Patent Publication Number: US-8990251-B2

Title: Techniques for changing perceivable stimuli associated with a user interfave for an on-demand database service

Description:
CLAIM OF PRIORITY 
     This divisional application is related to, and claims priority to, the non-provisional U.S. Utility patent application entitled “TECHNIQUES FOR CHANGING PERCEIVABLE STIMULI ASSOCIATED WITH A USER INTERFACE FOR AN ON-DEMAND DATABASE SERVICE,” filed Feb. 11, 2009, having an application number of Ser. No. 12/369,710 the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     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. 
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The current invention relates generally to databases. More particularly the current invention relates to techniques for dynamically changing perceivable stimuli associated with an interface in data communication with a multi-tenant database. 
     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 that, in and of itself, may also be inventions. 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. The efficient retrieval of accurate information and subsequent delivery of this information to the user system has been and continues to be a goal of administrators of database systems. 
     Unfortunately, conventional database approaches might become inefficient if, for example, updating applications in the presence of complex data structures. A database system may also process a query relatively slowly if, for example, a relatively large number of users substantially concurrently access the database system. 
     Accordingly, it is desirable to provide techniques enabling an owner of the database system to improve the ease of use of the database system. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY 
     In accordance with embodiments, disclosed are techniques for providing perceivable stimuli in an interface of a multi-tenant on-demand database system. These techniques can enable embodiments to facilitate collaborative efforts of groups of users of a multi-tenant on-demand database system while maintaining access constraints amongst users associated with a common tenant. 
     In an embodiment, and by way of example, a method of providing perceivable stimuli in an interface of a multi-tenant on-demand database system includes receiving a request for access to a sub-portion of content on the database system, the request having requester identification data; identifying groups having access to the sub-portion; identifying member information associated with the groups; determining whether the requester identification data corresponds to the member information; and configuring an interface to provide perceivable stimuli to the requestor that corresponds to the sub-portion in response to the requester information corresponding to the member information, with the perceivable stimuli being defined by hysteretic data. Hysteretic data is information provided to the requester corresponding to the requester identification data based upon interactions with the information before the current access to the architecture by the requester. 
     The present invention is described with reference to an embodiment in which an apparatus provides perceivable stimuli in an interface of a multi-tenant on-demand database system. Although the invention is discussed with respect to supporting multiple tenants; the present invention is not limited to multi-tenant database systems. 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. Inventions 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 of the invention 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 of the invention do not necessarily address any of these deficiencies. In other words, different embodiments of the invention 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 of the invention, the invention is not limited to the examples depicted in the figures. 
         FIG. 1  illustrates a representative architecture of a multi-tenant database system in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a simplified schematic view showing interrelationships between various groups and tenant representatives that have rights to access the multi-tenant database system, shown in  FIG. 1 , in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  illustrates a block diagram of an example of a representative system in which the architecture, shown in  FIG. 1 , may be practiced; 
         FIG. 4  is a detailed block diagram of a user system, shown in  FIG. 3 ; 
         FIG. 5  is a flow diagram showing a method of updating a users interface in accordance with the present invention; and 
         FIG. 6  illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment of elements of  FIG. 3  and various possible interconnections between these elements. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Systems and methods are provided to implement batch processing in a multi-tenant on-demand database system. As used herein, the term multi-tenant database system (MTS) refers to those systems in which various elements of hardware and software of the database system may be shared by a multiplicity of users. 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. It will be appreciated that multitenancy in a database is not merely an extension of adding additional users, since such direct and obvious extensions quickly become unworkable as data type since data type, security, schema, sharing, intra/inter tenant and characteristics compound exponentially with linear increments of users. Rather, unique and heretofore unknown techniques in database management of the disclosed embodiments can provide the ability to house such disparate data types and characteristics while circumventing the exponential growth in complexity and related access delays, making multi-tenancy a newly obtainable and previously unknown reality. 
