Mastering Data Visualization with Microsoft Visio Professional 2016: Master the art of presenting information visually using Microsoft Visio Professional 2016 and Visio Pro for Office365

The intelligence in Visio comes from its unique modifiable ShapeSheet, which is reputedly modeled on an Excel worksheet. Every single shape in Visio has one, as does each page and even the document itself. So, it is important to understand it. It can be opened from the Developer ribbon by the Shape Design | Show ShapeSheet button. The following screenshot shows an example of a current ShapeSheet, and it also shows the Shape Name dialog:

Note the Data 1, 2, and 3 boxes on the Shape Name dialog can actually hold 64,000 characters, but only use it with caution because there are some old add-ons out there that use them. Initially, they were the only way to persist data in the shape. The ShapeSheet on the right of the screenshot shows how it is broken down into sections, rows, and cells. We will learn more about this in the next chapter. In the first version of Visio, there was no User-defined Cells or Shape Data section because it was introduced in version 4. The pre-cursor to User-Defined Cells was the Scratch section. Both of these sections are optional because they can be created, and have new rows inserted, as required. This is in contrast to the fixed, mandatory sections such as Shape Transform because every shape needs to have a location and rotation in the page that it is on.

In the center of the screenshot is the Drawing Explorer window, which displays the document, pages, shapes, and so on. We will learn more about that too in the next chapter.

OLE2 and the published object model allowed Visio to be controlled by programming languages such as Visual Basic 3. In fact, Visio was the first non-Microsoft product to have OLE2 compliance.

Custom Properties, later renamed as Shape Data in 2007, not only provides a method of storing typed data for each shape, but also provides a dialog to view and edit them. The following screenshot shows that there is now a Shape Data popup dialog and a Shape Data window that was added years later:

There will be much more about Shape Data in Chapter 2, Understanding How Data Is Stored within Visio.

Properties Reports, now called Shape Reports, provide a method to create simple tabular reports from data in Visio shapes. The following screenshot shows the Reports dialog, and there will be more about this feature in Chapter 8, Validating and Extracting Information:

The OLE link to databases provides a method to read and write data to/from not only Custom Properties/Shape Data, but also from the newly provided User-defined Cells, and in fact, almost all the ShapeSheet cells and even the position of the shape in the page. The following screenshot shows the Link to Database dialog that can be opened from the View | Macros | Add-Ons | Visio Extras ribbon menu:

User-Defined Cells were an important addition in the ShapeSheet. They have just two columns: Value and Prompt. This means that formulae can be entered in the Value column with a description of what they are there for in the Prompt column. Before that, developers would use the Scratch section for formulae and descriptions of their purpose. This can make it difficult to understand the ShapeSheet code; however, the Scratch section does remain important for geometric calculations because of the capabilities of the X, Y, and A to D columns.

This wizard provides an easy-to-use interface for data connectivity, and the following screenshot shows how it can be started from the View | Macros | Add-Ons | Visio Extras ribbon menu:

All of the data related add-ons under the View | Macros | Add-Ons | Visio Extras ribbon menu are part of one large add-on, and they are therefore not part of the core engine and object model in Visio. I have covered their functionality in an earlier book of mine (take a look at http://www.visualizinginformation.com), so it is not covered in this book.

This version saw improvements in the database connectivity and ODBC compliance, and the inclusion of built-in VBA vastly increased the speed of scripts.

The speed improvements that I could make on automating updates utilizing the database connectivity add-on with VBA were really good. The time taken to update nearly 600 data-linked desks was reduced from 6 minutes to less than 60 seconds. This was a great improvement, but it was still relying on an add-on using ODBC. Although the add-on is capable of two-way connectivity (it can update the data source as well as refresh from the data source), it still has issues. For example, only one link is possible to a single shape. This is restricting in the corporate world, where for example the facilities, IT, and HR departments loathe merging their databases at source.

Some improvements to the database add-on kept us going for a while, but it uses older connectivity methodology and, as an add-on, it is difficult to extend, as explained earlier.

This add-on does have the ability to read and write data though, which can be useful for power-users and developers. For example, the position of a shape in a page, called its PinX and PinY, or its fill and line patterns and colors, could be captured from Visio and sent back directly to a table in the data source.

It is old, though, and other important information is unavailable, such as the containers that a shape is within, which call-out shapes are associated, or even which other shapes it is connected to. Chapter 8, Validating and Extracting Information, will cover extracting all types of information from a Visio diagram.

