Dynamic Filter on Hierarchical Column

Question

I have a parent-child hierarchy in my 11g Subject Area. I know it is possible to filter the hierarchical column using the Selection Steps and the “Select Members based on Hierarchy” option. But is it possible to dynamically filter the column using a Session Variable?
My hierarchy is set up using the company’s department structure. The business need is for a line manager to have access only to data for their own departments, and any departments below in the hierarchy where applicable. A session variable in the repository knows who has logged onto OBI, and returns the relevant departments. Is it possible to use this variable to only display the relevant portion of the hierarchy?
Thanks.

Answer 1

Yes this is possible through external table authorization. Lets say you have hierrarchy table with different nodes in data warehouse. Lets consider w_hierarchy_d table for instance which has different columns like hier1_code, hier2_code etc. Create an external table with three different columns, username, hierarchynode, hierarchyvalue. Hierarchynode, gives the information on what level of hierarchy the user should be restricted, and the hierarchyvalue gives the actual value of the node user belongs to. Lets take a simple geography hierarchy as example;
username hierarchynode hierarchyvalue
user1 hier1_code Asia - Region
user2 hier3_code florida - Office
Using init block populate this data into session variables and create a filter on group/role like below:
case when valueofnqsessionhiernode='hier1_code' then officetable.region
when valueofnqsessionhiernode='hier3_code' then officetable.office
end = valueofnqsessionhiervalue.
I am positive the above model works as we implemented this before.
Please Award points if helpful.
Thanks,
-Amith.