Patent ID: 7774355

Claim:
A method for managing access to data in a database organized according to a particular schema, comprising: receiving a database query that includes a reference to a focus entity specifying a user-selected focus for the database query independent from any database objects referenced in the database query, wherein the focus entity is selected from a plurality of predefined focus entities, wherein each focus entity is defined by a plurality of data relationships between data in the database and references at least one authorization filter, wherein each authorization filter directly specifies one or more database query conditions to add to the to the database query, and wherein the one or more database query conditions are composed according to a query language used by the database; selecting to apply at least the authorization filter referenced by the focus entity included in the database query to the database query, the selected authorization filter being selected from a plurality of authorization filters each corresponding to a different focus entity; retrieving the selected authorization filter to identify the one or more database query conditions to be added to the database query; and modifying the database query to include the one or more database query conditions; and executing the modified database query to retrieve a set of query results, as constrained by the one or more conditions added to the database query.