       FIG. 1  illustrates a database architecture  10  that includes server side facilities  12  and client side facilities  14  in data communication over a network  16 . Server side facilities  12  includes processor sub-system  18 , memory space  20 , in data communication therewith, and network interface resources  22  in data communication with both memory space  20  and processor sub-system  18 . Processor sub-system  18  may be any known processor sub-system in the art, e.g., the CORE DUO® or the CORE 2 DUO® from Intel Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif. Memory space  20  includes drive storage  21 , shown as one or more hard drives  23  and  24 , as well as data and instruction registers, shown as  28 , and volatile and non-volatile memory shown as  30 . Data communication network  16  may be any network or combination of networks of devices that communicate with one another. Network  16  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 inter-network 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 the present invention might use are not so limited, although TCP/IP is a frequently implemented protocol. 
     Server side facilities  12  provide access to a database  32  by multiple users  25 - 27  of client side facilities  14  over data communication network  16 . To that end, network interface resources  22  include a plurality of virtual portals  33 - 35 . Each virtual portal  33 - 35  provides an “instance” of a portal user interface coupled to allow access to database  32 . Typically, tenants obtain rights to store information, referred to as tenant information  38  and  40 , on database  32  and make the same accessible to one or more users  25 - 27  to whom the tenant provides authorization. This is typically achieved by rental agreements between the tenant and an owner/provider of architecture  10  and/or other tenants. In this manner, architecture  10  provides an on-demand database service to users  25 - 27  that are not necessarily concerned with building and/or maintaining the database system; rather, these functions are addressed between the tenant and the owner/provider. 
     With architecture  10 , multiple users  25 - 27  may access database  32  through a common network address, in this example a universal resource locator (URL). In response, web-pages and/or other content may be provided to users  25 - 27  over network  16 . The resources of database  32  that users  25 - 27  may access can be different, depending on user&#39;s  25 - 27  security or permission level and/or tenant association. As a result, data structures included in tenant information are managed so as to be allocated at the tenant level, while other data structures might be managed at the user level. Because architecture  10  supports multiple tenants including possible competitors, security protocols  42  and other system software  44 , stored for example on hard drive  24 , maintain applications and applications&#39; use to only those users  25 - 27  with corresponding access rights. Also, because many tenants may desire access to architecture  10  rather than maintain their own system, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions that may be implemented in architecture  10 . In addition to user-specific data and tenant specific data, server side facilities  12  might also maintain system level data usable by multiple tenants, users, groups of users, other systems and/or other data. Such system level data might include industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharable among tenants. 
     For example, in certain embodiments architectures  10  may allow users  25 - 27  associated with one or more of the tenants, referred to as tenant users, access to a sub-portion of the content of the database information that the tenant may be allowed to access. The sub-portion that any one of users  25 - 27  may access may be the same as, or different from, the sub-portion that the remaining users  25 - 27  may access. Users  25 - 27  not associated with a tenant or otherwise not having permission to access data of the tenant, would not be allowed access to information  38  and  40 . For example, assume users  25  and  26  are associated with the tenant corresponding to tenant information  38  and not associated with the tenant corresponding to tenant information  40 . Users  25  and  26  would not be allowed access to tenant information  40  and would be allowed access to tenant information  38  or a sub-portion thereof. In the present example, user  25  may be allowed access to a first portion of tenant information  38  and user  26  may be allowed access to a second portion of tenant information  38 , which is mutually exclusive. Similarly, were user  27  associated with the tenant corresponding to tenant information  40  and not the tenant corresponding to tenant information  38 , user  27  would be allowed to access tenant information  40 , or a portion thereof, and not tenant information  38 . It is possible, however, that one of users  25 - 27  is associated with the tenants corresponding to both sets of tenant information  38  and  40 . 
     Tenant information  38  and  40  may be viewed as a collection of objects, such as a set  61 - 66  of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefined categories. This is shown as data objects  67 - 73  with respect to tenant set  63 . A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may be used herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and custom objects according to the present invention. It should be understood that “table” and “object” may be used interchangeably herein. 
