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Visio 2010 Validation Rules (part 1)

The Microsoft Visio team recently blogged about Creating custom validation rules for Visio 2010 , in which it was suggested that we can use Visual Basic for Applications to interact with the new validation API.  I thought, there’s a challenge … so I will develop a VBA project to do just that.  I will upload the code soon, but, as it is only half developed today, I will demonstrate how to understand why a rule has been broken.

In the following BPMN diagram, I have failed to connect a Task to the End Event.  I have made it obvious here but it could be easy to overlook in a larger diagram.  In fact, I know of one company who were advised by a “consultant” that there must be something wrong when the end of a connector goes red therefore you should move it away from the shape until it goes green!  The result was that the company had over 300 flow diagrams without a single valid connection!  That company is no more!

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Listing Connections in Visio 2010

One of the best bits of Visio is the connections between shapes, but it has always been difficult to understand these connections in code.  There are connections to and from shapes, which require you to understand where you are and which way to look … at the beginning or the end of a 1D connector. Visio 2010 has added some useful extra methods to the shape object which makes understanding connections much easier.  This post will show you how you can use the new GluedShapes() and ConnectedShapes() methods.

Take, for example, a network diagram where there are connections between servers and routers:

image

You may wish to list the connections at the start and end of each cable.  Previously, this would have meant inspecting the connected cell to see if was at the beginning or end of the line, but now you can use the GluedShapes() method of a shape to retrieve an array of the 2D shapes connected at one end or another with the relevant arguments, visGluedShapesIncoming2D or visGluedShapesOutgoing2D.  The ListGluedConnections macro below displays the following in the immediate window:

Connector     Dynamic connector
>             Router.45     router-02
<             Server        server-01 Connector     Dynamic connector.107 >             Router.45     router-02
<             Server.30     server-02 Connector     Dynamic connector.108 >             Router        router-01
<             Server.75     server-03 Connector     Dynamic connector.109 >             Router.91     router-03
<             Server.30     server-02 Connector     Dynamic connector.110 >             Router.91     router-03
<             Server        server-01
Public Sub ListGluedConnections()
Dim shp As Visio.Shape
Dim connectorShape As Visio.Shape
Dim sourceShape As Visio.Shape
Dim targetShape As Visio.Shape
Dim aryTargetIDs() As Long
Dim arySourceIDs() As Long
Dim targetID As Long
Dim sourceID As Long
Dim i As Integer

For Each shp In Visio.ActivePage.Shapes
    If shp.OneD Then
        Debug.Print "Connector", shp.Name
        arySourceIDs = shp.GluedShapes(visGluedShapesIncoming2D, "")
        For i = 0 To UBound(arySourceIDs)
            Set sourceShape = Visio.ActivePage.Shapes.ItemFromID(arySourceIDs(i))
            If sourceShape.CellExists("Prop.NetworkName", Visio.visExistsAnywhere) Then
                Debug.Print , ">", sourceShape.Name, sourceShape.Cells("Prop.NetworkName").ResultStr("")
            End If
        Next
        aryTargetIDs = shp.GluedShapes(visGluedShapesOutgoing2D, "")
        For i = 0 To UBound(aryTargetIDs)
            Set targetShape = Visio.ActivePage.Shapes.ItemFromID(aryTargetIDs(i))
            If targetShape.CellExists("Prop.NetworkName", Visio.visExistsAnywhere) Then
                Debug.Print , "<", targetShape.Name, targetShape.Cells("Prop.NetworkName").ResultStr("")
            End If
        Next
    End If
Next

End Sub

Similarly, you may want to simply list the next connected 2D shape, effectively ignoring the cable.  In this case, you can use the new ConnectedShapes() method, with the relevant arguments visGluedShapesIncoming2D or visGluedShapesOutgoing2D, to produce an output like the following ( using the ListNextConnections macro below):

Shape         Server        server-01
>             Router.45     router-02
>             Router.91     router-03
Shape         Router        router-01
<             Server.75     server-03 Shape         Server.30     server-02 >             Router.45     router-02
>             Router.91     router-03
Shape         Router.45     router-02
<             Server        server-01
<             Server.30     server-02 Shape         Server.75     server-03 >             Router        router-01
Shape         Router.91     router-03
<             Server        server-01
<             Server.30     server-02
Public Sub ListNextConnections()
Dim shp As Visio.Shape
Dim connectorShape As Visio.Shape
Dim sourceShape As Visio.Shape
Dim targetShape As Visio.Shape
Dim aryTargetIDs() As Long
Dim arySourceIDs() As Long
Dim targetID As Long
Dim sourceID As Long
Dim i As Integer

