Secure data access

• US 20020087686A1
• Filed: 03/30/2001
• Published: 07/04/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SNL Financial LC (S&P Global Inc.)
• Original Assignee: SwiftKnowledge, Inc. (S&P Global Inc.)
• Inventors: Cronk, David Wesley
• Granted Patent: US 7,039,871 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 Multiple levels of security
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/968 interface for database querying and retrieval

Abstract

A web-based data access system is described that allows users to securely access, manipulate and share information. The data access system includes a database that stores multidimensional data and transactional data. A server presents a user interface for setting access rights to members of the multidimensional data and access rights to transactional data. The server presents a web-based interactive environment for creating electronic reports from the multidimensional data. A page generation module executing on the server generates web pages for the environment based on the set access rights. The page generation module formats the web pages to permit an author of the electronic report to include only the accessible dimensions and members in the electronic report according to the set access rights.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

presenting a user interface for setting access rights to members of a data cube and access rights to transactional data from which the data cube was derived;

formatting a web page based on the set access rights; and

communicating the web page to a client device for display to a user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the user interface comprises:

displaying a dimensional hierarchy for the data cube, wherein the dimensional hierarchy includes the dimensions and members included in an electronic report; and

receiving input granting a user access to a subset of the displayed members and dimensions.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the user interface comprises:

displaying data fields from one or more database tables that store the transactional data; and

receiving input granting a user access to a subset of the displayed fields.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein formatting a web page based on the set access rights comprises formatting a web page by which the user can compose an electronic report that includes multidimensional data of the accessible members of the data cube.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising publishing the electronic report to include the accessible multidimensional data and a icon for viewing the accessible transactional data.

6. A method comprising:

storing a data cube having multidimensional data derived from transactional data;

controlling access to individual members and dimensions of the multidimensional data based on access rights set by a user; and

controlling access to the transactional data based on access rights set by the user.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein controlling access to the individual members further comprises:

presenting an interactive environment for creating electronic reports of the multidimensional data; and

permitting an author of the electronic report to include only the accessible dimensions and members in the electronic report according to the set access rights.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

publishing the electronic report from the interactive environment to include the accessible multidimensional data and a icon for viewing the accessible transactional data

receiving input selecting a range of the multidimensional data displayed by the electronic report;

determining whether the user has access to transactional data corresponding to the selected range of the multidimensional data; and

displaying the corresponding transactional data based on the determination.

9. A computer-readable medium having instructions thereon for causing a programmable processor to:

present a user interface for setting access rights to members of a data cube and access rights to transactional data from which the data cube was derived;

format a web page based on the set access rights; and

communicate the web page to a client device for display to a user.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 further including instructions to cause the processor to:

display a dimensional hierarchy for the data cube, wherein the dimensional hierarchy includes the dimensions and members included in an electronic report; and

receive input granting a user access to a subset of the displayed members and dimensions.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 further including instructions to cause the processor to:

displaying data fields from one or more database tables that store the transactional data; and

receiving input granting a user access to a subset of the displayed fields.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 further including instructions to cause the processor to:

present an interactive environment for creating electronic reports of the multidimensional data; and

permit an author of the electronic report to include only the accessible dimensions and members in the report according to the set access rights.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 further including instructions to cause the processor to:

publish the electronic report from the interactive environment to include the accessible multidimensional data and a icon for viewing the accessible transactional data

receive input selecting a range of the multidimensional data displayed by the electronic report;

determine whether the user has access to transactional data corresponding to the selected range of the multidimensional data; and

display the corresponding transactional data based on the determination.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the web page presents an interactive environment for creating electronic reports of the multidimensional data, and further wherein the page generation module formats the web page to permit an author of the electronic report to include only the accessible dimensions and members in the electronic report according to the set access rights.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the server determines whether the user has access to transactional data corresponding to a selected range of the multidimensional data and the page generation modules formats a web page to display the corresponding transactional data based on the determination.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 further comprising a fourth set of data fields to store a set of groups, wherein each group relates to at least one of the user identifiers stored within the first set of data fields.

14. A system comprising:

a database storing multidimensional data and transactional data;

a server to present a user interface for setting access rights to members of a multidimensional data and access rights to transactional data; and

a page generation module executing on the server to generate a web page based on the set access rights.

17. A computer-readable medium having data fields store thereon comprising:

a first set of data field to store one or more identifiers for users;

a second set of data fields to store cube-level access rights for the users, wherein the cube-level access rights are associated with dimensions and members of a data cube; and

a third set of data fields to store transactional data access rights for the users, wherein the transactional data access rights are associated with fields of tables that store transactional data from which the data cube was derived.