A web-based data access system is described that allows users to securely access,
manipulate and share information. The data access system includes a database that
stores multidimensional data and transactional data. A server presents a user interface
for setting access rights to members of the multidimensional data and access rights
to transactional data. The server presents a web-based interactive environment
for creating electronic reports from the multidimensional data. A page generation
module executing on the server generates web pages for the environment based on
the set access rights. The page generation module formats the web pages to permit
an author of the electronic report to include only the accessible dimensions and
members in the electronic report according to the set access rights.