User Filters OR Row Level Security

When we share workbooks with others using Tableau Server, by default they can access all the data shown in the views.

Alternatively, we can create filters to limit the data that any given person can see. For example, in a sales report that gets shared with regional managers, we may want to allow only the western regional manager to see the western sales, the eastern regional manager to see the eastern sales, and so on.

Rather than create a separate view for each manager, we can define a user filter or row-level security that allows each manager to see only the data for a particular region.

There are two approaches to row level security with Tableau:

Manually: we can manually create user filters that define the specific data each user can access. This method is convenient, but not automated.

Automatically: we can create a calculated field that automatically defines whether a user can access the data. This second method requires that you already have row-level security information in your underlying data source.

Create user filters manually:

Follow the steps below to create user filters manually in Tableau Desktop. 

Step 1

Log in to Tableau Server as an administrator and create three new user accounts on Tableau Server. In this example, the following new users are added.

User Name Password Full Name License LevelPriyanka Priyanka Priyanka Chauhan InteractorUser1 User1 User1 Interactor

Step 2

In Tableau Desktop, connect to data source and create a report:

Build one or more views for which we want to use row-level security. For this example, in the Measures pane, double-click the CountryNames field.

Step 4

Select Server > Create User Filter > Region.

Step 5

In the Tableau Server Login dialog box, log in to Tableau Server.

Step 6

In the User Filter dialog box, do the following tasks:

1. In the Name text box, type User Filter Name.2. In the User/Group list, click Priyanka, and then in the Members list, select the Australia

and Canada Region check box.3. Repeat this step for User1 in the NorthEast, NorthWest, SouthEast and SouthWest

Region.

Step 7

When finished, click OK. User filters appear at the bottom of the Data window in the Sets pane.

Step 8

We can display the name of the current user and region in the title to help the viewer understand that the view has been filtered. Select Worksheet > Show Title to display the name of the current user and region in the title to help the person accessing the view understand that the view has been filtered.

Step 9

To set up the title, double-click the Title shelf.

Step 10

In the Edit Title dialog box, do the following tasks:

1. Select and delete the default tag title.2. Click the Insert drop-down arrow and select Full Name.3. Click the Insert drop-down arrow and select Region.

Step 11

When finished, click OK. When publish the view to Tableau Server, each user sees only their own data.

Step 12Login as User “Priyanka/Priyanka”

Step 13[User:Priyanka can only see the data for “AUSTRALIA” and “CANADA” region as we have selected only these two regions for this user while creating filters]

Step 14 (Login as User1/User1)

Step 15[User:User1 can only see the data for “Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest” region as we have selected only these regions for this user while creating filters]