System, method and computer program product for associating a plurality of stored elements with a creation of a patch

1. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having a program recorded thereon, the program including one or more sequences of instructions causing a computer to implement a method for creating a production application package and an updated production application package using a production instance of an organization of an on-demand database system and a non-production instance of the organization, the method comprising:

providing the production instance of the organization of the on-demand database system, wherein the production instance of the organization has a first set of elements including organizational level features and associated with a creation of the production application package, the organizational level features including:

organization settings,

organization preferences, and

organization permissions;

creating the production application package for execution by the on-demand database system;

storing the first set of elements;

forming, from the production instance, the non-production instance of the organization in the on-demand database system for creating the updated production application package, the non-production instance of the organization being formed by:

creating the non-production instance of the organization without all settings or permissions of the production instance of the organization,

obtaining the stored first set of elements including one or more of the organizational level features of the production instance of the organization according to which the production application package has been created, and

further creating the non-production instance of the organization by integrating at least one or more of the organizational level features of the obtained first set of elements into the non-production instance of the organization, such that the non-production instance of the organization replicates at least a partial development state of the production instance of the organization according to which the production application package has been created;

utilizing the non-production instance of the organization to develop and create the updated production application package for deployment; and

deploying the updated production application package.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the first set of elements includes one or more version artifacts.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the first set of elements includes one or more custom objects associated with a version of the production application package.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the first set of elements includes one or more elements of metadata.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the first set of elements is extracted from the production instance of the organization and stored using an application programming interface (API).

6. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the first set of elements includes features that the production application package depends on and that need to be specifically enabled in the production instance of the organization.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the first set of elements includes at least one license.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 1 ,

wherein the organization settings include one or more of currency settings and language settings,

wherein the organization preferences include an indication of whether a knowledge base is enabled, and

wherein the organization permissions include an indication of whether workflow permissions are enabled.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:

taking a snapshot of the first set of elements of the non-production instance of the organization after the creation of the updated production application package; and

storing the snapshot of the first set of elements in association with the updated production application package.

10. A method for creating a production application package and an updated production application package using a production instance of an organization of an on-demand database system and a non-production instance of the organization, the method comprising:

providing the production instance of the organization of the on-demand database system, wherein the production instance of the organization has a first set of elements including organizational level features and associated with a creation of the production application package, the organizational level features including:

organization settings,

organization preferences, and

organization permissions;

creating the production application package for execution by the on-demand database system;

storing the first set of elements;

forming, from the production instance, the non-production instance of the organization in the on-demand database system for creating the updated production application package, the non-production instance of the organization being formed by:

creating the non-production instance of the organization without all settings or permissions of the production instance of the organization;

obtaining the stored first set of elements including one or more of the organizational level features of the production instance of the organization according to which the production application package has been created, and

further creating the non-production instance of the organization by integrating at least one or more of the organizational level features of the obtained first set of elements into the non-production instance of the organization, such that the non-production instance of the organization replicates at least a partial development state of the production instance of the organization according to which the production application package has been created;

utilizing the non-production instance of the organization to develop and create the updated production application package for deployment; and

deploying the updated production application package.

11. The method of claim 10 ,

wherein the organization settings include one or more of currency settings and language settings,

wherein the organization preferences include an indication of whether a knowledge base is enabled, and

wherein the organization permissions include an indication of whether workflow permissions are enabled.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

taking a snapshot of the first set of elements of the non-production instance of the organization after the creation of the updated production application package; and

storing the snapshot of the first set of elements in association with the updated production application package.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first set of elements includes one or more version artifacts.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first set of elements includes one or more custom objects associated with a version of the production application package.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first set of elements includes one or more elements of metadata.

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first set of elements is extracted from the production instance of the organization and stored using an application programming interface (API).

17. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first set of elements includes features that the production application package depends on and that need to be specifically enabled in the production instance of the organization.

18. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first set of elements includes at least one license.

19. An apparatus for creating a production application package and an updated production application package using a production instance of an organization of an on-demand database system and a non-production instance of the organization, the apparatus comprising:

a processor for:

providing the production instance of the organization of the on-demand database system, wherein the production instance of the organization has a first set of elements including organizational level features and associated with a creation of the production application package, the organizational level features including:

organization settings,

organization preferences, and

organization permissions;

creating the production application package for execution by the on-demand database system;

storing the first set of elements;

forming, from the production instance, the non-production instance of the organization in the on-demand database system for creating the updated production application package, the non-production instance of the organization being formed by:

creating the non-production instance of the organization without all settings or permissions of the production instance of the organization,

obtaining the stored first set of elements including one or more of the organizational level features of the production instance of the organization according to which the production application package has been created, and

further creating the non-production instance of the organization by integrating at least one or more of the organizational level features of the obtained first set of elements into the non-production instance of the organization, such that the non-production instance of the organization replicates at least a partial development state of the production instance of the organization according to which the production application package has been created;

utilizing the non-production instance of the organization to develop and create the updated production application package for deployment; and

deploying the updated production application package for deployment.