Patent ID: 7428748

Claim:
A method for presenting a report, for use in a business intelligence system having a report authoring application with a user interface capable of accepting user input during terminal sessions and having access to a data source, comprising the steps of: a) starting a terminal session by accepting from a user at a terminal a first credential defining an identity of the user; b) authenticating the first credential with an authentication system; c) storing the authenticated first credential, the first credential having an indication of access rights to the data source used by the business intelligence system; d) generating a passport and a first visa using the stored authenticated first credential; e) accepting a subsequent credential from the user in the same terminal session; and for the subsequent credential: i) authenticating the subsequent credential with the authentication system; ii) storing the authenticated subsequent credential, the subsequent credential having the indication of access rights to the data source used by the business intelligence system; and iii) creating within the passport a subsequent second visa with the indication of access rights to the data source; f) conferring to the terminal session the union of the access rights to the data source of the passport and the second visa; g) accepting from the user, report definitions to be generated by a query engine in collaboration with a report engine and the data source, the report definitions including access policies for the data to be used in producing a report; h) generating the report from the report definition; and i) presenting the report to the user, the report being at least partly based on the union of the access rights.