Creating mask data files accelerates access to masks especially in multi-level client-server architectures, because mask definitions are no longer directly read from the database (DB-server), but from a data file of the application (application-server). However, you should only create a mask data file after you have defined all masks required for your application.
You create a mask data file for all masks of the application by selecting all mask records in the Mask Data form and executing the function Create Dump.
For any changes you make to mask definitions after creating the data file, the following dependencies should be considered.
All changes to mask definitions (mask attributes, field assignments) which you make in the DataView system masks are stored in the database by DataView. However, the information required for creating masks on the user interface are read from the data file first. DataView will only read this information directly from the database if no data file exists. The function Reconfigure will not be successful after a change if a data file already exists. If this is the case, you will first have to overwrite the old definitions in the data file with the new ones from the database. This is done with the function Create Dump. After that you can copy the masks into main memory via Reconfigure and the changes will be visible on the user interface.