(s), and an associated storage system and database application (e.g., OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. It should also be understood that “server system” and “server” are often used interchangeably herein. Similarly, the database object described herein can be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, a collection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online or offline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include a distributed database or storage network and associated processing intelligence. 
       FIG. 8  also illustrates environment  710 . However, in  FIG. 8  elements of system  716  and various interconnections in an embodiment are further illustrated.  FIG. 8  shows that user system  712  may include processor system  712 A, memory system  712 B, input system  712 C, and output system  712 D.  FIG. 8  shows network  714  and system  716 .  FIG. 8  also shows that system  716  may include tenant data storage  722 , tenant data  723 , system data storage  724 , system data  725 , User Interface (UI)  830 , Application Program Interface (API)  832 , PL/SOQL  834 , save routines  836 , application setup mechanism  838 , applications servers  800   1 - 800   N , system process space  802 , tenant process spaces  804 , tenant management process space  810 , tenant storage area  812 , user storage  814 , and application metadata  816 . In other embodiments, environment  710  may not have the same elements as those listed above and/or may have other elements instead of, or in addition to, those listed above. 
     User system  712 , network  714 , system  716 , tenant data storage  722 , and system data storage  724  were discussed above in  FIG. 7 . Regarding user system  712 , processor system  712 A may be any combination of one or more processors. Memory system  712 B may be any combination of one or more memory devices, short term, and/or long term memory. Input system  712 C may be any combination of input devices, such as one or more keyboards, mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, and/or interfaces to networks. Output system  712 D may be any combination of output devices, such as one or more monitors, printers, and/or interfaces to networks. As shown by  FIG. 8 , system  716  may include a network interface  720  (of  FIG. 7 ) implemented as a set of HTTP application servers  800 , an application platform  718 , tenant data storage  722 , and system data storage  724 . Also shown is system process space  802 , including individual tenant process spaces  804  and a tenant management process space  810 . Each application server  800  may be configured to tenant data storage  722  and the tenant data  723  therein, and system data storage  724  and the system data  725  therein to serve requests of user systems  712 . The tenant data  723  might be divided into individual tenant storage areas  812 , which can be either a physical arrangement and/or a logical arrangement of data. Within each tenant storage area  812 , user storage  814  and application metadata  816  might be similarly allocated for each user. For example, a copy of a user&#39;s most recently used (MRU) items might be stored to user storage  814 . Similarly, a copy of MRU items for an entire organization that is a tenant might be stored to tenant storage area  812 . A UI  830  provides a user interface and an API  832  provides an application programmer interface to system  716  resident processes to users and/or developers at user systems  712 . The tenant data and the system data may be stored in various databases, such as one or more Oracle™ databases. 
     Application platform  718  includes an application setup mechanism  838  that supports application developers&#39; creation and management of applications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage  722  by save routines  836  for execution by subscribers as one or more tenant process spaces  804  managed by tenant management process  810  for example. Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL  834  that provides a programming language style interface extension to API  832 . A detailed description of some PL/SOQL language embodiments is discussed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,478 entitled, “Method and System for Allowing Access to Developed Applicants via a Multi-Tenant Database On-Demand Database Service”, issued Jun. 1, 2010 to Craig Weissman, which is incorporated in its entirety herein for all purposes. Invocations to applications may be detected by one or more system processes, which manage retrieving application metadata  816  for the subscriber making the invocation and executing the metadata as an application in a virtual machine. 
     Each application server  800  may be communicably coupled to database systems, e.g., having access to system data  725  and tenant data  723 , via a different network connection. For example, one application server  800   1  might be coupled via the network  714  (e.g., the Internet), another application server  800   N-1  might be coupled via a direct network link, and another application server  800   N  might be coupled by yet a different network connection. Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating between application servers  800  and the database system. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that other transport protocols may be used to optimize the system depending on the network interconnect used. 
     In certain embodiments, each application server  800  is configured to handle requests for any user associated with any organization that is a tenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove application servers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there is preferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to a specific application server  800 . In one embodiment, therefore, an interface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5 Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the application servers  800  and the user systems  712  to distribute requests to the application servers  800 . In one embodiment, the load balancer uses a least connections algorithm to route user requests to the application servers  800 . Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as round robin and observed response time, also can be used. For example, in certain embodiments, three consecutive requests from the same user could hit three different application servers  800 , and three requests from different users could hit the same application server  800 . In this manner, system  716  is multi-tenant, wherein system  716  handles storage of, and access to, different objects, data and applications across disparate users and organizations. 
     As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs a sales force where each salesperson uses system  716  to manage their sales process. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data, customer follow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data, etc., all applicable to that user&#39;s personal sales process (e.g., in tenant data storage  722 ). In an example of a MTS arrangement, since all of the data and the applications to access, view, modify, report, transmit, calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a user system having nothing more than network access, the user can manage his or her sales efforts and cycles from any of many different user systems. For example, if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customer has Internet access in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain critical updates as to that customer while waiting for the customer to arrive in the lobby. 
     While each user&#39;s data might be separate from other users&#39; data regardless of the employers of each user, some data might be organization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users or all of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, there might be some data structures managed by system  716  that are allocated at the tenant level while other data structures might be managed at the user level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants including possible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keep data, applications, and application use separate. Also, because many tenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their own system, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions that may be implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data and tenant specific data, system  716  might also maintain system level data usable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data might include industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharable among tenants. 
     In certain embodiments, user systems  712  (which may be client systems) communicate with application servers  800  to request and update system-level and tenant-level data from system  716  that may require sending one or more queries to tenant data storage  722  and/or system data storage  724 . System  716  (e.g., an application server  800  in system  716 ) automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g., one or more SQL queries) that are designed to access the desired information. System data storage  724  may generate query plans to access the requested data from the database. 
     Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, such as a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefined categories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may be used herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and custom objects. It should be understood that “table” and “object” may be used interchangeably herein. Each table generally contains one or more data categories logically arranged as columns or fields in a viewable schema. Each row or record of a table contains an instance of data for each category defined by the fields. For example, a CRM database may include a table that describes a customer with fields for basic contact information such as name, address, phone number, fax number, etc. Another table might describe a purchase order, including fields for information such as customer, product, sale price, date, etc. In some multi-tenant database systems, standard entity tables might be provided for use by all tenants. For CRM database applications, such standard entities might include tables for Account, Contact, Lead, and Opportunity data, each containing pre-defined fields. It should be understood that the word “entity” may also be used interchangeably herein with “object” and “table”. 
     In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be allowed to create and store custom objects, or they may be allowed to customize standard entities or objects, for example by creating custom fields for standard objects, including custom index fields. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/817,161, filed Apr. 2, 2004, entitled “Custom Entities and Fields in a Multi-Tenant Database System”, and which is hereby incorporated herein by reference, teaches systems and methods for creating custom objects as well as customizing standard objects in a multi-tenant database system. In certain embodiments, for example, all custom entity data rows are stored in a single multi-tenant physical table, which may contain multiple logical tables per organization. It is transparent to customers that their multiple “tables” are in fact stored in one large table or that their data may be stored in the same table as the data of other customers. 
     While one or more implementations have been described by way of example and in terms of the specific embodiments, it is to be understood that one or more implementations are not limited to the disclosed embodiments. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements as would be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements. It is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive.