Create Metric Set based on Cube in Another Project

#1

Has anyone wrestled with the following issue?

In our organization, we have Dundas project organized by the business unit, i.e. Finance has theirs, Sales has theirs, etc. User groups (and security) are also organized by the business unit. We publish dashboards, metric sets, cubes, etc to the various projects. So far so good.

Now we have power users who are allowed to create metric sets, but not cubes. The catch is that we want power users to be creating metric sets in their personal projects, and not proliferating half-developed metric sets in the production areas.

What’s the best way to make this happen? Currently, when you attempt to build metric sets off existing cubes, it looks like the U/I is forcing choice from the current project only. Dropping the cube in GLOBAL is not attractive either, as many business units a measure of control over how their internal data is distributed.

#3

Hi Joel,

One way to approach this might be to create a custom page that you can use as an entry point for your power users to create content. Let me try to explain my thoughts…

  1. Disable the ability for these power users to create content in any of your business unit projects. This creates an immediate usability problem because your users is going to struggle to know where they are allowed to build content.

  2. Create a dashboard which gives them the ability to build content. Something like this:

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  1. Users can navigate to the dashboard and choose what type of content they want to build (dashboard or metric set) from which cube.

  2. When the user chooses a Data Cube in this way
    a. programmatically change the project to the their user project
    b. programmatically create a new metric set/dashboard for them
    c. navigate the user to the appropriate design screen

Hope this makes sense and I can provide a code sample if you like the idea. Let me know your thoughts and i can provide specifics if needed.

#4

Jeff has done something similar for us and I can say that it works a treat!

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#5

I see where you’re going with this, but I was hoping for a more intrinsic/organizational solution. We currently have 13 projects for various business groups, most having 6-12 cubes in them. What you’ve proposed appears to take something of a development project to implement. Once you consider that we can expect a continued influx of new cubes over time, maintaining this applet would add a layer of complexity to the release process.

#6

Perhaps an alternative?

Keep your data in the Global Project using different folders to organize each department. At the same time, keep your department dashboards/reports in their respective projects like your are already doing. By using the Global project, your users will see the data elements in their personal project and can easily make material. You can organize by folder and still use security on these data elements to keep things secure.

like this:
image

With the method i suggested:

  • users are still secured to the correct access
  • users can only built in their personal folders
  • all data content will appear under a ‘shared’ folder for your users
  • you keep your organization

The only downside might be a bit of re-org in the short term.

#7

We tried something similar to that but seemed to be running into a dead end.

The approach was to make folders under Global and put a cube there. However, while Global was visible, the folders underneath it were not.

Could you be more specific on how to implement this?

#8

Global at the project level is set for Everyone to see and what not ( I have mine a little restricted)

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When you create a folder n the global project it Inherits the Privileges of the parent.
Make a folder there then right click and do properties then Security.
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With the Inherit Privileges box checked it takes from parent and shows you what they are.
If you unchecked that box you can then set it to something different.
In your case you want everyone one to see only their folder so take off everyone List Folder Contents and then give that to the groups you want to see it.

Did this help?

#9

I’ll check that out.

Thanks!

#10

Hmm… Still running into a brick wall on this, though the approach is promising. We’ve been trying various security configurations, both through Active Directory and directly to the user. Still no help.

Any idea what it should look like to make this all work?

#11

Yes I do but at this point I think it would be best for you to ask support for a quick webX session to get you going.

Beside that I would say, make some Test-User Dundas Accounts that you can log in with. Put them in groups then give those Groups the Proper Permissions you want for each folder in Global.
Then log in with those test users and see if it is working right.
These Dundas Groups would be where you put your AD groups and users after you get them permissioned correctly and tested.

dont worry I pulled a few hairs out myself setting up security.

#12

Fair enough, and thanks for your help.