10. The method of claim 7 , further comprising: performing subsequent operations on the new OLAP cube.
7. A method for specifying a new Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) cube from an OLAP cube template, the method comprising: determining, by a computer system, the OLAP cube template; retrieving a corresponding template metadata file, the template metadata file including metadata defining the structure of the OLAP cube template; receiving rules for data access, storing the rules, and determining, based on the rules, whether a user has access to a dimension or a level in the dimension in the new OLAP cube, and the rules specify modifiable aspects of dimensions of the new OLAP cube, wherein the rules include a rule specifying that predetermined levels of the dimension must stay grouped in a view; creating a base metadata file from the template metadata file; generating viable options for modifying metadata in the base metadata file to define the new OLAP cube, wherein the viable options for modifying metadata in the base metadata file conforms with the rules; presenting the viable options to the user; receiving input from the user indicating a modification to the metadata in the base metadata file based on the presented viable options; and storing the modified base metadata file as a new metadata file defining the new OLAP cube.