     Virtual portals  33 ,  34  and  35  facilitate providing resources of database  32  on behalf of a tenant to users  25 - 27  associated with the tenant. Each user  25 - 27  logs into one of virtual portals  33 ,  34  and  35  to access resources of database  32  through a unique uniform resource locator (URL) or other type of address. Based on the URL and other identifying information associated with users  25 - 27 , architecture  10  may determine the resources of database  32  users  25 - 27  may access. For example, user  25  communicates with database through virtual portal  33 , user  26  communicates with database  32  through virtual portal  34 , and user  27  communicates with database through virtual portal  35 . It is possible, however, that all users  25 - 27  may use a common portal, as well. To that end, users  25 - 27  desiring to access resources of database  32  employ virtual portals  33 ,  34  and  35  to validate against the information stored on architecture  10 , corresponding to the user  25 - 27  requesting access to a sub-portion of content on database  32 . The communications between users  25 - 27  and server side facilities  12  results in multiple processes  50 ,  52  and  54  being executed by processor sub-system  18 . Thus, it is desired that processor sub-system  18  be capable of providing uninterrupted interaction with users  25 - 27 . 
     Referring to both  FIGS. 1 and 2 , an example of a tenant may be a company that employs a sales force where each salesperson uses server side facilities  12  to manage their sales process, such as by a management representative of the tenant, e.g., Vice President of Sales, the Chief Executive Officer of the tenant and the like. In this fashion, architecture facilitates Customer Relations Management (CRM). Thus, one or more of users  25 - 27  may be a salesperson that maintains information applicable to that salesperson&#39;s sales process and may be different from information related to other salespersons&#39; sales process. Although the sales force accessing database  32  is represented by three users  25 - 27 , in practice hundreds of salespersons would access database  32 . Moreover, sales process data of each sales person may include thousands of files. An example of sales process data may include, without limitation, contact data, leads data, customer follow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data applicable to that salesperson&#39;s personal sales process. 
     Moreover, to facilitate management of this information, the tenant associated with the salespersons may restrict each of the salespersons to access specific sales process information. However, a tenant, or representative thereof based upon a contractual relationship between the salesperson and the representative, may be able to view all sale process information for some or all of the salespersons associated with the tenant. An example of a contractual relationship is a managerial/supervisory relationship. The managerial relationship between the salesperson and the tenant representative may provide the representative with a higher permission level when compared to the permission level of the salesperson, because, inter alia, the tenant representative may be a manager/supervisor of the salesperson. Another contractual relationship may be the principle agent relationship wherein the tenant representative has no day-to-day management responsibility of the salesperson. Nonetheless, as the representative of the principle, e.g., the tenant, the representative may be permitted to view all or part of the salesperson information, because the salespersons may be deemed to be merely agents of the tenant. 
     It is desired, however, that certain information be conveyed between users of architecture  10  while maintaining the aforementioned restrictions on access to specific information. This information may be considered push-information. For example, it may be desired that a tenant, or tenant representative, transmit deterministic data in common to all users associated therewith upon each user  25 - 27  gaining access to architecture  10 . An example of such information may include that which is related to a particular business cycle, e.g., quarterly reports, annual reports and the like. Additionally, the information transmitted to each user  25 - 27  may relate to the tenant, such as a change in the status of tenant, e.g., stock prices, ownership information, opening of a new store or some other news related item concerning the tenant. With this configuration, the deterministic data included in push-information may be that information to which access may not be gained through a request by one or more users, but only at the initiative of the tenant pushing the same to the users. 
     Referring to both  FIGS. 1 and 2 , additionally, the tenant or tenant representative may transmit to each of users  25 - 27  geographic specific information, e.g., information related to a county, state, country, region of the globe. For example, a number of salespersons may be located in a geographic location which may be considered a geographic sub-group, which is shown as sub-groups  80  and  82 . Sub-group  80  includes users  25  and  26 , and sub-group  82  includes user  27 . Sub-group  80  may be in a geographic location that is considered separate and distinct from the geographic location in which sub-group  82  is located. A representative of tenant, user  84 , may have a managerial relationship with respect to users  25  and  26  by virtue of the association with sub-group  80 , e.g., user may be the Vice-President of Sales for the geographic region corresponding to sub-group  80 . Similarly, a representative of tenant, user  86 , has a managerial relationship with respect to user  27  by virtue of the association with sub-group  82 , e.g., user may be the Vice-President of Sales for the geographic region corresponding to sub-group  82 . In addition, it may be seen that an additional user  88  has a managerial relationship with respect to users  84  and  86 . As a result of the relation of user  88  to users  84  and  86 , users  84  and  86  may be viewed as an additional sub-group  90  of the tenant. In this arrangement, push information may be provided by user  88  to each of users  84  and  86 . Some of a sub-portion of the push information provided to users  84  and  86  may be common, with the remaining portion of the push information being geographically specific. In this fashion, the geographic specific portion of the push information provided to user  84  would be different from the geographic specific portion of the push information provided to user  86 . This would allow users  84  and  86  to provide or withhold the appropriate information to groups  80  and  82 , respectively. 
