There may be times when we want some customers to see data from a domain that is not under them in the hierarchy. There are two ways to expand visibility to data: the Contains table, and Visibility tables.

The domain_contains table allows users of a domain (called the “containing” domain) to see data from another domain (or the “contained” domain). The records in this table define the “contains” relationship, and this applies to data only, not processes.

The hierarchy rules still apply, so domains that have a contains relationship to another domain can see that data in addition to whatever they would see as a result of their hierarchy relationships. The session domain is also still honored: for example, an employee of the ACME domain will always be logged into ACME, even though their domain may “contain” another domain.

For example, you might want Customer 1 to be able to view data for Customer 2. In this case, the Customer 1 domain would contain the Customer 2 domain. You can also specify a circular containership, where two domains can see each other’s data.