Most Visio users do not realize that there is a sample MS Access database called DBSample.mdb installed in the Program Files | Office | lcid folder. It is named Visio Sample Database in the View | Add-Ons | Visio Extras | Link to Database | Name drop-down list, and it contains a few tables to play with. The Qualifier box displays the installed location. However, I would recommend copying it to a writable folder on your local or network drive before updating it.

In Visio 2007, there was a plethora of new data features added to the core engine. This means that the Visio object model was extended for Professional edition users at the very least. A new property called DataFeaturesEnabled appeared on the Application object, and a DataRecordsets collection appeared on the Document object. Each normal DataRecordset appears in the new External Data window so that rows of data can be linked to shapes. Importantly, this data can be refreshed, either manually or after a set time period, while the document is open, or by code opening and refreshing each document. This provides extensibility for developers who can now create data automation code on firm foundations.

The new pivot diagram add-on also creates DataRecordsets, but these are not displayed in the External Data window.

The following screenshot from Visio 2016 shows two buttons (Custom Import and Linked Data) that replace the one called Link Data to Shapes, present in the earlier versions. There is no change to the foundation though:

The Quick Import button, Data Graphics group, and Data Graphic Fields checkbox were introduced in Visio 2016, and they will be explained in the next chapter.

The Display Data | Insert Legend button was not introduced until Visio 2010.

Further integration with SharePoint was introduced in two ways.

Validation and Visio services were originally only available in the Visio 2010 Premium edition, but Microsoft decided to offer all of the Premium content in the Professional edition from Visio 2013.

Container and callout shapes were introduced as part of a structured diagram concept, thus making it easier to construct and navigate diagrams.

Validation and structured diagrams are part of the object model and are discussed in more depth in Chapter 8, Validating and Extracting Information.

The Visio file format has remained unchanged since Visio 2003, but it was time for Visio to join the rest of the Office applications and embrace the OPC file format. This is a zipped up document with many XML parts inside it; because it follows the OPC standard, it becomes accessible to some standard coding techniques.

In addition, this version saw the addition of Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint as a refreshable data source for Visio diagrams, and the need to publish documents to SharePoint was removed with native support of the new Visio file format by the Visio web part. Visio files can now be utilized in SharePoint web pages on any modern device, in any modern browser.

The Quick Link button provides some automatic analysis of data in Excel worksheets, and some improvements were made to data graphics, such as the inclusion of icons in text callout items. These features are discussed in more detail in Chapter 3, Linking Data to Shapes.

First introduced in Visio 4.0, this popular wizard and its supporting add-on provide the ability to create hierarchical organization charts, and as the following screenshot shows, it can use Microsoft Exchange, Excel, text files, or an ODBC compliant data source:

The imported data is used to create a hierarchical structure, but there is currently no refresh functionality. However, it can be overlaid with refreshable data using the Data | Custom Import feature that is covered in Chapter 3, Linking Data to Shapes. There is also the ability to compare two Visio documents in order to check what the differences are. It also has an export feature that outputs the shape data and hierarchical relationship to an Excel workbook, text, or CSV file.

This add-on has some other good features that some Visio users love. For example, it has the ability to insert images into the shape easily. This is all done using a non-extendable add-on, which makes it difficult to develop with.

First introduced in Visio 2003, this add-on provides the ability to import and, as the following screenshot shows, use Microsoft Exchange, Excel, Active Directory, or an ODBC-compliant data source.

The imported data is displayed in the Space Explorer window, and it can be refreshed from the ribbon. Unless you need to directly import data from Active Directory or Exchange Server, or particularly like the Space Explorer tree view display or the ability to automatically add shapes onto other shapes (such as Person or Asset shapes onto Space shapes), then I recommend using the Data | Custom Import feature that is covered in Chapter 3, Linking Data to Shapes.

This add-on uses the same Data Selector as the Data | Custom Import feature but with the extra capability of using SQL Server Analysis Services as a data source, as the following screenshot shows:

This add-on also utilizes the DataRecordsets collection that is covered in the next chapter, but DataRecordsets are hidden and numerous. This add-on, though, is worthy of more explanation and is covered in Chapter 5, Using the Pivot Diagram Add-On, since you can overlay with refreshable data by using the Data | Custom Import feature that is covered in Chapter 3, Linking Data to Shapes.

There is also one deprecated add-on that is due to make a return by popular demand. This was and is the database modelling engine that originated in the code from the Infomodeler acquisition. It could be used to not only reverse-engineer databases, but also to forward-engineer and create reports. This eventually disappeared completely in Visio 2013, after first losing its forward engineering and reporting capability in earlier versions. It did have its limitations, but it was still very useful and is missed by quite a few users who need to understand, or explain to others, the complexity of a relational database structure. It will be returning in a limited form some time in 2016.