     In addition to, or in lieu of, the geographic specific information, the push-information may include market-based information, e.g., users with similar types of products or services may obtain the same information, independent of the geographic location of the groups. An example of such information may concern legislation regulating the service/product, as well as sales trends, product liability, confidentiality, warranty information and the like. Push information may also include information based upon dynamically changing parameters, such as a users schedule, global positioning coordinates, electronic message routing, user input and/or other indicators that a salesperson is at a specific geographic location, such as a conference, public place, customer/competitor&#39;s location and the like. The dynamically changing parameters may be used to determine whether a particular user with receive certain information. Similarly, the push information may include information based upon members of a collaborative interaction independent of the geographic location of the members, as is the case with virtual meetings. The push information may include information related to the topic of the interaction, the members of the interaction the session of the interaction and the like. Additionally, a user may opt-out of receiving push information. 
     In addition to, or in lieu of, deterministic push-information provided by tenant or the tenant representative, push-information may include hysteretic data. Hysteretic data is information provided to one or more users  25 - 27  based upon interactions with the information before the current access to architecture  10  by the user  25 - 27 . For example, a user  25 - 27  may have perceived the information in an earlier access of architecture  10 . It could be that this information is provided to the same user upon subsequent accesses to architecture  10 . In addition, or in lieu of the information being previously viewed by the accessing user, hysteretic data may be based upon other events, such as a threshold of other users viewing the information and having a logical relationship to the user currently accessing the architecture  10 , e.g., users  25 - 27  being associated with a common geographic location, product/service market, customers/competitors, contract, agency, confidentiality and the like. In this manner, hysteretic data may be conveyed between users  25 - 27  of architecture  10  based upon earlier interactions with the information while maintaining the aforementioned restrictions on access to specific information. The push-information is provided to one or more of users  25 - 27  so as to be perceivable upon accessing database  32 , discussed more fully below. As with deterministic data, push-information having hysteretic data is not necessarily available to a first user by requesting to access the same. Rather, it may be information that the first user is prohibited from accessing, except upon the occurrence of certain interactions with the data by a second user that has access to the same and a logical relationship with the first user, e.g., the first and second user being responsible for a common service and the first user perceiving the data for a requisite amount of time. 
     Referring to both  FIGS. 1 and 3  a block diagram of a server system  600  employed to implement architecture  10  is shown as including multiple user systems  602  included in client side facilities  14  and in data communication with server system  600  over network  16 . Server system  600  includes a processor sub-system  18 , application platform  606 , network interface  22 , and drive storage  21  that includes database  32 . In addition server system  600  includes program code  614 , and process space  616 . Program code  614  may include, among other code to facilitate a tenant establishing rules concerning the information that will be pushed to, or withheld from, users  25 - 27  when accessing database  32 . Process space  616  facilitates execution of MTS system processes and tenant-specific processes, such as running applications as part of an application hosting service. Additional processes that may execute on server system  600  include database indexing processes. In other embodiments, server system  600  may not have all of the components listed and/or may have other elements instead of, or in addition to, those listed above. Server system  600 , and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present, and all components thereof may be operator configurable using applications including computer code to run using a central processing unit such as processor sub-system  18 . 
     Application platform  606  may be a framework that allows the applications of architecture  10  to run, such as the hardware and/or software, e.g., the operating system. In an embodiment, application platform  606  may enable creation, managing and executing one or more applications developed by the owner/provider of architecture  10 , users  25 - 27  accessing architecture  10  via user systems  602 , or third party application developers accessing architecture  10  via user systems  602 . 
