Cell Security Cube

[Beast]

I have a cube with a number of dimensions, the most relevant to my issue are Buyer and Products. When selecting a particular Buyer I need the user to be presented with an appropriate selection of just the Products for that particular Buyer.

I have successfully used Elements Security Assignments to achieve what I need to but it is rather a manual exercise and with so many products in the dimension I thought using attributues and rules in the Cell Security Cube might achieve what I need to.

If I write a rule to assign 'Write' and 'None' access based on the Buyer attribute for each product it correctly sets up the appropriate security but, unlike using Elements Security Assignments, using the Cell Security Cube does not seem to 'hide' the inappropriate products for each buyer rather it applies a 'null' value but the inappropriate products still appear.

What am I missing or will have to reconsider using the Elements Security Assignments to achieve what I need ?

Any help as always appreciated.

Beast

[winsonlee]

have you consider having Buyer and Products on the same dimension ? So within products dimension, you can have a hierarchy with Buyer being the consolidation element and having the relevant products under the Buyer consolidation.

[lotsaram]

If I write a rule to assign 'Write' and 'None' access based on the Buyer attribute for each product it correctly sets up the appropriate security but, unlike using Elements Security Assignments, using the Cell Security Cube does not seem to 'hide' the inappropriate products for each buyer rather it applies a 'null' value but the inappropriate products still appear.

What am I missing or will have to reconsider using the Elements Security Assignments to achieve what I need ?

That's the way cell security works. If your user has access to multiple buyers and products then that is what they will be able to see. If you need to design a form to populate a only relevant products for a buyer selected elsewhere on the form then it is possible using an active form or subsets and/or picklists (or picklists using subsets) probably without too much difficulty ...

[Beast]

That's the way cell security works. If your user has access to multiple buyers and products then that is what they will be able to see. If you need to design a form to populate a only relevant products for a buyer selected elsewhere on the form then it is possible using an active form or subsets and/or picklists (or picklists using subsets) probably without too much difficulty ...

Thanks for the responses.

I'm still hoping that I'm missing something as it works exactly how I need it to when using dimension security. In that for each buyer it allows them to write against those products they have responsibility for and does not even show those that it doesnt. However when using cell security even though it does allow the user to write against the correct products, the other products are still displayed but with 'None' access.

Each user only has access to one buyer and so only one set of products. I am thinking it is something in the way I have written the rule but if thats as you say 'how cell security works' then that wont work for the client.

The added complication is that we are not using Active Forms but mainly TM1 Contributor to collect data fromthe buyers. If as you say is the way it works I'll have to consider again the previous suggestion of combining the two dimensions or your idea of subsets and/or picklists.

Thanks for all your comments, much appreciated.

Beast

[lotsaram]

If each user has only access to a single buyer then you don't have a problem. Simply apply element security to BOTH the buyer dimension AND the product dimension.

In terms of terminology also don't confuse element security with dimension security. Element security is what you are referrign to. Element security can hide elements alltogheter from the user, cube cell security can only hide data, that's what I meant by "that's how cell security works."

[Beast]

If each user has only access to a single buyer then you don't have a problem. Simply apply element security to BOTH the buyer dimension AND the product dimension.

Again thanks for response,indeed by applying element security to both the buyer dimension AND the product dimension as you suggest i get exactly what I need. BUT........there are many hundreds of products and my client does not want to have to manually administer the relationship between the Buyer and Products. Hence why I thought I could set a rule up in the appropriate Cell Security Cube to assign Write and None access based on the Buyer attribute for the Product.

Element security can hide elements alltogheter from the user, cube cell security can only hide data, that's what I meant by "that's how cell security works."

I had come to the same conclusion through my investigations. I am now thinking I can create a rule against the ElementSecurity_Products control object but it seems to do the same as the Cell Security Cube. Do you think I am suffering from the same issue ?

Any suggestions as to how i might alternatively be able to automate the administrationof the access ?

Ttanks.

[Tati]

Hi,

maybe this one can help. What we did in similar situation was following:
- create lookup cube with dimensions Buyers, Products, Assignment. Assignment is the dimension where you basically calculated you access rights.
- In this cube apply your rules, to calculate access as read/write/none based on Buyers Attribute.
- Use this cube for reference in }ElementSecurity_Products
Although this one assumes, that your Name of Element in Buyer-Dimension =Element in }Groups or you somehow can identify your Buyer from the Element in }Groups.

[lotsaram]

As long as you have a consistent naming convention between your security groups and your buyers and you can identify which buyer each product belongs to then you shouldn't have a problem using rules. Just remember that if you are using rules to define element security it isn't enough to just save the rule, you have to do a security refresh as well.

[Beast]

Ive written rules in the ElementSecurity_Products control object based upon the User Groups Ive created and it works an absolute treat. Thanks for all your help and suggestions on the matter. Critically I had also forgotten to Refresh Security when using Element Security. Thanks.

Beast