Patent Application
20150033315
Embodiments of the subject matter described herein relate generally to computer systems. More particularly, embodiments of the subject matter relate to diagnostic and authentication techniques suitable for use in a multi-tenant database system.
Modern software development is evolving away from the client-server model toward network-based processing systems that provide access to data and services via the Internet or other networks. In contrast to traditional systems that host networked applications on dedicated server hardware, a cloud computing model allows applications to be provided over the network “as a service” supplied by an infrastructure provider. The infrastructure provider typically abstracts the underlying hardware and other resources used to deliver a customer-developed application so that the customer no longer needs to operate and support dedicated server hardware. The cloud computing model can often provide substantial cost savings to the customer over the life of the application because the customer no longer needs to provide dedicated network infrastructure, electrical and temperature controls, physical security and other logistics in support of dedicated server hardware.
Most cloud-based applications are implemented for use with Internet browsers running on client devices. Consequently, such cloud-based applications are susceptible to response time delays, loading effects, and other factors that might impact the end user experience. For this reason, cloud-based applications can be subjected to performance testing to determine response times under various simulated loading conditions and to check whether stated service level agreement requirements are satisfied. For example, the SELENIUM suite of software can be used to test the performance of web applications.
A multi-tenant database system may be designed to support various single sign-on (SSO) techniques and technologies that allow a user of the system to seamlessly log into different services, organizations, applications, and/or accounts (referred to herein as “entities”) using only one set of authentication credentials. A web-based system may also utilize SSO techniques to enable a user to seamlessly log into multiple entities by manipulating a web browser to enter one set of credentials.
A more complete understanding of the subject matter may be derived by referring to the detailed description and claims when considered in conjunction with the following figures, wherein like reference numbers refer to similar elements throughout the figures.
The subject matter presented here relates to a variety of features and operations performed by or otherwise utilized with a database system. In particular, techniques and functionality related to user authentication and software diagnostics are provided in the context of a multi-tenant database system. Although exemplary embodiments are described with reference to a multi-tenant database environment, it should be appreciated that the subject matter need not be restricted to such an implementation.
Environment 110 is an environment in which an on-demand database service exists. User system 112 may be any machine or system that is used by a user to access a database user system. For example, any of user systems 112 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
An on-demand database service, such as system 116, 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 116” and “system 116” 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 118 may be a framework that allows the applications of system 116 to run, such as the hardware and/or software, e.g., the operating system. In an embodiment, on-demand database service 116 may include an application platform 118 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 112, or third party application developers accessing the on-demand database service via user systems 112.
The users of user systems 112 may differ in their respective capacities, and the capacity of a particular user system 112 might be entirely determined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user. For example, where a salesperson is using a particular user system 112 to interact with system 116, that user system has the capacities allotted to that salesperson. However, while an administrator is using that user system to interact with system 116, 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's security or permission level.
Network 114 is any network or combination of networks of devices that communicate with one another. For example, network 114 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 the one or more implementations might use are not so limited, although TCP/IP is a frequently implemented protocol.
User systems 112 might communicate with system 116 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 112 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 116. Such an HTTP server might be implemented as the sole network interface between system 116 and network 114, but other techniques might be used as well or instead. In some implementations, the interface between system 116 and network 114 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' data; however, other alternative configurations may be used instead.
In one embodiment, system 116, shown in
One arrangement for elements of system 116 is shown in
Several elements in the system shown in
According to one embodiment, each user system 112 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 116 (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 117, 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 116 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 Oracle America, Inc.).
According to one embodiment, each system 116 is configured to provide webpages, forms, applications, data and media content to user (client) systems 112 to support the access by user systems 112 as tenants of system 116. As such, system 116 provides security mechanisms to keep each tenant'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.
User system 112, network 114, system 116, tenant data storage 122, and system data storage 124 were discussed above with reference to
Application platform 118 includes an application setup mechanism 238 that supports application developers' creation and management of applications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage 122 by save routines 236 for execution by subscribers as one or more tenant process spaces 204 managed by tenant management process 210 for example. Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL 34 that provides a programming language style interface extension to API 932. 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 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 manages retrieving application metadata 216 for the subscriber making the invocation and executing the metadata as an application in a virtual machine.
Each application server 200 may be communicably coupled to database systems, e.g., having access to system data 125 and tenant data 123, via a different network connection. For example, one application server 2001 might be coupled via the network 114 (e.g., the Internet), another application server 200N-1 might be coupled via a direct network link, and another application server 200N 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 200 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 200 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 200. 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 200 and the user systems 112 to distribute requests to the application servers 200. In one embodiment, the load balancer uses a least connections algorithm to route user requests to the application servers 200. 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 200, and three requests from different users could hit the same application server 200. In this manner, system 116 is multi-tenant, wherein system 116 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 116 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's personal sales process (e.g., in tenant data storage 122). 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's data might be separate from other users' 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 116 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 116 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 112 (which may be client systems) communicate with application servers 200 to request and update system-level and tenant-level data from system 116 that may require sending one or more queries to tenant data storage 122 and/or system data storage 124. System 116 (e.g., an application server 200 in system 116) 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 124 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. Pat. No. 7,779,039, filed Apr. 2, 2004, entitled “Custom Entities and Fields in a Multi-Tenant Database System”, 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.
