Mask management

Objects are displayed and changed through masks. Each objecttype can have multiple masks defined.

Available masks

The mask right determines which masks are available to the user for a certain object. The mask right has as parameter a list of masks and can be granted through pools and objecttypes. See rights management.

The list of available masks for an object depends on its objecttype and - if the objecttype has a pool link - also from its pool. It is composed of all the masks of that objecttype that are linked by mask rights granted through the objecttype’s and pool’s ACLs.

The special mask “_all_fields” can only be used by root.

/api/db_info can be used to get the list of available masks for an objecttype [and pool].

Mask preference

For each objecttype, the maskset defines a preferred mask. This is the mask used for rendering linked objects. The system generates a mask preference order based on the maskset, where the preferred mask is the first one and the remaining masks follow in maskset order.

The user can specify a preference order at objecttype and/or pool level using the _standard_masks attributes (see objecttype and pool). This will be used when rendering the masks in /api/db_info and can be used in the frontend to sort the masks. The order is defined by the first source that has a non-null attribute _standard_masks:

1. object’s pool (if the objecttype has a pool link)
2. pool’s ancestors up to the root pool (if the objecttype has a pool link)
3. objecttype

If none of these sources specify a mask order, the auto-generated one is used.

If the user is root, the special mask “_all_fields” will appear at the end of the list.