Planning your data filter criteria: automatic generation

For example, you might want to restrict access to customer data based on the countries, cities, and states where your customers live. If your customer database has a table that contains country, city, and state fields, you might choose to base a group of data filters on these fields. You would then use these values when you specify your data filters.

You should be aware of the following concepts when you plan how to create data filters using automatic generation.

• profile field - A field whose value is considered when the data filter generation utility looks for unique combinations of values. The utility creates a data filter for each unique combination of values. When the data filter is in effect in an Unica application, this value is used in a WHERE clause when customer records are queried. Because the clause tests for equality, profile fields must be defined against fields that support a finite set of distinct values.
• fixed field - An optional field that limits the records that the data filter generation utility looks at when querying for unique combinations of profile field values. The value you specify is also included in every generated data filter. When the data filter is in effect in an Unica application, this value is used in a WHERE clause when customer records are queried. Because the clause tests for equality, fixed fields must be defined against fields that support a finite set of distinct values.

In the example above, you would probably create a fixed field for a country, and profile fields for city and state. The data filter generation utility creates a data filter for each unique combination of values it finds in these fields.

A Unica user assigned to one or more data filters would be able to view and work with only the data belonging to the customers who live in the countries, cities, and states represented by the assigned data filter(s).

It is possible that your customer tables do not contain every value for which you want to create a data filter. For example, you might not have customers in every country and state, but might want to prepare data filters for every country and state for future use. In that case, you can reference a table that includes every country and state and use it in the GenerateDataFilters section of your XML specification. When you have finished using the utility to create your data filters, you can discard this 'dummy' table.