Prevent contributor users from creating views

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tutak
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Dec 21, 2009 4:50 pm
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: 9.5
Excel Version: 2007

Prevent contributor users from creating views

Post by tutak »

Hi,

We are deploying TM1 9.5 with contributor and one thing I noticed is, when contributor users launch the application, as soon as they change the default view, next time they login they see the new view they created. Instead, I would like them to see the default views that we create for them when they launch the contributor application. I realized that, these new views are saved as private views under their profiles.

Is there a way to prevent this? Or is there a security setting so that I can restrict people from creating new views?

Thanks
lotsaram
MVP
Posts: 3651
Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2009 11:14 am
OLAP Product: TableManager1
Version: PA 2.0.x
Excel Version: Office 365
Location: Switzerland

Re: Prevent contributor users from creating views

Post by lotsaram »

TM1's default behaviour to to allow users to create their own (private) views and subsets. Should a user define their own private default object then the private default will take precedence over the public defaults defined by admin users.

I'm not aware of any ability to override this behaviour. Usually it is quite useful but it can cause problems from time to time so I can understand why you might want to disable it.

Perhaps such functionality is planned, in 9.4 a new control cube called "}Capabilities" seems to have been added (with dimensions features, permissions and groups) which might serve such a purpose in the future but as yet nothing seems to have been done and it does not appear to be in use.

In the interim while waiting for such new features (don't hold your breath, although we do finally have "undo"), the best I can suggest would be a script to trawl through all user ID sub-directories in the data directory and delete all "Default.vue" files. This should do the trick. It wouldn't stop users creating views in-session but it would make private default views non-persistent. (Word of warning, do this while the server is down and make sure to skip the cube sub-directories that contain the public views. No responsibility for data loss, system corruption, etc., etc. if advice implemented incorrectly...)

The above applies to TM1 views in general as per all UIs. I have had a play in Contributor but not enough to know categorically if the ability to disable view creation isn't there already, maybe it is, if you find it please let the forum know!

Of course you could also consider training users on the hows and whys of creating private objects ....
tutak
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Dec 21, 2009 4:50 pm
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: 9.5
Excel Version: 2007

Re: Prevent contributor users from creating views

Post by tutak »

Thanks a lot lotsaram. It is always good to get an expert's view like yourself. I was quite a bit frustrated with the fact that when a contributor users changes the default view, they see the new layout and view next time they launch the app. Deleting the .vue files in the user's folder was a brilliant idea. But while I was researching little bit more, I realized that the contributor screen has already a reset function where users can reset the views and tabs to their original stage. The reset action also deletes the .vue files in their folder's like exactly you described.

So for the future readers of this topic, if you are afraid that your users will change the default view you give them and ask you a lot of questions about how to get back that original grid, there is a very easy solution in the contributor menu bar.

Thanks again
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