Masking block

Masking block elements are used to execute a series of maskings in order of registration.

They are often used to group similar or connected masking algorithms for easier maintenance, and are the root elements of custom masking activities.

Usage

Masking blocks are most often used in two ways. The first is to create a root element for other masking activities when the number of possible masking activities on the workflow is limited (e.g., when a masking activity allows only one sub-activity). The second use case is to group other masking activities for easier development and maintenance of packages (e.g., grouping masking activities that mask address elements to a single 'Address masking' element).

Example

Let's assume we want to mask only customers from the United States, and we want to mask several columns, among which are several pieces of contact information. Masking blocks can help us with this in several ways.

Since we want to mask only customers from a certain country, we have to use conditional masking, and condition branches only allow one sub-activity. If we place a masking block as this activity, we can define the masking itself within it. Furthermore, we are masking several pieces of contact information (e-mails and phone numbers). We can place a second masking block to encompass these maskings and rename the masking block to reflect it to better organize our package. This masking block can then be minimized to simplify the package without losing the information about what kind of masking algorithms it contains.

Figure 1: Masking block usage

Properties