Section Access; Blank Reduction Value

[#1]

Hello all,

I have been working on a problem for a while, and despite my efforts I am unable to get a solution working.  By using this site (thanks!) I've finally figured out what star (*) really is doing in section access but I digress.  Other posts on this site said that if you want all possible values for a reduction field, use blank - this, however, is not working for me.  When using blank and attempting to access the dashboard as a user who's reduction field is blank, I am prompted for a login.  I am accessing the document as ADMIN1, in this case.  It works fine on the desktop, but once I move it to the server it prompts me for a login.  When I use star in place of blank, QV does not prompt me for a login and displays the territories as listed in the section access (aka, does what star causes QV to do).  Because star is working fine through AccessPoint, and blank is not, I am lead to believe this isn't an issue with it identifying the domain account and more an issue with my section access table being incorrect.  In the end, I need certain users to see all values of the reduction field regardless of the other values listed in the section access table.

This is my section access block as I believe it should be to allow ADMIN1 and USER0 to see all possible values for territory:

Section Access;
LOAD * INLINE [
          ACCESS, NTNAME, TERRITORY
          ADMIN, MACHINE\QVSERVICE, * 
          ADMIN, DOMAIN\ADMIN1,
        USER, DOMAIN\USER0, 
          USER, DOMAIN\USER1, PLAINS
          USER, DOMAIN\USER2, NORTH GREAT LAKES
          USER, DOMAIN\USER3, SOUTH GREAT LAKES
          USER, DOMAIN\USER4, NEW YORK
          USER, DOMAIN\USER5, MID ATLANTIC
];

Here are a few things to note, and a few things I have already tried:

• I changed USER0 to ADMIN access, and not USER as suggested in another thread.  That did not solve the problem.
• I tried removing the comma at the end of the line, thinking that it was simply a syntax issue; no dice. 
• I tried creating fake users in section access and setting their reduction fields to all possible values for TERRITORY, so that I could use STAR and not BLANK.  Poor design/scalability choices aside, this didn't work.

I am on QV10.  Is the usage of BLANK in a reduction field a feature of QV11?

Thanks for any ideas/tips/etc!

[Anonymous]

I'd expect this to work.  Anyway, recommendation for troubleshooting:

1. Replace "initial data reduction" with "initial selection".  You can see what's in fact going on.

2. Another version of poor design, if nothing helps - repeat the same user with each territory

ADMIN, DOMAIN\ADMIN1,PLAINS

ADMIN, DOMAIN\ADMIN1,NEW YORK

...

[#3]

Hi Michael,

  Thanks for your reply and suggestions!  I changed the settings on the document to "initial selection" and it no longer prompts me for a password, and shows me all the data as it should. 

Ultimately, I found out the problem was the "Strict Exclusion" setting in the document settings.  But, I am a little confused about the function of this setting.  The help text says the following:

If this check box is marked in combination with Initial Data Reduction Based on Section Access, strict exclusion will be used when reducing the data. This means that access to the document will be denied whenever the field values in the section access reduction fields lack matches in their corresponding section application field. This, however, does not apply for users with Admin status, who instead will see the unreduced data set if there are no matches.

So, I am confused on two levels.  The first level of confusion being that there should have been a match for my user, as listed in the section access based on my NTUSER and the BLANK.  To me this would mean match my user with any value, unless 'strict' means it must have a descrete value - it is certainly behaving in that fashion.  The second level of confusion is that my user is an ADMIN and thus should fall into the second part of the bolded clause which states that strict exclusion does not apply to ADMIN users.

Regardless, I have tested the dashboard and it is working as expected with my user as well as other users listed in the section access. 

[Anonymous]

Yes, the things don't always work how help text describes...  For example, Section Access may work perfectly fine on QV desktop but "no access" when on QVS, if using strict exclusion.

To avoid this sort of surprises, I sometimes add a dummy record avaiable for all users, and do not use strict exclusion.  The "most restricted" users can open application, but nothing is shown except the dummy record.

Regards,

Michael

[#5]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the info, and I appreciate you taking the time to respond to my question.  I guess it will take me time to learn QV's querks.

Thanks again,

Ben