For Each shp In Visio.ActivePage.Shapes
    If Not shp.OneD Then
        If shp.CellExists("Prop.NetworkName", Visio.visExistsAnywhere) Then
            Debug.Print "Shape", shp.Name, shp.Cells("Prop.NetworkName").ResultStr("")
            arySourceIDs = shp.ConnectedShapes(visConnectedShapesOutgoingNodes, "")
            For i = 0 To UBound(arySourceIDs)
                Set sourceShape = Visio.ActivePage.Shapes.ItemFromID(arySourceIDs(i))
                If sourceShape.CellExists("Prop.NetworkName", Visio.visExistsAnywhere) Then
                    Debug.Print , "<", sourceShape.Name, sourceShape.Cells("Prop.NetworkName").ResultStr("") End If Next aryTargetIDs = shp.ConnectedShapes(visConnectedShapesIncomingNodes, "") For i = 0 To UBound(aryTargetIDs) Set targetShape = Visio.ActivePage.Shapes.ItemFromID(aryTargetIDs(i)) If targetShape.CellExists("Prop.NetworkName", Visio.visExistsAnywhere) Then Debug.Print , ">", targetShape.Name, targetShape.Cells("Prop.NetworkName").ResultStr("")
                End If
            Next
        End If
    End If
Next

End Sub

I think this makes interrogation of connected diagrams, of all flavours, much simpler, though I would love to have similar ShapeSheet functions too!

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Mr. Clarity helps you diagram more clearly

Microsoft have begun publishing a series of short videos, based around Mr. Clarity, a gumshoe-like character who inhabits your desktop, to promote the use of Visio in the workplace.  It will be interesting to see how the plot develops over time … Will Facilities, IT and HR every get along with each other? Will all the loose connections come together in the end?  Will VisioGuy make a guest appearance?  Enjoy!

Episode 1: Create an Office Layout diagram using Visio

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtgYTWRdTSU )

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Episode 2: Create an Organization chart using Visio

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGtE5RdME-Q )

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Watch out for more, and also see the related videos that appear in YouTube.

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Visio 2010 : Containment and Cross-Functional Flowcharts

One of the templates to get a revision in Visio 2010 is the Cross Functional Flowchart template because of the new list and containment functionality that has been added into the core application.  I had to write a small bit of code in earlier versions of Visio for each flowchart shape to automatically understand which swimlane and phase it belongs to, but now there are ShapeSheet functions available, so a slight modification of a flowchart master enables it to inherit values from the swimlane that it is in.  This article demonstrates who you can do this to, for example, synchronize the fill color of each flowchart shape to that of the swimlane that it belongs to.

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Re-opening Default Stencils

A recent newsgroup question asked if it is possible to re-open the default stencils that were originally docked when the drawing was created.    At first, this may seem impossible, but, if the original template is present, then it can be silently opened, the docked stencils noted, then opened docked if they are not already docked.  Here’s how (once you have created a reference to the Microsoft Scripting Runtime):

Public Sub OpenDefaultStencils()

Dim srcDoc As Visio.Document
    Set srcDoc = Visio.ActiveDocument
Dim tmplt As String
    tmplt = srcDoc.Template
    If Len(tmplt) = 0 Then
        Exit Sub
    End If

Dim fs As FileSystemObject
    Set fs = New FileSystemObject
    If fs.FileExists(tmplt) = False Then
        Exit Sub
    End If
Dim doc As Visio.Document
    Set doc = Visio.Application.Documents.OpenEx(tmplt, Visio.visOpenCopy + Visio.visOpenHidden + Visio.visOpenDontList)

Dim aryStens() As String
Dim win As Visio.Window
Dim arySrcStens() As String
Dim winSrc As Visio.Window
    For Each win In Visio.Windows
        If win.Document Is doc Then
            win.DockedStencils aryStens
        ElseIf win.Document Is srcDoc Then
            Set winSrc = win
            winSrc.DockedStencils arySrcStens
        End If
    Next
    ‘Close the template document
    doc.Close

Dim sten As String
Dim i As Integer
    For i = 0 To UBound(aryStens)
        If aryContains(arySrcStens, aryStens(i)) = False Then
            Visio.Application.Documents.OpenEx aryStens(i), Visio.visOpenRO + Visio.visOpenDocked
        End If
    Next
End Sub

Private Function aryContains(ByVal objSten As Variant, ByVal sten As String) As Boolean
Dim aryStens() As String
    aryStens = objSten
Dim i As Integer
    For i = 0 To UBound(aryStens)
        If aryStens(i) = sten Then
            aryContains = True
            Exit Function
        End If
    Next i
    aryContains = False
End Function