Facilitating quick evaluation of trigger conditions for business rules that modify customer support tickets

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method for automatically updating a customer-support ticket in an online customer-support system, the method comprising:

• when the customer-support ticket is created or updated, applying a set of triggers, which modify the ticket based on business rules, to the ticket;
• wherein each trigger in the set of triggers performs one or more actions that modify the ticket when conditions for parameters associated with the ticket are satisfied;
• and
• wherein applying the set of triggers involves,
• evaluating condition nodes in condition graphs for the set of triggers, wherein a condition graph for a trigger is a directed graph comprised of condition nodes that specify conditions on one or more parameters associated with the ticket,
• wherein evaluating the condition nodes in the condition graphs involves performing one or more range-searching operations to quickly evaluate condition nodes for frequently occurring parameters in the condition graphs, and
• if a valid path through a condition graph comprising satisfied condition nodes is discovered, firing a trigger associated with the condition graph.

A method for automatically updating a customer-support ticket in an online customer-support system, comprising:

• when the customer-support ticket is created or updated, applying a set of triggers to the ticket, wherein each trigger in the set of triggers fires when conditions for parameters associated with the ticket are satisfied and performs one or more actions that modify the ticket, and wherein each trigger in the set of triggers is associated with a condition graph comprised of condition nodes that specify conditions on one or more parameters associated with the ticket;
• and
• wherein applying the set of triggers involves,
• updating a list of off triggers that cannot fire because a critical condition is not satisfied;
• performing the following operations until all unfired triggers in the set of triggers have been evaluated without causing a trigger to fire,
• for each trigger in the set of triggers, which is not in the list of off triggers,
• evaluating condition nodes in a condition graph for the trigger, and
• if a valid path through the condition graph comprising satisfied condition nodes is discovered, firing the trigger and updating the list of off triggers to account for parameters that change due to the trigger firing.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method for automatically updating a customer-support ticket in an online customer-support system, the method comprising:

• when the customer-support ticket is created or updated, applying a set of triggers to the ticket, wherein each trigger in the set of triggers fires when conditions for parameters associated with the ticket are satisfied and performs one or more actions that modify the ticket, and wherein each trigger in the set of triggers is associated with a condition graph comprised of condition nodes that specify conditions on one or more parameters associated with the ticket;
• and
• wherein applying the set of triggers involves,
• updating a list of off triggers that cannot fire because a critical condition is not satisfied;
• performing the following operations until all unfired triggers in the set of triggers have been evaluated without causing a trigger to fire,
• for each trigger in the set of triggers, which is not in the list of off triggers,
• evaluating condition nodes in a condition graph for the trigger, and
• if a valid path through the condition graph comprising satisfied condition nodes is discovered, firing the trigger and updating the list of off triggers to account for parameters that change due to the trigger firing.