Inherited permissions for a Report

[JillAc]

Hi I've read the Help screens but it's not helping. I don't understand what it means to add or remove Inherited Permissions from a Report . If someone can explain this to me I will be eternally grateful. Thanks! Jill Jill Ackerman

[SkyeHa]

I am not sure which help screens you are looking at. So... just very briefly, reports can inherit viewing permissions if they are placed on a dashboard that is shared with the users. If I create report A, and put it on dashboard B, I only need to share dashboard B to user C, and user C will be able to see report A without my needing to share report A with user C. If I put that dashboard into a layout template D, and share that with user E, I believe you'll also see user E's name on the report's inherited permissions (and on the dashboard inherited permissions). If you go back into the report and remove the inherited permissions, users E and C will stop being able to see the report on their dashboard. -skye

[JillAc]

Thanks for this Skye. Just to clarify – you are saying that the user inherits permissions to view the report based on a Dashboard being higher up the food chain than the report, so if they have permission to view it on a Dashboard then they have permission to view the report even if the report wasn't shared with them? And if I remove inherited permissions on the report, and they view that dashboard, the report will be blank. And, the only way to view a report is either alone from the Reports tab, or on a Dashboard that they can access somehow or other? I think what this means is I need to check my permissions on Dashboards more carefully, something I haven't been doing. Thanks!

[SkyeHa]

Pretty much. The only thing I would correct is the phrase "if I remove inherited permissions on the report and they view that dashboard, the REPORT will be blank". It won't be blank: it actually will not be there--no report line, no report box, nothing to show the report was ever there. The only way to view a report is either 1) one-by-one from the reports tab--if they were given permission to view the report or accidentally given permission to view that report via the dashboard or 2) from the dashboard they were given permission to view--if the report in question did not have inherited permissions revoked. -skye

[JillAc]

Ok I like that the report disappears. I will have to play around with this now that I understand what's happening. Thanks!

[SkyeHa]

yup no worries. By the way, something I'm a little weak in understanding is what happens when a report is on multiple dashboards and each dashboard is shared differently. In those cases, I believe the most permissive access is the "winner"? But not really sure how the rest of it displays. So if I put report A into dashboard B and dashboard C, and then I shared dashboard C system wide, and dashboard B with 2 people, what I think I would see in the sharing for that report is just that i shared the report system wide. But I'm not sure if it would also say I shared the report with two people in dashboard B. Anyway, I would just be careful. There's a way to show which dashboards each report is on, so I would definitely make sure you know all the dashboards you're potentially affecting, the first few times you go to change your sharing permissions. Same if you have custom dashboards on a layout template. Get familiar with your layout template names and look for the "layout template" icon (a black and white tetris/tile looking thing in your dashboard sharing area) and it will help you figure out what's going on in report sharing. -skye