Defining Eval Views

The PT design team reviews the SQL Server Views object as a way to protect the Eval data from unauthorized access and still allow evaluators and auditors to use the data as described in the following list, without the cost of enhancing the PT application. Views provide a way to do that and more. The views the design team envision for auditors and evaluators can:

• Guarantee the security of the Eval database. The database administrator can assign different views to evaluators, auditors, and administrators and thus can control the data the user or group of users can see. The views can restrict users to certain columns and to certain rows in a table.
• Display aggregate information. Sometimes evaluators or auditors have no interest in the detailed information or they do not have permission to access it. A view can restrict access to specific data and instead provide statistical summary information or add columns of aggregate values to the view.
• Customize the data. Auditors and evaluators can have different views of the same information. They can include or exclude columns, specify a sort order, and add aggregate values; for example, average scores.
• Support users who have little SQL expertise. Evaluators, auditors, and administrators need not be expert SQL users because complex queries are defined in advance and stored as a view. Users need only issue a simple query on the view and that query invokes the more complex query defined by the view.
• Preserve data integrity. Views are not intended to modify data in the Eval database. Data modification through a view is limited. When the view is based on one table, data updates are unambiguous and data modification is allowed, but when the view is created from joins of multiple tables, updates can be ambiguous; to protect the integrity of the data updates are not allowed.