MicroStrategy 7 Administrator Guide

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Security views
Most databases provide a way to restrict access to data. For example, a user may
be able to access only certain tables or he may be restricted to certain rows and
columns within a table. The subset of data available to a user is called the user’s
security view.
Note that restrictions on tables, or rows and columns within tables, may not be
directly evident to a user. They do, however, affect the values displayed in a report.
You need to inform users as to which data they have access so that they do not
inadvertently run a report that yields misleading final results. For example, if a
user only has access to half of the sales data in the warehouse but runs a summary
report on all sales, the summary will only reflect half the sales. Reports do not
indicate the database security view used to generate the report.
Consult your database vendor’s product documentation to learn how to create
security views for your particular database.
Partitioned fact tables
You can partition a fact table in order to group rows together. The resultant
partitioned tables are physically distinct tables in the data warehouse and security
administration is easy because permissions are granted to entire tables rather than
rows and columns.
For example, suppose a fact table contains the key labeled Customer ID and fact
columns:
Customer ID
Customer
Address
Member
Bank
Transaction
Amount ($)
Current
Balance ($)
123456 12 Elm St. 1st National 400.80 40,450.00
945940 888 Oak St. Eastern
Credit
908974 45 Crest Dr. People’s
Bank
150.00 60,010.70
3,000.00 100,009.00
886580 907 Grove Rd. 1st National 76.35 10,333.45
562055 1 Ocean Blvd. Eastern
Credit
888.50 1,000.00
30 Chapter 4 Security