OK - thanks everybody for all the help.
I didnt expect much of a response so my initial post was a bit light
on the ground so Ill try to add a few more details...
Access Manager.
Within access manager I have 600 users and about 140 user classes /
sub user classes. Any given user can be in one or many of these
classes. The users are placed into individual classes manually by
setting the membership tabs under each user.
Transformer.
Within my transformer model I have a dimention Region. Region has four
levels - with the bottom level containing a very large number of
categories. For each of the user classes I have defined within Access
manager, I am required to set the security by exculding regions that
particular group is not allowed to see. It is possible that any given
group can view one or more regions / countries and is also the case
that views are set on different levels - Ie, some may be able to view
the whole of Asia (Set on a Region Level) whilst others only Korea
(Set at a lower level - country)
So finally my question!!!!
I periodically recieve an excel sheet with data in the format
UserClass, Region, Area, SubArea, Destination
Class1, Europe, UK
Class2, Europe, UK, London
Class3, Asia, Korea, Soeul
I must then manually enter this into Transformer - Ie class 1 can see
the UK only (including all levels below). Class2 can only see the
London Area and Below and Class3 can only see Soeul.
This process takes a long time to keep changing and checking and is
consiquently my reason for automating it.
I hope this makes things a bit more specific,
Thanks once again,
Andrew.
> Was that last message a sales pitch? Sounded like one.
> I'm not sure how it would be any easier with reportease than transformer?
> In both products you would be required to define the visible, omitted,
> rollups, etc for the categories of each profile, so I think I may be missing
> something. The whole point of user class views in transformer is to perform
> functions just like that.
> I think what Mitch may have been getting at was the ability to define
> categories for each individual user and not a group. This can still be
> accomplished with transformer you are simply required to create a user class
> for each user (with batch maitenance and ms excel all the data can be
> replicated in seconds and imported into access manager).
> If anyone can clear up how it would be easier in reportease that would be
> appreciated.
> Andrew, I'll take a look for you tomorrow at work to see if I can find you a
> sample mdl script or macro.
> Cheers all
> > If you use Access Manager Security, you can assign User Classes to
> > specific levels in a dimension for the cube. This would automatically
> > filter the data when that user accesses the cube. However it sounds
> > more like you want to do user profiling based on categories. Cognos
> > will not directly do this easily. I've done category specifc
> > filtering for cubes based on user or group profiles with a tool called
> > ReportEase http://www.dstrat.com/ReportEase/reportease.html. For
> > example you could set it up so that when viewing a powerplay report,
> > user asmith would only see Ontario, and user bsmith could only see
> > Manitoba for the dimension Location.
> > Hope this helps...
> > > Thanks for the feedback.
> > > It is indeed the case that I will need to retain more than one
> > > category.
> > > I also have unique codes for each category within my cube.
> > > I understand the theory behind this suggestion but am unsure as to how
> > > to go about implementing it. Ive been using cognos for a short time
> > > but have no macro or vb experience.
> > > Do you know of any examples on the web which I may be able to use as
> > > reference?
> > > Thanks and Regards,
> > > Andrew.
> > > > That would work but if you want to retain more than one category then
> you
> > > > are toast. So, this is for just such a situation.
> > > > Another option would be to use a unique column in the datasource to
> define
> > > > the category codes for that level in the dimension. Once that has
> been done
> > > > you can either write a macro using VB or use mdl scripting to exclude,
> > > > include, etc the categories which you want. By defining unique
> category
> > > > codes that are known by the cognos administrator then you are able to
> easily
> > > > manipulate the categories, if you do not do this then transformer will
> > > > generate random category codes and they are harder to find. Another
> reason
> > > > for doing this would be to keep the category codes constant, if you do
> not
> > > > define the codes then they are likely to be different the next time
> you
> > > > generate categories into your model. Hope this helps and cheers.
> > > > > Hello,
> > > > > Does anybody know of a way of automating the process of assosiating
> > > > > user classes to certain categories within a cube?
> > > > > For example,
> > > > > If I have dimentions named global/ region / subregion / country and
> I
> > > > > wish to assign User Class A so that they can only see a particular
> > > > > countries details.
> > > > > Doing this manually this would mean excluding all dimentions of this
> > > > > view by using a custom view and selecting exclude.
> > > > > I have hundereds of these exclusions to perform and have all the
> data
> > > > > within an excel sheet.
> > > > > Is it possible to create a script which may perform this for me?
> > > > > Thanks in Advance!
by