     In one embodiment, server system  600  implements a web-based customer relationship management (CRM) system. For example, server system  600  may include application servers (not shown) 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  602  and to store to, and retrieve from, database system related data, objects, and Webpage content. Architecture  10  typically stores data for multiple tenants 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, server system  600  implements applications other than, or in addition to, the CRM application discussed above. For example, server system  600  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  606 , 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 server system  600 . 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1 ,  3  and  4 , to facilitate web-based CRM, user systems  602  might communicate with server system  600  using TCP/IP and, at a higher network level, use other common Internet protocols to communicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. To that end, user systems  602  may be any computing device capable of interfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other network connection, such as desktop personal computer, workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any wireless access protocol (WAP) enabled device and the like running an HTTP client  49 . An example of a user system  602  includes a processor system  620 , a memory system  622 , an input system  624 , and output system  626 . Processor system  620  may be any combination of one or more processors. Memory system  622  may be any combination of one or more memory devices, volatile, and/or non-volatile memory. A portion of memory system is used to run operating system  628  in which HTTP client  630  executes. Input system  624  may be any combination of input devices, such as one or more keyboards, mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, and/or interfaces to networks. Output system  626  may be any combination of output devices, such as one or more monitors  627 , printers (not shown), speaker  629  and/or interfaces to networks. HTTP client  630  allows users  25 - 27  of users systems  602  to access, process and view information, pages and applications available to it from server system  600  over network  16 . Examples of HTTP client  630  include various browsing applications, 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. Access is gained to requisite tenant information  38  and  40  by entering the URL (not shown) into the URL box  632  of HTTP client  630 . The URL directs users  25 - 27  to the appropriate virtual portal for to determine authorization and permission level to access the requisite tenant information. 
     Data corresponding with each user  25 - 27  may be separate from the data corresponding to the remaining users  25 - 27  regardless of the tenant associated with users  25 - 27 ; however, some data might be shared or accessible by predetermined groups of a plurality of users  25 - 27  or all of users  25 - 27  associated with a tenant, such as the aforementioned push information. Thus, there might be some data structures managed by server system  600  that are allocated at the tenant level while other data structures might be managed at the user level. Because an MTS typically support multiple tenants including possible competitors, various embodiments of the MTS may 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, server system  600  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. 
     According to one embodiment, server system  600  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. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 2 ,  3  and  5 , in accordance with an embodiment operation of server system  600  receives a request for access to a sub-portion of content on server system  600  at step  200 . The request includes requester identification data that corresponds to one of users  25 - 27  seeking access to server system  600 . Program code  614  includes computer readable instructions that identify groups  80 ,  82  and  90  having access to the sub-portion of content of server system  600 , e.g., database  38  at step  202 . At step  204 , computer readable instructions included in program code  614  identify member information associated with the groups  80 ,  82 , and  90  to determine what members are associated therewith. At step  206 , computer readable instructions included in program code  614  determine whether the requester identification data corresponds to the member information. If this is the case, then access is granted at step  208  by computer readable instructions included in program code  614 . Otherwise, at step  210 , computer readable instructions included in program code  614  send a message to the requester indicating that access is denied. Following step  208 , computer readable instructions included in program code  614  determine whether there exists any pushed information that the user  25 - 27  associated with the requester identification is to perceive at step  212 . If not, computer readable instructions included in program code  614  provide interface information to the user  25 - 27 , at step  214 . The information is then made perceivable to the user  25 - 27  using the appropriate subsystem of user system  602 , e.g., monitor  627  and/or speakers  629 . Otherwise, were it determined at step  212  that there was pushed information to be provided to the user  25 - 27 , then at step  216  computer readable instructions included in program code  614  provide the push information with the interface information to be transmitted to the user  25 - 27 . 
     Step  212  includes identifying one or more different categories, such as whether other members associated with the group to which users  25 - 27  belongs has previously perceived the information; whether other users  25 - 27  associated with the same is in a common geographic region or market has previously perceived the information. In addition, at step  212  computer readable instructions included in program code  614  may determine whether a periodic business cycle has completed that is associated with user  25 - 27  and provide the corresponding push information. Examples of such information include quarterly reports, yearly reports and the like. 