Single Sign-On Using Local Client Application
A database system of the type described herein may be suitably configured as a multi-tenant database system that supports a plurality of different tenants (also referred to herein as “organizations”). One end user may be a member of different tenants supported by the multi-tenant database system. In a typical operating scenario, an end user accesses different instantiations of the multi-tenant database system as needed to interact with the different tenants. Accordingly, one end user may be issued multiple sets of login credentials for purposes of authentication when attempting to access resources of the different tenants.
Single sign-on (SSO) techniques have been developed to enable a user to seamlessly log into multiple resources using only one set of login credentials. As an example, assume that a user is a member of a web-based email service provided by a first entity, a member of a social networking site provided by a second entity, and a member of a web-based shopping site provided by a third entity. An SSO protocol would allow that user to log into all three services by entering only one set of credentials, e.g., the login information for the web-based email service.
The subject matter presented here relates to a client-side SSO approach that enables a local native client application to perform an SSO routine as needed to access tenant resources maintained by a multi-tenant database system. In certain embodiments, the native client application provides local, stand-alone, and non-browser based support of an information networking environment that involves a plurality of different tenants of a multi-tenant database system. In this regard, the native client application emulates at least some of the features and functionality provided by a browser-based information networking environment, e.g., a web-based social network application, a web-based enterprise or business networking environment, or the like. Although the native client application still utilizes some form of network communication to cooperate with certain server-side features, and to access networked multi-tenant database architectures, it need not rely on a web browser application. The native client application utilizes SSO technology to enable the user to seamlessly access different tenants (as needed) without having to enter different login data, and without having to switch back and forth between multiple instantiations that correspond to the different tenant environments.
This example assumes that the process 300 has already stored all of the relevant access tokens in the persistent database. This example also assumes that the user system is operated to execute a native client application that provides stand-alone and non-browser based support of an information networking environment that involves, cooperates with, requests resources from, or otherwise utilizes the plurality of different tenants of the multi-tenant database system (task 306). Notably, accessing the tenant resources requires user authentication. Accordingly, the native client application receives or processes user login data for a first tenant supported by the multi-tenant database system (task 308). The received login data is processed by an authentication engine or module of the user system to determine whether or not the proper credentials have been entered (query task 310).
This example assumes that the received login data is effective to authenticate the user, relative to the first tenant (the “Yes” branch of query task 310). Accordingly, the process 300 continues by logging the user into the first tenant (task 312). Moreover, the process 300 automatically and seamlessly logs the user into at least one additional tenant (task 314). Notably, the process 300 retrieves and uses the stored access tokens to automatically log the user into the other tenant(s) in a manner that is transparent to the end user. In other words, task 314 performs SSO in response to the entry of only one set of user credentials, and logs the user into at least one other tenant without prompting the user to enter any additional login data. Thereafter, the native client application can access information, data, and resources associated with a plurality of different tenants, and take appropriate action at the local client system level as needed.
The local user system may also be configured to support a similar SSO approach in the context of a plurality of different native applications that execute locally on the user system. In this regard, the persistent database can be utilized to store access tokens and/or other authentication information for a plurality of different local applications. The saved access tokens can then be used as needed to seamlessly authenticate the user in connection with the use or execution of the different native applications, as long as the user successfully logs into any one of those applications. This technique allows the user to launch and use a plurality of different native client applications without having to repeatedly enter the respective login data for each application.
Simplified Technique for Code Coverage Testing
A database system of the type described herein may be suitably configured to support software development, diagnostic, and testing tools. In certain embodiments, a database system of the type described herein provides web browser based services, features, and functions to its users, tenants, and organizations. Accordingly, it may be desirable to have a reliable and convenient software testing framework for web-based applications. In this regard, the SELENIUM software testing framework can be utilized to test certain browser-based functionality if so desired.
Conventional software testing tools provide code coverage tests for actions performed on a web page. However, the corresponding test reports are lost when the web browser is closed and reopened. Accordingly, such conventional tools are inconvenient and inefficient, especially if a developer needs to test a large number of browser-based features while opening and closing the testing web browser application. To address this problem, the code testing architecture described here utilizes a suitably configured API to obtain the code coverage results for a plurality of browser-based test cases. The API is designed such that it can be easily incorporated into any existing framework with little to no customization or modification to the existing framework.
The process 400 defines, obtains, or otherwise designates a plurality of test cases (task 402). Each test case corresponds to a different browser-based function that is carried out by computer executable code. In certain scenarios, the computer executable code includes a plurality of scripts, e.g., scripts written in the JAVA programming language. The process 400 performs code coverage tests on each of the test cases (task 404), and obtains and saves the corresponding test results (task 406). The executable code that is responsible for each browser-based function is subjected to a code coverage test to determine which portion of the code is actually executed and which portion of the code is not executed. In accordance with conventional code coverage nomenclature, 100% coverage means that all of the code written for a designated function is executed to actually carry out that function (this is an ideal scenario). On the other hand, 50% coverage means that only half of the written code is actually executed (this indicates an inefficient use of code). The process 400 may leverage any existing or available code coverage application or software, such as the SELENIUM testing framework.
