Support for multi-type users in a single-type computing system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12200081-B2
Application number	US-202217975481-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 27, 2022
Priority date	Aug 9, 2021
Publication date	Jan 14, 2025
Grant date	Jan 14, 2025

Abstract

Persistent storage contains a parent table and one or more child tables, the parent table containing: a class field specifying types, and one or more filter fields. One or more processors may: receive a first request to read first information of a first type for a first entity; determine that, in a first entry of the parent table for the first entity, the first type is specified in the class field; obtain the first information from a child table associated with the first type; receive a second request to read second information of a second type for a second entity; determine that, in a second entry of the parent table for the second entity, the second type is indicated as present by a filter field that is associated with the second type; and obtain the second information from a set of additional fields in the second entry.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a server device, from a software application, a request to read type-specific information of a particular type for an entity;
determining, by the server device, that, in an entry for the entity in a parent database table of a database, the particular type is not specified in a class field and that the particular type is indicated as present by a type-specific filter field that is associated with the particular type;
in response to determining that the particular type is indicated as present, obtaining, by the server device, the type-specific information from a set of additional fields in the entry, wherein the set of additional fields is associated with the type-specific filter field; and
providing, by the server device, to the software application, the type-specific information in response to the request.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a second request to read second type-specific information of a second particular type for a second entity;
determining that, in an second entry for the second entity in the parent database table, the second particular type is specified in the class field of the second entry;
in response to determining that the second particular type is specified in the class field, obtaining the second type-specific information from a child database table of one or more child database tables of the parent database table, wherein the child database table is associated with the second particular type; and
providing the second type-specific information in response to the second request.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the entity is a first user and the second entity is a second user, and wherein the type-specific information and the second type-specific information each relate to one or more of logging on to a system, permissions to access specific units of data in memory, or presentation of material on a graphical user interface.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein obtaining the second type-specific information comprises reading, from fields of a further entry for the second entity in the child database table, the second type-specific information.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the second entity is associated with a unique identifier, wherein the second entry in the parent database table contains the unique identifier, wherein the further entry in the child database table contains the unique identifier, and wherein reading the second type-specific information comprises:
searching entries of the child database table for the unique identifier; and
locating the unique identifier in the entry in the child database table.

6. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving a further request to write further type-specific information of the second particular type for the second entity;
determining that, in the second entry in the parent database table, the second particular type is specified in the class field; and
writing, to the child database table, the further type-specific information.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a further request to write further type-specific information of the particular type for the entity;
determining that, in the entry in the parent database table, the particular type is indicated as present by the type-specific filter field that is associated with the particular type; and
writing, to the parent database table, the further type-specific information.

8. A method comprising:
receiving, by a server device, from a software application, a request to write type-specific information of a particular type for an entity;
determining, by the server device, that, in an entry for the entity in a parent database table of a database, the particular type is not specified in a class field and that the particular type is indicated as present by a type-specific filter field that is associated with the particular type; and
in response to determining that the particular type is indicated as present, writing, by the server device, the type-specific information to a set of additional fields in the entry of the parent database table, wherein the set of additional fields is associated with the type-specific filter field.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
receiving a second request to write second type-specific information of a second particular type for a second entity;
determining that, in a second entry for the second entity in the parent database table, the second particular type is specified in the class field of the second entry; and
in response to determining that the second particular type is specified in the class field, writing to a child database table of one or more child database tables of the parent database table the second type-specific information, wherein the child database table is associated with the second particular type.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
searching the parent database table for the entity; and
determining that the entry is associated with the entity.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein writing the second type-specific information comprises writing, to fields of a further entry for the entity in the child database table, the second type-specific information.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the second entity is associated with a unique identifier, wherein the second entry contains the unique identifier, wherein the further entry contains the unique identifier, and wherein writing the second type-specific information comprises:
searching entries of the child database table for the unique identifier; and
locating the unique identifier in the entry.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause one or more computing devices to perform operations comprising:
receiving, from a software application, a request to read type-specific information of a particular type for an entity;
determining that, in an entry for the entity in a parent database table of a database, the particular type is not specified in a class field and that the particular type is indicated as present by a type-specific filter field that is associated with the particular type;
in response to determining that the particular type is indicated as present, obtaining the type-specific information from a set of additional fields in the entry, wherein the set of additional fields is associated with the type-specific filter field; and
providing, to the software application, the type-specific information in response to the request.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 , the operations further comprising:
receiving a second request to read second type-specific information of a second particular type for a second entity;
determining that, in an second entry for the second entity in the parent database table, the second particular type is specified in the class field of the second entry;
in response to determining that the second particular type is specified in the class field, obtaining the second type-specific information from a child database table of one or more child database tables of the parent database table, wherein the child database table is associated with the second particular type; and
providing the second type-specific information in response to the second request.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the entity is a first user and the second entity is a second user, and wherein the type-specific information and the second type-specific information each

Assignees

• Servicenow Inc

Inventors

• Seguin Vincent
• Casey Patrick
• Schumann David
• Lee Szu-Hsuan

Classifications

• H04L67/564

  Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data · CPC title

• G06F2221/2141

  Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices · CPC title

• G06F21/6218

  to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database · CPC title

• G06F2221/2113

  Multi-level security, e.g. mandatory access control · CPC title

• H04L67/306

  User profiles · CPC title