     Referring to  FIG. 6 , a specific embodiment of a server system  800  includes database  32 , as discussed above, as well as processor sub-system  18  and a network interface  122 . In addition, server system  800  includes a user interface (UI)  802 , application program interface (API)  804 , PL/SOQL  806 , save routines  808 , an application setup mechanism  810 , applications servers  812   1 - 812   N , system process space  814 , tenant processes  50 ,  52  and  54 , tenant management processes  816 . User interface (UI)  802 , application program interface (API)  804 , PL/SOQL  806 , save routines  808 , an application setup mechanism  810 , tenant processes  50 ,  52  and  54 , tenant management processes  816  are shown as processes running in processor sub-system  18 . However, it should be noted that the computer readable code to implement the processes may be stored on drive storage  31 . In other embodiments, server system  800  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. Network interface  122  is implemented as a plurality of HTTP application servers  812   1 - 812   N . 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1 ,  3  and  6 , each application server  812   1 - 812   N  may be configured to service requests of user systems  602  for access to database  32 . In this configuration, tenant information  38  and  40  consists of different information storage areas that may different physical systems, e.g., different hard disks, and/or a logical separation of the information on a common system and may include application metadata for each user or groups of users. For example, a copy of a user&#39;s most recently used (MRU) items might be included. Similarly, a copy of MRU items for an entire organization that is a tenant might be stored. UI  802  provides a user interface and API  804  provides an application programmer interface to server system  800  resident processes to users and/or developers at user systems  602 . The tenant data and the system data may be stored in various databases, such as one or more Oracle™ databases. 
     Referring again to  FIGS. 1 ,  3  and  6 , it is not necessary that the one or more HTTP application servers  812   1 - 812   N  be implemented as the sole network interface between server system  800  and network  16 . Rather, other communication techniques might be used in conjunction with HTTP application servers  812   1 - 812   N  or in lieu thereof. In some implementations, the interface between server system  800  and network  16  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 users  25 - 27  one of HTTP application servers  812   1 - 812   N , each of the plurality of servers has access to the MTS data; however, other alternative configurations may be used instead. 
     Application platform  606  includes an application setup mechanism  810  that supports application developers&#39; creation and management of applications, which may be saved as metadata by save routines  808  for execution by subscribers as one or more tenant process spaces  84  managed by tenant management process  86 , for example. Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL  806  that provides a programming language style interface extension to API  804 . A detailed description of some PL/SOQL language embodiments is discussed in commonly owned co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/859,498 entitled, METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ALLOWING ACCESS TO DEVELOPED APPLICATIONS VIA A MULTI-TENANT ON-DEMAND DATABASE SERVICE, by Craig Weissman, filed Sep. 21, 2007, 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 for the subscriber making the invocation and executing the metadata as an application in a virtual machine. 
     Each HTTP application servers  812   1 - 812   N  may be communicably coupled to database systems, e.g., database  32 , via a different network, connection. For example, one HTTP application server  812   k  might be coupled via the network  16  (e.g., the Internet), another HTTP application servers  812   1 - 812   N  might be coupled via a direct network link, and another one of HTTP application servers  812   1 - 812   N  might be coupled by yet a different network connection. Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating between HTTP application servers  812   1 - 812   N  and database  32 . 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 of HTTP application servers  812   1 - 812   N  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 one of HTTP application servers  812   1 - 812   N . In one embodiment, therefore, an interface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5 Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between HTTP application servers  812   1 - 812   N  and the user systems  602  to distribute requests to HTTP application servers  812   1 - 812   N . In one embodiment, the load balancer uses a least connections algorithm to route user requests to HTTP application servers  812   1 - 812   N . 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  25 - 27  could hit three different HTTP application servers  812   1 - 812   N , and three requests from different user systems  602  could hit a common HTTP application server  812   1 - 812   N . In this manner, server system  800  is multi-tenant, wherein server system  800  handles storage of, and access to, different objects, data and applications across disparate users and organizations. 
     In certain embodiments, user systems  602  (which may be client systems) communicate with HTTP application servers  812   1 - 812   N  to request and update system-level and tenant-level data from server system  800  that may require sending one or more queries to database  32 . Server system  800  (e.g., an application server  812  in server system  800 ) automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g., one or more SQL queries) that are designed to access the desired information. Database may generate query plans to access the requested data from the database. 
     While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of the specific embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is 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. For example, the present processes may be embodied as a computer program product that 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 the server system 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 of the present invention 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.). Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.