Book Image

Microsoft Visio 2010 Business Process Diagramming and Validation

By : David Parker
Book Image

Microsoft Visio 2010 Business Process Diagramming and Validation

By: David Parker

Overview of this book

Microsoft Visio is a diagramming program using vector graphics, which ultimately allows business professionals to explore and communicate complex information more effectively. Through various visual representations, Visio enables complicated data to be presented in a clear, communicative, and data-connected way. Therefore, productivity is increased by utilizing the wide variety of diagrams that can convey information at a glance, as data can be understood and acted upon quickly. This book enables business developers to unleash the full potential of Diagram Validation that Visio 2010 Premium Edition has to offer.This focused tutorial will enable you to get to grips with Diagram Validation in Visio 2010 Premium Edition to the fullest extent, enabling powerful automatic diagram verification based on custom logic and assuring correct and compliant diagrams. You will learn how to create and publish Rules, and use the ShapeSheet to write formulae. There is a special focus on extending and enhancing the capabilities of Visio 2010 diagram validation, and on features that are not found in the out-of-the-box product, like installing and using a new Rules Tools add-in, complete with source code, reviewing the new diagramming rules in flowchart and BPMN templates, and creating your own enhanced Data Flow Model Diagram template, complete with Validation Rules.The book begins by covering the basic functions of Visio 2010, and then dives deep into showing you how to formulate your own Validation Rules and understand the Visio Object Model. ShapeSheet functions are explored in detail, as are creating Validation Rule Sets and Rules, and visualizing issues, with practical demonstrations along the way. Other content includes building a Rules Tools add-in using C#, creating test and filter expressions, and publishing Validation Rules for others to use. Finally, the book considers the creation and implementation of a new RuleSet for Data Flow Model Diagrams with a worked example.By following the practical and immediately deployable examples found in the book, you will successfully learn both how to use the features of Microsoft Visio 2010, and how to extend the functionality provided in the box.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
Microsoft Visio 2010 Business Process Diagramming and Validation
Credits
Foreword
About the Author
About the Reviewers
Preface

Visio services


Microsoft Visio has had, for several versions, a useful Save As Web feature that creates a mini-website, complete with widgets for pan and zoom, Shape Data, and shape reports. This has worked best using the Vector Markup Language (VML) in Microsoft Internet Explorer, or in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) using a web browser plugin in IE, although it has native support in some other browsers. This is quite powerful, but it does require that the native Visio file is republished if any changes are made to the document. Visio 2010 has introduced the increasingly adopted XAML format, which actually means that the Visio file will be rendered for viewing in Silverlight. This is a very useful addition.

In addition, Microsoft has an ActiveX Visio Viewer control that can display native Visio files that are in both binary and XML format. This control is installed as default with Microsoft Outlook 2007+, but is also available as a separate free download from Microsoft. In fact, the Visio Viewer control has a programmable API that enables Shape Data to be extracted and exposed too. While this viewer has the advantage that the native file does not have to be republished, its reach is limited by the choice of browsers available, and the willingness to make the native Visio file accessible—this is not always the best strategy.

Microsoft Visio 2010 provides Visio Services for Microsoft SharePoint. Therefore, with rendering on the server, any client that accesses the Microsoft SharePoint site will have the ability to view Visio diagrams without having to install anything locally.

The user can interact with the diagrams by clicking on shapes to view the Shape Data, navigating any embedded hyperlinks, as well as pan/zoom and print capabilities. These are capabilities of the Save As Web and Visio Viewer options too.

Microsoft Visio 2007 introduced the ability to add a data recordset to a diagram and refresh the data so that the diagram could be kept up-to-date, but the Save As Web html pages and the Visio Viewer ActiveX control are not able to automatically respond to any data changes. Therefore, the diagram can quickly become outdated, thus requiring you to refresh the diagram in Visio, and then to republish it.

Now with Visio Services, that same data recordset can be refreshed by the server, thus providing everyone who views the diagram using the new Visio web part with the latest information. This is extremely nice, but be aware that there are some limitations, such as no shapes will be added, moved, or deleted in this operation, as only linked Shape Data and Data Graphics are updated and all layers will be visible. Still, you no longer have to republish just to refresh the data set!

Note

Visio has a complex layering system. Most CAD systems, for example, insist that all diagram elements belong to a single layer. This layer can either be made visible or not, or all elements on a layer have a specified color. Drawing elements in Visio can belong to none, one, or many layers! Visio Services, however, simply ignores layers.