The process 400 generates and provides a consolidated report (task 408) that includes the test results for the different test cases. In this regard,
Notably, process 400 can be utilized to perform code coverage tests on any number of test cases, whether or not the associated web browser application remains open or is closed between test cases. For example, a first code coverage test can be performed for a first test case, and the resulting code coverage results can be saved before closing the web browser application that is used to perform the first test case. Thereafter, the web browser application can be re-opened to perform a second code coverage test on a second test case. This routine can be repeated any number of times, while saving and maintaining the test results between each individual test. Notably, the test results are saved and preserved for purposes of reporting regardless of how many times the web browser application is opened and closed. Eventually, the process 400 can generate and display the consolidated report to provide all of the test results to the user in a convenient manner.
In accordance with some exemplary embodiments, the process 400 is realized in the following manner. The underlying code for a test case is obtained as an input (the underlying code represents the code that is executed to perform the browser-based function under test). The underlying code is processed to create an archive file that includes the underlying code and additional information such as metadata that is used to perform the testing. The underlying code may include or call for scripts that are normally maintained at a server, e.g., scripts written in the JAVA programming language. Accordingly, the archive file could be formatted as a JAVA archive file (a “jar” file).
Code associated with the scripts may be retrieved from a server or otherwise obtained in association with the archive file. Thereafter, the archive file and the script code (if any) are subjected to the code coverage tests using an appropriate testing suite, e.g., the SELENIUM software testing suite. The results of the code coverage tests are provided to a suitably configured API, which in turn generates the consolidated code coverage report as described above. Notably, the testing system is designed to run on a local client machine for speed and efficiency. Accordingly, the system obtains the underlying code and the script code at the local level, and the code coverage tests are performed at the local level. This allows a user of the client machine to define and run any number of test cases, obtain the corresponding test results, and view a consolidated report of the test results at a convenient time.
Conclusion and Clarifications
Techniques and technologies may be described herein in terms of functional and/or logical block components, and with reference to symbolic representations of operations, processing tasks, and functions that may be performed by various computing components or devices. Such operations, tasks, and functions are sometimes referred to as being computer-executed, computerized, software-implemented, or computer-implemented. It should be appreciated that the various block components shown in the figures may be realized by any number of hardware, software, and/or firmware components configured to perform the specified functions. For example, an embodiment of a system or a component may employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements, digital signal processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, or the like, which may carry out a variety of functions under the control of one or more microprocessors or other control devices.
When implemented in software or firmware, various elements of the systems described herein are essentially the code segments or instructions that perform the various tasks. The program or code segments can be stored in a processor-readable medium or transmitted by a computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave over a transmission medium or communication path. The “processor-readable medium” or “machine-readable medium” may include any medium that can store or transfer information. Examples of the processor-readable medium include an electronic circuit, a semiconductor memory device, a ROM, a flash memory, an erasable ROM (EROM), a floppy diskette, a CD-ROM, an optical disk, a hard disk, or the like. The code segments may be downloaded via computer networks such as the Internet, an intranet, a LAN, or the like.
The various tasks performed in connection with a process described herein may be performed by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof It should be appreciated that a process described herein may include any number of additional or alternative tasks, the tasks shown in a figure need not be performed in the illustrated order, and a described process may be incorporated into a more comprehensive procedure or process having additional functionality not described in detail herein. Moreover, one or more of the tasks shown in a figure could be omitted from an embodiment of the illustrated process as long as the intended overall functionality remains intact.
The foregoing detailed description is merely illustrative in nature and is not intended to limit the embodiments of the subject matter or the application and uses of such embodiments. As used herein, the word “exemplary” means “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any implementation described herein as exemplary is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other implementations. Furthermore, there is no intention to be bound by any expressed or implied theory presented in the preceding technical field, background, or detailed description.
While at least one exemplary embodiment has been presented in the foregoing detailed description, it should be appreciated that a vast number of variations exist. It should also be appreciated that the exemplary embodiment or embodiments described herein are not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the claimed subject matter in any way. Rather, the foregoing detailed description will provide those skilled in the art with a convenient road map for implementing the described embodiment or embodiments. It should be understood that various changes can be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the scope defined by the claims, which includes known equivalents and foreseeable equivalents at the time of filing this patent application.
This application claims the benefit of: U.S. provisional patent application No. 61/857,622, filed Jul. 23, 2013 (titled AUTHENTICATION AND DIAGNOSTIC FUNCTIONS FOR A DATABASE SYSTEM: SINGLE SIGN-ON USING LOCAL CLIENT APPLICATION); and U.S. provisional application No. 61/857,477, filed Jul. 23, 2013 (titled AUTHENTICATION AND DIAGNOSTIC FUNCTIONS FOR A DATABASE SYSTEM: SIMPLIFIED TECHNIQUE FOR CODE COVERAGE TESTING).
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61857622 | Jul 2013 | US | |
| 61857477 | Jul 2013 | US |
