The Cascade Rule Dialog Box exists to construct new Cascade rules. Cascade rules are designed to synchronize any data changes made to a table with columns in other tables. Implementing a Cascade rule also requires the knowledge of a join condition between the two tables. The Data Masker software uses this join condition to ensure the appropriate rows are updated correctly.

Cascade rules are added as dependent rules on Substitution Rules. As the Substitution rule executes and replaces the information in the column it is updating, simultaneous updates will be performed by the Cascade rule on the linked columns. There can be any number of Cascade rules on any column in any table in a schema. Detailed information on Cascade rules (what they are, how and when they can be used) can be found in the About Cascade Rules help file.

The Data Masker New Cascade Rule Dialog Box

The New Cascade Rule Dialog Box appears when the Add Cascade Rule... button is pressed on the Set Rules Tab. This is the first of two dialog boxes required to correctly configure a Cascade rule. The Cascade rule will be applied to the Substitution rule currently selected when the Add Cascade Rule... button was pressed.

To begin the process of adding a Cascade rule, select the name of the table you wish to synchronize in the left hand panel. Immediately after selecting the table name the right hand panel will update to contain the columns in that table. In the right hand panel select the column you wish to synchronize. When the Parent Substitution rule updates it's target column, the changes will cascade down to the selected table and column.

At this point there is no way for the Data Masker software to know which rows in the selected child table should be updated. In other words it has no way of knowing which rows in the Parent table match up which rows in the Child table - a join condition has not been set. Press the Next button to start the Cascade Rule Join Condition Dialog box.

The Via DB Link Field If the schema and table to be updated via the Cascade rule are located on a different database than the source schema and table then the cascade operation will proceed via a database link. The database link must be located in the source schema and be pointed at the target schema. The DB link can be named here before it is created however, it must exist before the masking set runs. A DB link is not required (and will be ignored) if both the source and target schema are located in the same database. The database link name can be edited at any time using the Cascade Rule Join Condition dialog box.

Note: Beside the Column Name field is an icon containing a large letter I. A green icon indicates that the column present is used in an index, a red icon indicates that the column is not used in an index.