API documentation for Visio Modeling Engine modeleng.dll?

[Vlad Sushkov]

Hello,

I am wondering if there is any officially published API reference for Visio
Modeling Engine modeleng.dll?
In particular, how to list all the entities in the Visio model?

Any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks much.
Vladimir

 

[JuneTheSecond]

I think most easy way might to save as xml and to look tags.

 

[Vlad Sushkov]

I see couple problems with that:

1. Save As XML saves only "displayable" tags but does not save indexes for
example,
so it does not keep the whole object semantics as it is represented in
the Visio model.
2. Not sure that XML stores the relationships between the entities...

Vlad

 

[Vlad Sushkov]

Looks like people tried in the past:
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...77746?lnk=st&q=&rnum=9&hl=en#a6a3d00391d77746

I guess no success still?...

I see couple problems with that:

1. Save As XML saves only "displayable" tags but does not save indexes for
example,
so it does not keep the whole object semantics as it is represented in
the Visio model.
2. Not sure that XML stores the relationships between the entities...

Vlad

 

[JuneTheSecond]

I am afraid you are making some miss understandings. The file that has saved
as XML has everything in original Visio drawing. You can reopen the VDX
file again. All entities could be seen in the xml file. You have only to
change
..vdx into .xml and double-click the xml file.

--
JuneTheSecond

Looks like people tried in the past:
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...77746?lnk=st&q=&rnum=9&hl=en#a6a3d00391d77746

I guess no success still?...

 

[Vlad Sushkov]

A little excercise will show my point:

1. In Visio .NET for Enterprise Architects create a simple database model
that only has a single table called Customer. The table has few columns
(names do not matter) and one index.
Let's assume the table has the following columns:

customer_id LONG
name VARCHAR(50)
is_preferred CHAR(1)

2. Go to the Database Properties grid, select Indexes. Add a new index
named test_idx on the column customer.name.

3. Save the Visio drawing as a .vdx (XML) drawing.

4. Rename the .vdx file into .xml.

5. Open the xml file in Internet Explorer (or in XML Spy if you wish).

6. Search for the string "test_idx" (with no quotes) within the XML file.
Since the index is a part of the model it should be also in the XML
file.
However the search does not return any results.

Vlad

 

[JuneTheSecond]

If it were not in xml file, it might not had been written in the Visio drawing.

 

[John Marshall, MVP]

Have you taken a look at http://www.pdata.com/VME/VisioModelingEngine.htm?

John... Visio MVP

Need stencils or ideas? http://www.mvps.org/visio/3rdparty.htm
Need VBA examples? http://www.mvps.org/visio/VBA.htm
Common Visio Questions http://www.mvps.org/visio/common_questions.htm
Visio Wishlist http://www.mvps.org/visio/wish_list.htm

 

[Vlad Sushkov]

Hello John,

Yes I recently found that reference too. Looks like some interfaces are not
available from VB
(I am getting Automation error pop-up: "Automation Error. Library is not
registered")..
Anyway it seems to be a good starting point, I am fiddling with it...

Thanks much.
Vladimir