Method and apparatus for providing selective access to information

Abstract

A reporting system provides users selective access to information, such as standard reports, custom reports, and ad hoc reports. Reports are represented as report objects that store characteristics that must be fulfilled prior to a user being granted access to a report. Upon a user request for a specific report, the characteristics of the user are compared with the characteristics stored in the corresponding report object. If the user characteristics match the report object, then the user is granted access to the corresponding report. If the user characteristics do not match the report object, then the user is denied access to the corresponding report.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of providing selective access to information, the method comprising the steps of:
 performing a first validation to determine a first set of information to which the user is granted access, the first set comprising at least one element;   receiving an identification of a selected element of the first set of information that the user has selected;   performing a second validation to determine whether or not the user is granted access to the selected element;   upon determining that the user is granted access to the selected element, transmitting the selected element to the user; and   upon determining that the user is not granted access to the selected element, denying access to the selected element by the user.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein each element of the first set of information corresponds to a report. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein each element of the first set of information corresponds to at least one attribute. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of performing a first validation includes determining transactions in which the user is involved. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of performing a first validation includes determining transactions in which the user is involved and determining a role of the user in each of the transactions. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of performing a first validation includes determining whether the user fulfills a period restriction associated with each element of the first set. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of performing a second validation includes determining transactions in which the user is involved. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of performing a second validation includes determining transactions in which the user is involved and determining a role of the user in each of the transactions. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of performing a second validation includes determining whether the user fulfills a period restriction associated with the selected element. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of performing a second validation includes determining whether the user fulfills an attribute security restriction associated with the selected element. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of performing a second validation includes determining whether the user fulfills an attribute period restriction associated with the selected element. 
     
     
         12 . A computer program product for providing selective access to information, the computer program product having a medium with a computer program embodied thereon, the computer program comprising:
 computer program code for determining a list of reports, the list having at least one line item and each line item corresponding to one of a plurality of reports, the user being granted access to each report corresponding to each line item;   computer program code for transmitting to the user the list of reports;   computer program code for receiving a selected report indicating which line item of the list the user has selected to view;   computer program code for determining whether the user is granted access to the selected report;   upon determining that the user is granted access to the selected report, computer program code for transmitting the selected report to the user; and   upon determining that the user is not granted access to the selected report, computer program code for denying access to the selected report by the user.   
     
     
         13 . The computer program product of  claim 12 , further comprising computer program code for creating the plurality of reports, wherein a report is created for each role for each transaction. 
     
     
         14 . The computer program product of  claim 12 , wherein each report has a report object defining at least one user characteristic that the user must possess prior to accessing the corresponding report and wherein the computer program code for determining whether the user is granted access is performed by comparing the report object associated with the selected report with characteristics possessed by the user. 
     
     
         15 . The computer program product of  claim 12 , wherein the computer program code for determining a list of reports includes computer program code for determining which transactions the user was involved. 
     
     
         16 . The computer program product of  claim 12 , wherein the computer program code for determining a list of reports includes computer program code for determining which transactions the user was involved and a role of the user in each transaction in which the user was involved and wherein the user is granted access to a report based at least in part on the role of the user in each transaction. 
     
     
         17 . The computer program product of  claim 12 , wherein the computer program code for determining a list of reports includes computer program code for determining whether the user fulfills a period restriction associated with each line item of the list. 
     
     
         18 . The computer program product of  claim 12 , wherein the computer program code for determining whether the user is granted access includes computer program code for determining whether the user was involved in a transaction corresponding to the selected report. 
     
     
         19 . The computer program product of  claim 12 , wherein the computer program code for determining whether the user is granted access includes computer program code for determining whether the user was involved in a transaction corresponding to the selected report and whether a role of the user corresponds to a role associated to the selected report. 
     
     
         20 . A computer program product for providing selective access to information, the computer program product having a medium with a computer program embodied thereon, the computer program comprising:
 computer program code for transmitting to the user a list having one or more line items, each line item corresponding to an attribute to which the user is granted access;   computer program code for receiving at least one selection indicating which line items the user would like to view;   computer program code for verifying the user is granted access to the information associated with each selection; and   computer program code for transmitting the information corresponding to each selection to the user.