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You're reading from  Mastering Data Visualization with Microsoft Visio Professional 2016

Product typeBook
Published inMay 2016
PublisherPackt
ISBN-139781785882661
Edition1st Edition
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Authors (2):
David Parker
David Parker
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David Parker

David J Parker's background has been in data visualization ever since he struggled to produce lists of hospital equipment from Computer Aided Design models of buildings as a budding architect in the '80s. He moved into building and infrastructure asset management in the late '80s using a Unix system and gradually migrated to Windows-based systems throughout the '90s. He became a European Business partner of Visio Corporation in 1996 and presented the database-linked Visio solutions that he was providing merchant banks in London and New York with at several international conferences. David started bVisual Ltd. in 1998, which provides Visio-based solutions to various industries, and became a Silver-level Microsoft partner. He has been a Microsoft MVP (Visio) for the last 12 years and has helped Microsoft Corp, UK and Western Europe, by providing Visio solutions, training, website content, and presentations. David has had several books on Visio published and has been presenting Visio/SharePoint integration courses for many years for Microsoft Western Europe, from Oslo in the North down to Lisbon in the South. He has presented at SQL and SharePoint Saturday conferences and writes a regular blog for people interested in Microsoft Visio.
Read more about David Parker

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Chapter 8. Validating and Extracting Information

In previous chapters, we learnt how to import data and display information graphically. However, Visio can be used to generate data too, so in this chapter we will learn a little about validation rules and the Shape Reports tool. We will learn how to retrieve values from Shape Data and the User-defined Cell rows. We will also learn how to navigate connections between shapes, and whether a shape is inside a container or a list.

In this chapter, we will learn:

  • What validation rules are

  • How to use the Shape Reports tool

  • How to write code to extract information from structured diagrams

Introducing validation rules


So far, most of this book has dealt with importing data into a Visio diagram, keeping it synchronized with the data source, and displaying the data visually for easy interpretation. However, Visio can also be used to generate data. This data can be Shape Data, but it can also be derived from the connections between shapes, the particular connection point, and the direction of the connector. Data can be generated from the container or list a shape is within, or even the index position within a list.

Data can be exported from Visio to create a report on the contents, or it can be exported to another system. In either case, it is important that the data is correctly structured and formulated because businesses might rely upon its veracity. An example of this is Microsoft SharePoint Workflows. There are templates for both SharePoint 2010 and 2013/2016 workflows in Visio Professional. There are two versions because there are two different SharePoint Workflow engines...

Getting information from data diagrams


Visio documents are data diagrams, and Visio can be used to generate data just as easily as it can consume and represent data. Some of the built-in Visio add-ons have custom export features, such as Gantt Chart, which can export a Microsoft Project file. There is also a general tool, Shape Reports, that can be used to export specific shapes and their data. Often, though, it is necessary to write custom extracts with code.

Using Shape Reports

Visio includes a Shape Reports feature on the Review ribbon tab. This can be used to create simple reports of shapes and their data from Visio. It is not a fully featured report writer, but nonetheless it can be very useful at times. Some reports are provided out-of-the box and become available within documents, depending upon the type of shapes found within it. However, it is easy to create custom reports that can be stored as separate files (with a *.vrd extension) or within the Visio document. These definitions...

Summary


In this chapter, we learnt how to read the information contained within structure diagrams. This involved Shape Data, User-defined Cells, connectivity, and containers. We were also introduced to Validation Rules and the Shape Report tool.

In the next chapter, we will learn how to generate structured diagrams with code.

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Published in: May 2016Publisher: PacktISBN-13: 9781785882661
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Authors (2)

author image
David Parker

David J Parker's background has been in data visualization ever since he struggled to produce lists of hospital equipment from Computer Aided Design models of buildings as a budding architect in the '80s. He moved into building and infrastructure asset management in the late '80s using a Unix system and gradually migrated to Windows-based systems throughout the '90s. He became a European Business partner of Visio Corporation in 1996 and presented the database-linked Visio solutions that he was providing merchant banks in London and New York with at several international conferences. David started bVisual Ltd. in 1998, which provides Visio-based solutions to various industries, and became a Silver-level Microsoft partner. He has been a Microsoft MVP (Visio) for the last 12 years and has helped Microsoft Corp, UK and Western Europe, by providing Visio solutions, training, website content, and presentations. David has had several books on Visio published and has been presenting Visio/SharePoint integration courses for many years for Microsoft Western Europe, from Oslo in the North down to Lisbon in the South. He has presented at SQL and SharePoint Saturday conferences and writes a regular blog for people interested in Microsoft Visio.
Read more about David Parker