SQL Server 2008 R2 – How to Give Access to a View Without Table Access

Please don't use the UI for this. It's a confusing mess.

It sounds to me like what you want is to create a user in a database, for a specific login, who only has permissions to select from one view. So, since you already have the login created:

USE your_db;
GO
CREATE USER username FROM LOGIN username;
GO
GRANT SELECT ON dbo.MyViewName TO username;
GO

EDIT here is an example of a script that will lead to the error you mention.

First, create some table in the unrelated_db:

CREATE DATABASE unrelated_db;
GO
USE unrelated_db;
GO
CREATE TABLE dbo.foo(bar INT);
GO

Now create a relatively restricted login:

USE [master];
GO
CREATE LOGIN username WITH PASSWORD='foo', CHECK_POLICY = OFF;
GO

Now create a database where the view will live, and add the login as a user:

CREATE DATABASE velojason;
GO
USE velojason;
GO
CREATE USER username FROM LOGIN username;
GO

Now create a function that will reference the table in the other database, and a synonym to the other table:

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.checkbar()
RETURNS INT
AS 
BEGIN
    RETURN 
    (
      SELECT TOP (1) bar 
        FROM unrelated_db.dbo.foo 
        ORDER BY bar
    );
END
GO
CREATE SYNONYM dbo.foo FOR unrelated_db.dbo.foo;
GO

Now create a local table:

CREATE TABLE dbo.PaymentDetails
(
  PaymentID INT
);
GO

Now create a view that references the table, the function and the synonym, and grant SELECT to username:

CREATE VIEW dbo.SomeView
AS
  SELECT 
    p.PaymentID, 
    x = dbo.checkbar(), -- function that pulls from other DB
    y = (SELECT bar FROM dbo.foo) -- synonym to other DB
    FROM dbo.PaymentDetails AS p;
GO
GRANT SELECT ON dbo.SomeView TO username;
GO

Now try to execute as username and select only the local column from the view:

EXECUTE AS USER = 'username';
GO
  -- even though I don't reference any of the columns 
  -- in the other DB, I am denied SELECT on the view:
SELECT PaymentID FROM dbo.SomeView;
GO
REVERT;
GO

Result:

Msg 916, Level 14, State 1, Line 3
The server principal "username" is not able to access the database "unrelated_db" under the current security context.

Now change the view to not reference any external objects, and run the above SELECT again, and it works:

ALTER VIEW dbo.SomeView
AS
  SELECT 
    p.PaymentID 
    --x = dbo.checkbar(),
    --y = (SELECT bar FROM dbo.foo)
    FROM dbo.PaymentDetails AS p;
GO

Short of showing us the scripts for the Payment Details, Account Details and MyView objects, maybe you can let us know if this query returns any results. You can find references to various objects through the catalog view sys.sql_expression_dependencies, but this view is not perfect - I believe it depends on all the views being refreshed (in the case where views reference other views, for example, or underlying schema has changed) in order to be accurate.

DECLARE 
  @dbname   SYSNAME = N'unrelated_db',
  @viewname SYSNAME = N'dbo.SomeView';

SELECT DISTINCT 
    [This object] = 
    OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME([referencing_id]) 
      + '.' + OBJECT_NAME([referencing_id]), 
    [references this object] = 
    OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME([referenced_id]) 
      + '.' + OBJECT_NAME([referenced_id]), 
    [and touches this database] = referenced_database_name,
    [and is a(n)] = o.type_desc,
    [if synonym, it references] = s.base_object_name
FROM sys.sql_expression_dependencies AS d
LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.objects AS o
ON o.[object_id] = d.referenced_id
LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.synonyms AS s
ON d.referenced_id = s.[object_id]
AND s.base_object_name LIKE '%[' + @dbname + ']%'
WHERE OBJECT_ID(@viewname) IN (
        referenced_id, 
        referencing_id, 
        (SELECT referencing_id FROM sys.sql_expression_dependencies 
        WHERE referenced_database_name = @dbname)
) OR referenced_database_name = @dbname;

SQL Server isn't just going to try to access unrelated_db for the fun of it... there must be some tie to that database from the view you're trying to use. Unfortunately if we can't see the view definition and more details about the objects it touches, all we can do is speculate. The two main things I can think of are synonyms or functions that use three-part names, but seeing the actual scripts will give us a much better idea instead of guessing. :-)

You may also want to check sys.dm_sql_referenced_entities, however this function returns nothing useful in the example above.

Not sure where you've stumbled along the way, but this works for me:

CREATE LOGIN permtest WITH PASSWORD = 'x', CHECK_POLICY = OFF;
GO
USE somedatabase;
GO
CREATE USER permtest FROM LOGIN permtest;
GO

According to this page, the user needs SELECT permission on sys.sql_expression_dependencies, and VIEW DEFINITION on the database.

In my experimentation, the following allowed the user to select from the view, but it returned 0 rows, because they don't have the ability to view definition (which includes dependency chains):

GRANT SELECT ON sys.sql_expression_dependencies TO permtest;

In order to actually see any relationships in somedatabase, I also had to add the following:

GRANT VIEW DEFINITION ON DATABASE::floob TO permtest;

I could not find any way to make that more granular (VIEW/DENY definition worked for individual objects, but without the database-level right, I still couldn't see any rows in the catalog view, and DENY did not prevent the objects from showing up in the catalog view nor did it even prevent me from viewing the definition). I feel like SQL Server would have a hard time resolving that granularity anyway - if you had a view that referenced a table, how should the catalog view look if you have grant on the view and deny on the table, or vice versa?

If you don't want to grant VIEW DEFINITION on the database, then create procedures that use EXECUTE AS OWNER, select (filtered?) rows from the catalog view, and give the users (and of course, that could also be a role) execute permissions on the procedure.

CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.GetDependencies
WITH EXECUTE AS OWNER
AS
BEGIN
  SELECT is_schema_bound_reference --, ...
    FROM sys.sql_expression_dependencies;
END
GO

GRANT EXECUTE ON dbo.GetDependencies TO permtest;